Juliana Moves

Happy Monday! We are coming off a really fun, though unexpected, weekend celebrating Erica’s birthday. We rented an Airbnb that was pretty off the grid in central Virginia for Friday-Sunday. It rained all day Saturday and then we lost power! And running water! Since we had no service or Internet, and the power didn’t come back on after two hours, we decided to head to Richmond. We ended up staying until early this morning when we drove back.

Life has been busy in a really good way lately. I’m still constantly a little shocked by how busy I constantly am at work but am still enjoying it, too. I’m working on making sure I don’t center work in my life and am living it up to the fullest the other 16 hours of the day.

I hope your new year has started off strong! Here’s what I’ve been…

…Reading: The Art of Frugal Hedonism by Annie Raser-Rowland and Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. I love reading an anti-consumption book from time to time to help me remember what I actually find important – in life and to spend my money on. I picked up Killers of a Certain Age from our library book sale with my free voucher (from doing the summer reading challenge, of course) and am just now getting to it. It’s fun so far! Lots of killing happening but nothing too graphic.

I love reading physical books, but I’ve also really gotten into audiobooks lately, soooo here’s what I’ve been…

…Listening to: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center and Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. Look, I used to hate audiobooks because I found them to be slow and hard to follow closely. And then I discovered the joys of 1.3x speed. It makes the narrating less obnoxious and feels like a true conversational speed! 

Patrick suggested The Rom-Commers, and I listened to the whole thing over a few days. I listened to it on a long run and time flew by! After that finished, I randomly picked Just for the Summer because the audiobook was available on Libby. It was also great! Patrick had read it before, so we ended up listening to it during all of our driving this weekend. We finished it while sitting on the couch this morning. Patrick said it was like listening to a radio program. Lol!

…Drinking: Iced lattes with honey and cinnamon. This weekend we went to a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere and one of their seasonal drinks was a latte with honey and cinnamon. I want to say it was called “Spring Wishing” or something like that. I’ve seen people add honey to their coffee but it never appealed to me. I like honey, but the sickly sweetness seemed odd with coffee.

I was wrong! It’s an absolute delight! I sprinkle the cinnamon on top and it is so cozy and joyful.

…Wearing: Bike shorts. Because I’ve been going strong with my once a week ride! In fact, I’m even considering bumping it to two rides a week. I signed up for a gravel ride at the end of June that’s not too long but has hella elevation gain. I’d love to be doing two hours worth of Peloton rides a week until after my 100k! We’ll see.

…Trying: To make the most of my time. I’ve started making a daily and weekly to-do list to keep me from sitting around and feeling bored. Some of the daily to-dos are silly and obvious, but it feels good to check them off nonetheless. It also helps me remember that I can get a lot done in some spare time!

…Thinking About: How fun it would be to go bikepacking on this route… 

…Excited For: My spring races! I’ve written about these races already, but training has felt really good lately and now I’m extra excited. I feel like years of base mileage and endurance running with a few speed blocks tossed in are really paying off. I am excited to see what I can do this spring beyond simply completing the distances. I’m not trying to be a hero or hold myself to some unreasonable expectation, but I do want to explore the limits of my strength.

Love,

JN