Snowy Runs & Snowshoeing

January 20, 2020 / Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Hello middle of the month already!!! Wow, can you believe we are at Jan 20th already?

Apparently today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year and Sunday (Jan 19th) was quitters day according to an article on Strava! Most people quit their new fitness habit by the 19th of January…..who knew?

Last week brought us two snow storms (1 snow day for the kids) but not nearly as much as Newfoundland received. Despite the weather, I managed to get our for an evening run with my running buddy, Krystol. It’s been months since we last ran together and we took it slow because 1 – the roads were covered in snow and 2 – we talked a lot and can’t run fast and talk at the same time.

I jumped on my bike Thursday night as it was storming outside and I didn’t want to go running that. I managed to get in a solid 21.17km while watching a new to me show ” The Blacklist”. Friday night I had a soccer game.

Saturday had both of our girls playing basketball TOGETHER for the first time ever. Not going to lie, I may have teared up once while watching them…..proud mama here. It was our youngest’s first game and she did awesome. Birthday parties and errands took over the rest of our day.

Sunday, I thought it would be a great idea to go on a family snowshoe hike as we were getting more snow. It was a great idea but wasn’t the easiest or fun for all. We hike around 2.77km and stopped for hot chocolate along the way. The girls bush-wacked their way through the woods while my husband, Carmacks and I took the trail. Some shovelling and snow blowing the driveway and we were all done at that point.

Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted going to bed last night. Not much running last week but a whole lot of fun (well, 98% of the time).

Anyone quit their new fitness habits?

Anyone else out playing in the snow with their kids?

2019 Running Stats!

January 15, 2020 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 20 Comments

I’m so far behind! It’s the middle of January and I’m still living in the past. Fingers cross this will be my last post about 2019.

I finally sat down and tallied up my running stats (and cycling, soccer games, yoga classes etc.) a little while ago but just posting about it now. It’s something I like to do every year and track it each month in a bullet journal. Yeah, yeah, I could just use my Garmin or Strava – which I do but I really like the visual of my bullet journal.

This is what my 2019 year looked like:

Running 431.30 km, Cycling: 609.79 km, 40 Soccer Games (injuries: 1), 18 Yoga classes, 8 days of skiing, 4 times skating with my daughters, 1 Gran Fondo and paced 1 race!

The other thing I was counting last year was books! I’m really not a big reader, I never really loved it until last year. I finally found a great app (some of you likely use it) called Goodreads and that’s what helped kick start my reading habit…oh and my calf strain injury in April.

My plan was to read 12 books: 1 per month. Which really isn’t a lot but to me, that was a lot of reading that I honestly didn’t think I’d achieve. However, I did. I actually finished 18 books! I think my favourite book was Daisy Jones which I wanted to give up on a few times but kept with it and loved it in the end.

2020

Well it’s going to look the same as last year: run, ride my bike, play soccer, be active with my kids, hike, swim, lay on the beach in PEI, complete another Gran Fondo, ski and snowshoe more, read more and lots of family adventures. I’m returning as an ambassador for Endurance Tap, Nuun Hydration and Tiux Compression Socks; all products I love and use religiously.

But for real….I’m aiming for 1000 km running, 1000 km cycling and 2020 km between all my activities (run, cycle, swim, soccer). Anything that I can count distance in, I’m aiming for a collective 2020 km.

Oh and last, a big goal for me will be to NOT fall off my bike as I recently got new cycling shoes that clip in. It’s a whole knew cycling world!

This should be fun!

Follow along with my adventures on Instagram!

Do you record all your training in a book or an app?

What are you 2020 goals?

What’s your number one race for 2020?

Goodbye 2019 & Happy 2020!

January 4, 2020 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 4 Comments

Happy New year!

Hope those still reading my blog had a lovely holiday and are enjoying the new year.

I’ve wanted to blog lot more but haven’t made it a priority in my life over the last year. We’ll see what 2020 brings for this blog….now on its 8th year as of December past! (Happy belated blogversary).

2019 wasn’t an awesome running year. I started off the year sick (new years day) and it took weeks to shake the cold. In January, we flew to England to visit my husband’s family, a trip we wish we could do again and again. It was aovley trip and our girls had a blast flying, seeing the country and spending time with his family. We skied a fair amount last winter and the girls loved skating on outdoor rinks.

Running has never been a priority for me from January to March as we love to ski, skate and I play indoor soccer but I managed to get a good handful of runs completed before getting a bad injury in April.

Yes, the injury was soccer related and no I’m not quitting the sport I love the most. That’s like telling a runner they should stop running because they got injured while running once, likely not going to happen…am I right?!?!

That had me super sidelined: crutches for 10 days, no driving for three weeks was the worst for work, physio and kids sports. Thank goodness for husbands, amazing neighbours and taxi’s too. Also, I’m super thankful for an amazing physiotherapist who deals with sports injuries daily and understands my love for an active lifestyle.

Spring was SLOW going because of my calf sprain but I managed to do more cycling and saw a new light in the distance of more riding. Between physio, cycling and slow running I was getting back to normal come June. Soccer picked up again for both me and my oldest who was playing competitive soccer. She loved it and I loved watching her. Watching your kids do the things they love makes all those hard times worth it.

We had a great summer of soccer, swimming, vacations and increased cycling mileage for me. Early August I finally broke down and bought a new road bike I’ve wanted for 2 years and counting. My husband and I had a weekend without the girls that include some long distance trail rides.

Eventually, I’d start riding less on the trails and seeking out some back roads for longer rides….something I NEVER thought I would do. I’m learning to “never say never” and stop setting limitations for what I think I can do.

Despite getting super sick with Shingles (yeah at 39 you can get them) for 2-3 weeks, September brought a new adventure of completing my first ever Gran Fondo in Claire (amazing event). I thought I hated (running) hills before but I really hated them during this ride. I said a lot of “f yous” climbing hill after hill but was loving every minute of it (3:13).

When everyone else was getting close to wrapping up their running season in October, I was getting ready for my first running race if the year! I paced the 1:15 – 10k at the Valley Harvest Marathon in 1:14:50!!!! 10 seconds off! Pacing a race is so much more rewarding then running for myself. It’s one of the best things in running I’ve done over the last 3-4 years and I want to continue to pace others.

November was a busy month of basketball for my girls, work was nuts, any form of physical activity was almost non existent but we did celebrate being married for 12 years.

In December I managed to get back on track with the help of two challenges on IG. I ran 44km, cycled 26km, played 3 soccer games, swam twice during my youngest swim lessons, went to 2 yoga classes and went skiing once.

We had a Christmas concert, enjoyed running & walking with Carmacks and lots of family time over the holiday with cousins, aunts and uncles and ate all the food!

Despite low mileage, being injured and sick a lot last year (Jan/April/May/ Sept), losing interest in running over the summer, I can’t complain about my year. Life happens and I kept moving forward as best I could.

I’m really looking forward to 2020, setting some goals, creating memories with my family and friends.

Happy New Year…and maybe I’ll blog more than once this month! You can always find my *almost* daily posts on Instagram @pipersrun.

How was your 2019 year?

Are you setting goals for 2020?

What’s one thing you want to do this month?