Goodbye February…

March 1, 2016March 1, 2016 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 12 Comments

February was a month with lots of adventures; running, snowshoeing, skiing, skating with my family and yoga classes. It was also the month of lots of head colds, sicks kids and sleepless nights.

Though I’m trying to build my base or maintain some fitness before I start half marathon training; running wasn’t high on my priority list this month. I love snow. I love skiing in it, snowshoeing and playing outside with my girls. Unlike last year, we’ve only had a few minor storms (15-25cm each storm) which would provide an opportunity to “play” in the white stuff. After a week or two the temps have warmed up only to melt much of the snow away. It was plus 17C yesterday…in FEBRUARY!!!

Winter Outdoor Play

February was the month of playing outside (when not working of course). I managed to ski a fair amount with my family, friends and on my own. I don’t often take time off work to do something for myself unless I’m really sick but I booked two days off this month. One, to go skiing by myself and run errands in the afternoon and the second day was with a good friend who I don’t get to see very often. Both worth it!

February Mileage 2016

We took the girls skating, Hilary for the first time and got to enjoy a lot of weekend snow storms. The girls absolutely love tobogganing and just playing around our yard.

Running

Running was better then previous years, last year some how I managed to log 41 km while being injured, this year 55 km. With the mixture of outdoor play, some running and even with the lack of motivation to run, February was still a great month.

Yoga

Yoga’s been great. I’ve been craving each week and trying to get to at least one class. Sometimes I struggle at it, sometimes it’s easy and sometimes I hurt A LOT the day after.

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What’s Up In March?

Well, first off things are changing (will tell you more later) around our house for the better. I’m hoping to get in a few more skiing days/nights, increase my running mileage and START half marathon training for Johnny Miles.

Of course continue yoga class when my schedule permits. I am also taking off “March Break”since Lilly will be off school that week. We have some fun adventures planned and a few local trips.

How was your February?

Any BIG plans for March?

Building My Base {Week 3}

February 9, 2016 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 12 Comments

Another winter-y week of running, yoga and rest completed. We had a snow storm last Friday and currently having one at the moment. This winter is by far more manageable than last year’s SNOW BOMB after SNOW BOMB.

Building My Base Week #3

What was Planned vs. What Really Happened

Monday Feb 1st: Yoga or Rest Day | Rest Day. My legs were tired from Sunday’s 10k and I had a sick little one on my hands.

Tuesday: Yoga | Yoga & 5k Treadmill run. Yoga was great as was my run.

Wednesday: Run/DVD Workout | Rest Day

Thursday: Run | 8k Run Outside. I ran at 6pm with my running buddy, Krystol. We had a fantastic run. Easy pace, talked the whole time we ran and knocked out 8k without paying attention to our Garmin’s. Perfect run except I didn’t stretch enough afterwards and my hamstring was sore on Friday.

feb 3rd run

Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day + 30 push ups (part of a monthly challenge).

Saturday: Run | Nothing. Shoveled snow/snowblowed the driveway. Spent the day with my girls.

Sunday: Run | Treadmill 5k Didn’t love it but was happy I did it.

feb 7 run

Though my week was a little more “rest days” my body needed it. Hilary was sick early in the week which messed with our sleep. Honestly, I had very little sleep last week and unfortunately my husband was away. So those “rest days” were actually me feeling 110% exhausted. I’m okay with the way my week went down.

If you missed the first two weeks, you can catch up here: Week #1 and Week #2.

Week #4 has started off with a bang in a killer yoga class yesterday. The first 5 minutes, okay probably 8-10 minutes was ALL abs. Not easy ab work, SUPER hard ab work. I hurt today. It’s all good.

How was your weekend?

How often do you feel completely exhausted? Tired is different than exhausted.

Training, racing – tell me about it…

Snowshoeing

January 21, 2016January 20, 2016 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 32 Comments

I try to take advantage of being active over my lunch hour as it frees up my evening to ~~relax~~, do chores or hang out with my husband when he is home. Yesterday I packed my snowshoes and winter gear and figured I’d go out at lunch for a little trek.

I headed over to this little trail as the sun was beating down on me. The wind was whipping around and the light snow that recently fell was dancing all over the place!

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Sun shining bright……….

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Leaving the trail behind….

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It was about 3km’s and took around a half hour to snowshoe around the loop. I returned to my office and started back at work feeling energized. All of a sudden I crashed HARD! I could barely keep my eyes open let alone, be functional. It wasn’t pretty.

You see, I was up at 2:45 with Hilary; she had to pee. Then I couldn’t fall back to sleep even though I tried. At 3:45 (I was still awake), Lilly woke up crying….she missed Daddy. She cried until close to 5 am – no joke! Poor girl. She eventually fell asleep beside me but I was WIDE awake! I eventually fell asleep only to have my alarm go off 45 minutes later.

snowshoe jan 20th

I was completely exhausted from lack of sleep and the fresh air I got snowshoeing. Sunshine, snow and cold wind blowing around……..perfect way to spend your lunch break.

Do you get out on your lunch break?

Are you loving the winter temp and getting outside or staying inside and hibernating ?

Favourite winter activity?

Ski, Snow and Running

January 18, 2016January 17, 2016 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 15 Comments

It’s been a busy few days (week) between work, snow storm #1, skiing, facilitating a workshop on the weekend and storm #2…I managed to finally get a run in yesterday!

Last week Lilly had a 1/2 day of school, so I booked the 1/2 day off work and the four of us hit the hill. This would be Hilary’s first time (3 years old) and Lilly’s 3rd year on skis. Both Sai and I went prepared to deal with tantrums potentially from both girls but the complete opposite happened.

ski jan 14 Lilly and Mommy

Both girls had so much fun. Hilary and Sai spent time “playing” on a very small hill while Lilly and I hit the bunny hill at Ski Martock. They now have a magic carpet which is amazing. I skied down backwards for the 10+ runs Lilly did. She’s skiing on her own now and figuring out how to turn and stop etc. It’s so awesome to watch her think about the process.

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I could see Hilary and Sai off in the distance and she just looked like she was having a blast. Lots of laughing and when I got over to them, she kept saying “one more time”. Looks like we’ve got skiers on our hands 🙂

SNOW!

I shoveled two mornings in a row last week so I could get to work and then spent 1.5 hours snow blowing my driveway and two neighbours driveways yesterday. We also played outside all afternoon.

toboggan

I ran last week on the treadmill and it wasn’t great so after 3km, I got off THE BEAST and did some weights and skipping.

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I did managed to sqeeze in a run yesterday after doing the driveways. 5k on snow covered roads and sidewalks that were partially cleared. The sidewalks were like running on sand – not fun.

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