Tuesday morning, I headed out early for a midweek 10. I ran the cart paths first then looped back through hole #5 and along the Heath, out into the Cathance. Finished up with a bit of running along the powerlines and Canam. Pretty morning, and things are really looking green out there! One deer, one hairy woodpecker and one turkey seen. (10.2 miles)
After swim practice, Sam and I made up a strawberry rhubarb pie with the fresh rhubarb from Anne and Thistle's garden, in prep for Mom's arrival on Thursday! Yay and Yum! 😋🍓
We also had a return visit from the groundhog. He sort of looks like Gigi 😂
Thursday was a rest day, which was good because I needed the time to get the house cleaned, recycling to the transfer station, grocery shopping completed and laundry done. Phew! More tiring than running 😆😅 Mom arrived right on time and Ryan was able to pick her up at the airport so it all worked out nicely.
Friday, I headed over to Bradbury bright and early so that I could get in my miles and be home in time to go out to lunch with Mom. It was a beautiful cool morning, with the sun shining brightly. I looped up to the summit via Northern Loop, Summit Trail, South Ridge then headed out on the Connector up to Tryon and then out to the powerlines before turning around. Lots of ladyslippers out along the Connector! Then I headed up Boundary and went down the new snowmobile trail connector to the elementary school before circling around to the summit. The new trail is a bit squishy and not yet compacted so it was a bit tough on the way back up, but good hiking practice!
After that, it was back to the parking lot to have a snack, change my now soaked shirt, refill my bladder with water and pick up a few new gels. Then it was back up to the summit via Northern Loop, Summit and South Ridge, Tote and then Summit again. From there, I took Tote down and then looped back up for one more summit once I hit Northern Loop.
By the final 5 miles, temps had warmed up and the park was getting busy with several bus loads of school kids, and a brief sighting of Tom W. too. Happy to get in a solid run, feel good along the way, and still get home in time for lunch! Also hit 1,000 miles for the year sometime early in the run - hurray! I'll take that milestone for sure 😀(24.0 miles)
The lilies of the valley along Northern Loop smelled so good!
After a yummy lunch, it was home to relax for a bit and pick up pizza for the whole crew, as Irene and Dana joined us for the evening to watch Sam and her two friends in the Woodside Variety Show. I was impressed with all of the kids, and Sam, Mazie and Abby did a great job with Uptown Funk. Such fun!
Celebrated Mom's birthday a few days early with our traditional birthday crazy cake! Yum!🎂🍰
Uptown Funk
I was fairly exhausted by the time I got into bed on Friday night, and even managed to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning. Once Ryan got up and organized, we headed out onto the powerlines for a run together. After all the hillwork at Bradbury on Friday, I was looking forward to a rather flat, mellow run and thought I'd show Ryan the mountain bike trails that I had so enjoyed this winter in my meanderings around the dump. The trails were not quite as easy running without the snow on the ground but it is impressive that the mountain bikers have managed to put in about 5 miles of trail in a pretty small area within the woods near the dump pond! It was another beautiful morning and I was glad to feel good. Ryan might have felt a bit less than stellar but he stuck with it! We did hit a few sections of trail that were pretty thin in terms of actually being trail 😂 and definitely ended up with a few dog ticks on us, but there were some glorious patches of star flowers out in those not-quite-yet-defined areas! I dragged him around Canam to add on another 1+ mile at the end but at least I didn't subject him to loops around the neighborhood to get an even number 😁😆 Always fun to get in some miles with Ryan! (12.7 miles)
Nothing but blue sky 💗
We went into town for a sushi lunch and then back over to Skofield Shores in the hopes of seeing some horseshoe crab spawning this time around. We waited a bit too long before heading over there though, and the tide was a bit too high to see much or to walk out to the rock island. However, we were able to see at least a few pair of horseshoe crabs, and of course, the view is always worth it, especially on a glorious June afternoon! (0.6 miles walked)
Love this vista!
Happy people by the shore 💖
So nice to have Mom in town, even if for a short visit! Thanks for coming up, Mom! We love you💗
This morning, I dropped Mom at the airport around 5:45 am and then headed over to Emma's to meet up with her for a run. It was great to catch up and she took me on some neat trails off Pride Street, out along the powerlines and then down on the trails along Mill Brook in the Mill Brook Preserve. The trails were neat, winding in and around the river edges and up through the pines, and the powerlines were wet, muddy, grassy and sloppy. There was also a full-on river crossing just to keep things interesting! 😂 And we had a chance to see the alewives migrating up the river to Highland Lake. So cool! The pool was filled with hundreds of them and we could see a few jumping up through the cascades against the push of the water. When I looked back down at the pool, I could see all the fish fins flitting about in the water, pushing this way and that in big surges. Really really neat!
It was fun to finish up the week with a run with a good friend and to explore new trails. My legs were feeling the miles a bit but that's ok 😃 Thankfully Emma was game to just lollygag along, chatting all the way. A good morning and a great way to finish up the last big week in my Western States training! Three weeks minus one day until race day! 😁😎😜 (10.2 miles for 64.2 miles for the week)
The pool is thick with alewives
If you look closely, you can see the movement of all the fish in the pool and the little dots are actually their fins!
1 comment:
I've never actually followed Western States, but this year I have a reason to. No pressure! Haha.
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