Mellow Five

Today was busy. Ryan spent the morning running around shoveling snow and plotting the best way to take us wandering through the woods on our snowshoes tomorrow in the first Bradbury snowshoe race. I was initially intending to get up and run before he left for the Brad at 7:30 am, but around 11:30 pm last night, I woke myself up out a deep sleep with one of those huge gasping coughing fits that leaves you breathless. It was so bad that Ryan actually got up out of bed and went downstairs to get the inhaler for me. He kept saying, "Be calm," and in between coughs and gasps, I said, "I can't help it," which made me realize I've had this same interaction with Sam during some of her coughing fits before, except that I'm always the one hoping for her to calm down so she can catch her breath. And I realized she really truly can't help it. The inhaler helped, but made me all jittery. I laid back down and rested fitfully for a while in between softer coughs before finally falling asleep, but not before both cats came up to make sure I was OK, Gigi putting her little nose to mine with a nudge and Ronnie licking my face. Guess they knew something was up. Luckily Sam slept right through the fuss. I swear I am not sick anymore, but I just cannot get rid of this cough. Ugh. The rest of the night was a restless one and I just didn't feel like getting up and going out in the dark for a run.

Instead Sam and I had a mellow morning before heading up to the YMCA for her swim class. She really loves it, and it is fun to watch her in the water. She was excited to report that today she blew bubbles... out her nose!... into the water! Oh the joys of being four :-) We hit the farmer's market with Annie and family afterwards for some pretzels, local produce and people watching before heading home for lunch. Ryan got home not too much later, and I went out for my run mid-afternoon just as a light snow started to fall. I ran the Highland Green loop at a mellow pace. The powerlines and the dirt road sections were much firmer than yesterday but not icy enough to need screwshoes, which was nice. Got in 5.2 miles. I'm pretty sure this week's training has drained the legs a bit, especially considering I spent November and December doing very low mileage and have just started to ramp things back up this month, but I'm looking forward to a fun, and no doubt painful, 2.9 mile snowshoe race tomorrow anyway :-)

Sam was in a very good mood today and very helpful. She helped me make a sign for the soup...

... asking that it be protected at the race so that she could have it back :-)

She helped me make cookies for prizes, and while I was out running, helped Ryan write in people's ages on their race numbers...

...then she came to the store with me later in the afternoon to pick up a few things, came home and helped me chop mushrooms for dinner, and then helped Swiffer after I had vaacumed. All things take a little longer with her help, but she really does love to have a job to do, and we certainly want to promote helping out!