Monday was a rest day, and Tuesday morning it was cold and dark and windy and I just could not get myself out of bed so instead I fit in a quick run between work and swim team practice. I was able to take the high route on the powerlines, which gets the sun and was therefore about 99% ice-free, out to Highland Green Road for a nice afternoon out and back. (5.0 miles)
The snow rolled in Tuesday night and Wednesday ended up being a snow day. Both Ryan and I worked from home, and later in the day Sam and I went out and cleaned off the cars, and then while I shoveled a path around the side of the house and cleared out the patio out back, she made a snow fort. We ended up with about 8" to 10" of snow, and man was it heavy! Whew. That was workout enough for the day 😂
Which meant that Thursday morning, I was up and out early to get in a run. I ran down to the Connector, which was clear, but I was happy for my screwshoes on Highland Green Road, which had a nice packed snow layer atop the pavement. A truck had driven out onto the back dirt road which I followed until the tracks ended and then turned back around. On the return trip, I took the powerlines. There had been one or two snowmobiles through, but it was still a bit too soft. All in all, a nice morning to be out with a lovely sunrise! (6.1 miles)
This morning, I headed out with no real plan in mind, just knowing that I wanted to get in either 5 or 10, the two numbers I'm looking to hit over the next two days before my long run on Sunday. I couldn't resist the lure of the snowmobile trail, and although there had been a few more sleds through, it was still too soft. I ran down to Tedford Place, took off my spikes, ran the road up to the connector to the back dirt road, put the spikes back on and ran the back road, which was essentially sand-covered ice up around the loop. Once I hit the pavement, I took my spikes off again, but then couldn't resist what looked like a fairly well packed snowshoe trail running down from the Ecology lot, so I put my spikes on again 😂 and ran down to the river.
There must have been a fairly sizable group out hiking as things were pretty packed, but still just soft enough that I didn't want to keep going further than the short loop along the river. I stopped to take in the view and noticed a set of tracks skirting the open water across the river, crossing the trail and heading up into the woods. Who goes there? Perhaps a coyote? The prints were decent sized. Pretty with all the snow along the riverbanks and on the evergreens.
Once back at the road, I took my spikes off for good and ran roads for the rest of the run, crossing over to the Highlands and then running up Summer Street to the water tower. The sidewalks were treacherous and there is not a lot of room on the roads right now so instead of coming back up Main Street, I took Bridge Street up and wound through the neighborhoods before finishing up on the sketchy sidewalks back home. All in all, it worked out perfectly to 10 miles on a very random route! 😆😅
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