Weekend? Hello? Weekend?

I could swear that it was Friday like six hours ago. How is it Monday again so soon?! This was one of those weekends that was super busy, but not with too much worth reporting on.
Saturday was rainy. So rainy. When I got up at 7:00 it was raining. When I went to ride Ducky at 9:30, it was raining. Thankfully, they have an indoor over at the trainer's!

I wasn't super excited to ride Jampy in the rain (I do not have an indoor), but I couldn't skip the ride since we had a horse show on Sunday. So I mustered up the will, and we got some work done. Thankfully, though it was raining, it wasn't POURING during my ride. Then he had a tubby since he was already wet anyway.

That's Rio photobombing us in the window

Saturday, in addition to being rainy, was also Yom Kippur. The Jewish day of atonement. So I should have gone to synagogue instead of riding horses. But I didn't. I did however fast the entire day. No water, no coffee, nothing! So at 5 o'clock I fed the horses and drove as fast as I could (in the POURING rain) to my mom's house for our break fast. It was glorious. Challah and honey, bagels and lox, chicken and potatoes. And the dessert?! Cheesecake, pumpkin pie, cookies, and babkah (sp?). Mmmmmm. After the gorge fest, the rest of the evening was spent with the puggers (naturally).

These two are ridiculous

Sunday morning arrived far too early. Do you know how dark it is at 5 am now?! Middle of the night dark, that's how dark. Yuck. Since it was so dark out, the bright flashing police lights caught my eye when I went out to feed the horses. For reference, I live at the bottom of a hill AND the end of the road. Occasionally, people drive too fast down the hill and don't realize the street is ending. On this particular morning, that appeared to be what happened. I hope everyone was ok! It was all cleared up by the time we pulled out for the horse show. The one bright side to the late sunrise? We got to see it as we drove over the bridge:

Fear not, my copilot took the photo! I wouldn't endanger my Jamposaur! It was pretty chilly when we arrived at the show. Jampy was feeling pretty good from the cold! Overall, he was a good boy, but a little strong. Not unusual when the temps fall quickly. This time of year I need to remember to allow a little extra time for schooling to get him warmed up better. Lesson learned! We still had a good day, despite the freshness:

After the show, I played with Rio for a bit. He was happy to eat some grass and get some sunshine after Saturday's miserable weather.

The rest of the weekend consisted of laundry, laundry, and more laundry! Phew.
How was your weekend? Do anything fun? Get any runs in? (I didn't...)

BIRTHDAY POST!

Today is my birthday! I love birthdays. Even though I'm old. Getting older is always better than the alternative. I didn't make any plans for the big day since 1. it's a Wednesday and 2. I wasn't sure what was going to be happening with Rio.

But here's a little birthday recap anyway since it's my blog and I can write what I want to!

I woke up to rain and 40 degrees. Yuck. I had a 9 AM dentist appointment to have a cavity filled. Double yuck. Then I went to work and had a crazy busy day. Which maybe sounds like a crummy birthday. But it really wasn't. And here's why:

I came home to BIRTHDAY TREATS from my friend Melynda left for me in the barn:

The basket is all chocolate covered deliciousness: oreos, vanilla fingers, and graham crackers. Then the chocolate pony and the little box under the pony had these little moo cow candies in it! SO MUCH YUMMMMM!

No riding today since it was pouring rain and really cold. No need to deal with that on my Birthday. Instead, Jampy and the Duck got haircuts.

And then Katie stopped by with MORE BIRTHDAY TREATS! Sadly I didn't grab photos, but there was an ADORABLE Betsey Johnson cosmetic bag, a pretty gold picture frame (which of course will soon have a Rio photo), and a canister of caramel popcorn with pretzels and chips mixed in it. That little canister shall suit me well tomorrow because....

I'm going to pick up Rio and bring him home!!!

Ok, sorry for the shouting. But I'm really excited. So is Ducky. He's so excited he stole Rio's halter:

The rest of my birthday I spent with these two kids, snuggling in the warm, dry confines of my living room. 

Not a bad birthday after all! I can't wait for tomorrow evening when Rio is all tucked in at home!

Running Weekend!

Monday AGAIN?! Sheesh. This Monday, for a little something different, it snowed. Oh wait.... That's not different at all, is it?

No Mani Monday today. Sorry... Maybe for Thursday :) But I DO have some running stories to share and pony pics today. What's better than that?

These are my post run wet footprints...

Up until today when it started snowing again, CT has been getting a LOT of rain. A lot. The bonus is that at least it was warm enough for rain! My Thursday run didn't happen because it was 17 degrees out in the morning, and I had plans that evening. Katie (check out her blog here!) mentioned that she was heading out Friday evening for a short run, so I decided to join her. In the rain. Yep. We decided since it was raining and a bit chilly that 3 miles was long enough! Despite starting out a bit slow, the run was decent! It even stopped raining about halfway through.

I spent most of Saturday playing with my ponies. The weather was not cooperative during the week to ride after work (it was really cold again last week) so each horse needed a little play time before riding. I can't really think of a better way to spend your Saturday than in the barn! Can you?

The horses were great, but I'm becoming increasingly more aware of how out of shape I am from three months off! Rio was easy of course, but Jampy was reminding me how much strength I've lost. Hey, someone has to do it since I apparently was unaware! Ducky was fantastic this weekend, and we were able to work on his canter more than I expected. Did I mention it rained the whole day? Cause it did. By the last horse it was getting pretty chilly out too. Ugh. But at least they all got worked! And the footing was holding up too.
Ducky wanted to take some selfies after riding:

Sunday was another run day! Katie has been telling me about a run/walk program she's trying for her marathon training. You run 1.5 miles and walk 1.5 minutes alternately. I was curious if this would be as great for me as it's been for her, and had mentioned wanting to give it a shot. She had an 18 miler planned, which obviously, I'm not up for, but we talked about me meeting her toward the end of her run for a few miles.

A few turned into 8 somehow. Who agrees to that after having not run more than 5 for at least a month?! Me I guess... Anyway, we headed out around 11:15. In the rain. I couldn't complain, since Katie had already run 10 miles in the elements. It was also quite a bit colder than Saturday, but once I got going I warmed right up. Even had to remove a layer! Funny how that works isn't it?

Overall, I did still struggle with the distance, but more so from adding a good 3 miles to my last long run. The walk breaks really did make a HUGE difference. I'm not sure if it was just mentally breaking the run up into segments or maybe it was just extra nice to have some stimulating conversation during the torture, but the 8 miles went by really quickly (seemed to anyway, we weren't exactly speedy)!

Katie looked a lot more lively at the end than me... Which is extra sad given she ran 18 miles! And I ran only 8. But clearly she's been training really hard! My props to her for being a running machine!
The rest of my Sunday was spent doing laundry and straightening up the house. I had hoped to work horses, but the torrential rains had left the footing a little questionable. It was also getting colder by the minute and VERY WINDY! All ingredients for an unplanned dismount if you ask me. I opted out, especially since my legs were exhausted!

So that was my weekend! Did you have any sunshine where you live? Do anything fun? Get a long run in?