Just What I Needed

After Friday's run, things started to feel a bit creaky and stiff. Probably a combination of the weekly miles and all the snow running I did last week, slipping and sliding around, but whatever the cause, my hips were feeling tight and my left leg was acting up a bit. I felt fine on Sunday's run, probably because I was distracting chatting away with Mindy, but by yesterday my back was hurting, my leg was tight, and things were just plain old cranky. Which left me, well, feeling cranky!

I did get in a run yesterday, but it was short and nothing much to talk about. Ryan had taken the day off, so we had a lazy morning and I got out for a quick 3 miles before we headed out for a walk on the Cathance trails. We didn't get very far, but Sam had fun picking up sticks and rocks and leading the way. We even saw a snowshoe hare hop out of the woods and across the trail, which was pretty neat, as its coat was a mottled mix of brown and white as it was losing its winter coat.

Walking with her sticks

Once we got home, Ryan headed out for a snowshoe run down along the river, and later in the afternoon we headed to Freeport where we spent a long time in LL Bean and then went out to an early dinner at Gritty's. It was a fun, and mellow, day. Except for the whole cranky, old body!

I didn't have high hopes for getting in a long run today, given how I was feeling yesterday, but I did get a good night's sleep and woke up feeling better. Still, it was grey and overcast, and calling for rain, and honestly, I just wasn't in the right mental state for a long run. So, you know what? I just didn't go. I know, I know. The miles are necessary, but I was in no mood for slogging through 20 road miles. So, I decided to put it off until tomorrow, and just go out for a short run instead. Perhaps this is not the way to actually train for something, but it seemed the best thing to do. So, I headed out onto the roads around the high school and then hit the powerlines over to Highland Green. Wow. There had been a lot of snow melt even since yesterday morning's run! I ran the road, and was happy to see that the back dirt road, which last week had been a slushy, snowy mess, seemed to have been driven on. I decided I'd do the loop instead of doing an out-and-back on the roads. Oh, it was slushy and muddy and wet, but I had a big smile on my face the whole time. It was great to tromp through the mud and run on the soft dirt, and just be off the snow and the pavement. Just what I needed! I got in a nice 6 miles in 52:25, and hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow to actually pull off that 20 :-)