Leslie Blogs

writing about my life on a tiny island

A Black Friday Hike

Today after a lunch of leftovers, I decided to take Echo and Boone for a hike. (They’re brothers- Echo belongs to me, Boone belongs to my parents). The trail we hiked is part of the Carolina Thread Trail, and is a pretty easy 5.5ish mile hike along Lake Wylie. It also connects with trails at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, so you can add a little mileage or switch it up easily.

It was the first time I’ve used the double leash with these two…and geez it took about 3 miles for them to decide to calm down. But seriously, they did so great with the hike and with all the other dogs and people we came across! (My favorite is hearing “Look at the wolf!” which I’ve heard at least once every single time I’ve hiked with Echo.

The best part is, this trail is only about 3 miles from my parents house (and not much further from mine). I spent a lot of time just feeling thankful that I live in a county with so many public parks and trails- some city, some county, and even a couple state parks. I know it’s early for resolutions- but one of mine is to take advantage of these more often!  

Now- off to Boone tomorrow!

OrthoCarolina 10k Classic

Way back in August, I ran the OrthoCarolina 10k Classic in Charlotte. I mainly signed up for this race because sign up included a pint glass, a t shirt, and a finisher’s medal! I don’t run for the “bling,” but all that for a 10k isn’t bad, right? It also didn’t hurt that the 6 miles fit in pretty perfectly to my fall half marathon training plan.

What I wasn’t thinking about when I signed up was how HOT it is in August in North Carolina. My dad was nice enough to go to the race with me (and wait on me to run). The race was in Charlotte, about 25 minutes from my house. We left in plenty of time to get to the start, which was a good thing since there was a bit of a traffic back up of people trying to get into the parking garage. The morning started with a bang as we were rear ended at a stoplight while waiting for traffic to move. Luckily there was no damage and we (and the runner who rear-ended us) were able to get parked and make our way towards the start.
Within just a few minutes of getting into line, we were off! I was planing on running the whole race using 30:30 run-walk-run intervals, so that’s how I started off. I’d been training all summer running 13ish minute miles on long runs, and since I was running this as a training run, I knew I needed to slow down when I saw this for the first mile, I knew I needed to slow it down.

The course started out relatively flat, but in true Charlotte race fashion, seemed to get more and more hilly as the miles added up. I swear, it must be some sort of Charlotte rule that all courses finish with the last 1.5 miles uphill. You can see from my splits that by the last mile and the biggest hill, I was over it!
But, I did make it through the finish chute, and even with the hills and heath, managed to get a new 10k PR! The only downside was that they were out of finisher’s medals! After a little confusion and some disgruntled runners, an announcement was made that more medals were on the way! So, a few minutes later, I had a medal to add to my collection! 
It’s really hard for rate races after doing several runDisney events, because honestly, very little can compare. However, I really enjoyed this one! Packet pickup was quick and easy, there was free parking right at the start/finish, the course was really well marked, there were just enough water stops, and the post race festivities were pretty great! 
Even with the hills and heat to contend with, I just may make this a yearly must do!

Week in Training: July 20-26

Week 3 of Wine and Dine Half training is complete! So far, each run has been completed, still along with my regular MFP workouts. We’ll see how this next week goes, as I’ll be out of town for work but so far, so good!

Monday (7/20): 

  • 60 minute MFP class
  • 1.5 mile walk 

Tuesday (7/21): 

  • 60 minute MFP class
  • 3 mile run
    • This one was on the treadmill again. I’m making myself do my weekend runs (so far) outside, but I’m okay with the shorter runs being on the treadmill during the week for now. I figure I’m still getting some outside training in with all the hill sprints we’re doing in class!
  • 1.5 mile walk

Wednesday (7/22):

  • 60 minute MFP class
    • 1 lap warm up
    • 10 minutes hill sprints
    • Alternating sets (deadlifts, calf raises, good mornings, glute bridges, etc…) with cardio intervals
  • 1.5 mile walk

Thursday (7/23):

  • Unintentional rest from MFP class thanks to a work meeting
  • 3 mile run
    • On the treadmill again! And it was rough!
  • 1.5 mile walk

Friday (7/24):

  • REST
  • 1.5 mile walk

Saturday (7/25):

  • 5 mile run
  • 1.5 mile walk

Sunday (7/26):

  • REST
    • This was a day of travel, starting with being at the airport at 5am for a cross country flight. After 8 hours of travel, I still got in 12,600 steps before the night ended, so I’m good with that!

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