Cathance 7

We're headed south in a few days - Ryan to Chattanooga for the 50 miler, and Sam and I to my parents. Ryan will join us there after the weekend. I am looking forward to being away for a nice stretch, enjoying some warm(er) weather, and watching Sam have fun with Neenie and Pippie. However, I am lamenting the fact that I am going to a place where there is nary a trail to be found within miles! And I'll have time to run! And babysitters! I did some googling, and the closest trail networks are about an hour away. There are some game lands closer to my parent's house, but it is hunting season in NC right now, for pretty much anything moving, so I'll be avoiding anything with "game" in the name, thank you very much! And of course, Ryan will be recovering from the race so he won't really be up for any running adventures. So sad. I guess I'll just be bringing my road shoes and letting them rack up the vacation miles!

With this in mind, I figured I would take to the woods today for my run. I took Sam into daycare since she'll only be there three days this week, and after a few odds and ends, and an appointment this morning, I set out for the Cathance a little after 11:00. The day was warm enough that I was wearing shorts, and it was nice and sunny. The woods were quiet, and the river beautiful. However, I just wasn't feeling up for the miles I had originally hoped for. I was a bit tired, both from yesterday's run and a rather sleepless night. [Come on! Don't you want to come over and stay at our place, only to be woken up numerous times at night by a toddler schreeching "Ouchie! Ouchie! Mama Mama!" in the middle of the night? Never quite figured out what was hurting her....]

Plus, the treadway was sketchy. Much more so than I had imagined, given the trails yesterday at Thorncrag. Lots of hoar frost bumps and valleys to crash and trip through, and hidden semi-frozen puddles beneath the leaves to navigate. With all the twisting and turning of the singletrack and the conditions, the run was taking a bit more energy out of me than I had anticipated. I'm still cutting myself a bit of slack this month in terms of mileage, so I just decided to go with how I felt, and head on in. Managed to get in 7.5 in 1:15:00, and called it good. Then it was off to fill up the rest of the afternoon with errands before picking up the munchkin. Amazing how quickly the hours of 8:30 to 4:30 can fly by!