Cutback

I've never been so happy to "only" see two 10 mile runs penciled into my planner for the week. I am just plain tired. And honestly, my body is a bit cranky with me. This week's cutback week is welcome. I think the past number of weeks have been the first time I've actually (mostly) followed through with a training plan, with the long runs actually increasing as they should, and with a few back-to-backs thrown in too. I have been feeling (mostly) good, but by the end of last week, I could tell I was ready. A bit of rest is definitely what I need. I also needed the massage I got on Friday, and the visit with Dr. Jamie that I had this afternoon.

In any event, hopefully all of the above will mean I feel good for next week and beyond, and just because I was tired didn't mean I took the day off :-) I brought Sam into daycare this morning, as they were doing St. Patrick's Day festivities and she didn't want to miss out. Also, with the impending snowstorm tomorrow, I knew we'd likely be home anyway, and I did have a bit of work to get done, so the swap of daycare days seemed like the logical thing to do. Which meant 10 miles was on tap today.

I wasn't feeling super enthused as I headed out - it was cold and windy, but at least the sun was bright. My plan was to stick to the trails/dirt roads as best I could, so I ran out on the powerlines first. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't fast, but it was good mix of mud and packed snow and ice. I did a slight variation on the Homeplace loop, and then once I got back to Topsham Crossing, I headed up Tedford and hooked up with the back Highland Green Road. From there, I ran the cart paths for the rest of the run. The math worked out perfectly, as I hit the start of the cart paths at 5.4 miles, meaning I needed only 4.6 to get to 10. From the start of the cart paths, it is 4.7 miles back to our front door. Pretty good, huh?! :-) The cart paths were a mix of packed gravel, mud, and patchy snow and ice. The typical rhythm and speed you can get while running the paths wasn't quite there today, but it was still a nice change of pace. And amazing how much snow has melted recently - it was good to see a fair amount of bare ground out there. Guess that's about to change, as we're forecast to receive 10" to 15" of snow tomorrow. I have to say, I'm pretty much done with winter, and really really really hope this new snow melts quickly after tomorrow's snowstorm!