Juliana Moves

Happy Monday! We had the most gorgeous day today and I could not be happier. I’m a little embarrassed to share this because I should’ve worn sunscreen, but I have a minor sunburn! That’s how you know spring is on its way. I simply could not stay indoors today.

Anyway, I’ve been slacking at sitting down to type over the last few weeks. But, as mentioned previously, I’ve been getting more photos! I enjoy watching the ‘day in my life’ videos on YouTube, so I’ll just share what we got up to last week into this weekend. 

Sometime late last week, we made homemade enchiladas. They were delicious and super fun and easy to make. I get so used to making the same types of meals and recipes on the regular, with only minor variations, that I forget how fun it is to make something that might just require a different kind of effort. Yum.

Saturday was a spectacular day. A little bit overcast, but relatively warm and humidish. After lounging around, drinking coffee in bed, I got my butt out the door for a workout. I had 11 miles on the calendar with 4 miles of tempo in the middle. It went extremely well! I’m not sure if it’s the cross training or the nutrition or what this training block, but I feel really good. I am constantly surprised at my own fitness. A fun place to be!

Afterwards, we joined our friends at a Harlem Globetrotters game (way more fun than I expected!) and then we swung by the Trek store to pick up my new bike! I have grand plans for this bike. 

After my 100k, I really really want to start bikecommuting to work. I know it’s as simple as just doing it, but I struggle to make that particular goal a reality. I have a gravel race (lol just a ride) at the end of June that I’ll need to train up for and then Sabrina and I are going to go bike touring in July! 

Initially I said I was going to take an off season from running to focus on cycling, but I’m thinking we’ll just call it a low volume season of running because I can’t stay away. I’m pretty stoked that I’ve maintained my goal of riding/spinning at least once a week but I’ll have to start cranking that volume up soon!

We finished up Saturday evening enjoying an al fresco grill out with friends!

On Sunday, we sprung forward an hour and waking up felt like coming out of a drug-induced haze. I had grand plans of being up at 6 and out the door by 7… We left the house at 8:30. Sue me! I tried! We were headed to Bird Knob to get some quality time on the trails. Patrick wanted to run on the MMT course and I was focused on getting in some good vert. 

All in all, I was again pleasantly surprised! I tried to relax and take a lot of small steps on the climbs, rather than try to haul myself up, and that helped a lot. I PR’d a lot of segments on the Bird Knob loop, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I didn’t listen to anything either, just enjoyed the sounds of nature and the good weather.

There’s a pond by Bird Knob that people have told me about but I’ve always run past or on a slightly different trail so I miss it. On Sunday I finally remembered to go down a different trail and popped by to see it. Emerald Pond is a fitting name! I want to come take a dip in the summer.

I love this Bird Knob loop. It’s not too long but it keeps you honest. You can definitely come send it out here without a lot of training but it’s not going to feel great! It was so fun to be out in the mountains again! It had been way too long.

At some point I came to a river crossing and saw Patrick waiting for me on the other side! I was stoked because he runs so much faster than me. Patrick thinks I cross rivers in a chaotic way (spoiler: I don’t!), so I figured he was there to make sure I didn’t act a fool. Ultimately, I was right because he told me he was nearly back to the car but got too worried I’d be “Bridge to Terabithia’d”. You can’t make this stuff up. We ran together for a while before Patrick took off to move the car to a different parking lot.

I had 7ish more miles to do and had chosen to go up the Waterfall climb. I had done this climb once before on August 1, 2021. When I did it 4.5 years ago, I genuinely thought I was going to die. It was so steep. It’s about .5 miles long and I think it averages out to be a 24.5% grade. I wanted to revisit the climb, conquer my trauma (lol), and generally see how it went.

Pretty well! It wasn’t as bad as I remembered, but it is pretty tough. I think I’d rather go up it than down it. I enjoyed sitting down for a moment at the top.

From there, we got to cruise down Crisman Hollow before finishing up on some pretty pleasant, runnable trail and hiking the remaining mileage back to the car. Not a bad Sunday whatsoever! 

We had talked about getting ice cream afterwards during the drive out to the mountains but couldn’t find a place that seemed worth the stop on the way home. We ended up picking up some insanely delicious chocolate ice cream when we were grocery shopping at Wegmans later in the evening. I’m still thinking about that ice cream. Yum.

Today I worked but made sure I carved out time for a glorious lunch time run. My feet were sore from the weekend of running but the sunshine was worth it. And, if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I am going to eat outside at every single opportunity when the weather is this good.

I enjoyed my favorite style of lunch (deli meat sandwich + fruit + veg + chips) on a bench in our courtyard and then chicken fajita tacos on the back porch for dinner.

This, friends, feels like a life well lived.

Love,

JN