We got an inch or so of snow in the early morning hours on Wednesday and flurries throughout the day, so Thursday morning was another screwshoe morning, this time around Highland Green with a short loop out onto the Cathance trails down to the river. Cold and windy but decent running. Too dark out in the woods to see anything, but yet another lovely early glimpse of the sunrise glow on the horizon as I headed back up the powerlines on my way home. (6.1 miles)
A bit milder on Friday morning as I headed out for my long run. Put my spikes in my pocket and headed out once again on the powerlines. It seemed the fat bikers had been out the night before as there was a nice packed ribbon in the middle of the powerlines. Hurray! Found they had continued onto the back of the dump loop too, which was nice so I headed that way and then up onto the Gone Fishing mountain bike trails out by the dump pond. The twisty singletrack was a mixed bag, with one stretch really good packed running and the rest a bit more uneven and less trafficked than ideal. Still, it was nice to be on trails and the Hillsounds were perfect. I could hear the wind whipping above, but was fairly protected in the woods.
After winding out and around and back again, I returned on the powerlines to Highland Green Road for a bit of road running before doing a loop on the Cathance trails down along the river. There had been a fair amount of traffic out in the Cathance proper and the running was decent, if a bit uneven underfoot. Knew I needed to tack on another mile or so before I headed home, so did a Heath loop too, but that was not quite as good as there hadn't been nearly enough traffic out there. Then it was back via roads and powerline, and ta da! First 20 of 2020 done!
Took the pace nice and easy out there and the legs felt pretty good, if a bit fatigued in the final miles. Listened to a number of good podcasts, including one with Melissa Ossana as well as a Trail Runner Nation podcast with Katie Arnold. I really enjoyed her book, Running Home, and she's an eloquent speaker as well. I smiled when she said that she stopped often on her runs to enjoy and take into the views, which she laughingly said probably wasn't good training, except that it was good for the soul, so maybe it really was good for training. Indeed! :)
Lots of deer and turkey tracks seen, and stopped to admire a hawk circling above as well as to watch a pair of bluebirds flitting about on a winterberry bush. The bright blue of the male in particular was striking against the red berries. So pretty. All told, a pretty good day in the woods! (20.0 miles)
Didn't sleep well on Friday night and the warmer temps on Saturday morning meant that most of the packed snow on the sidewalks had turned to ice, with a thin veneer of water on top. Sketchy indeed! Not to mention the legs were certainly feeling Friday's miles, so yesterday's road meander was a bit of a slow one. Ran out through the neighborhoods down to the bike path, and turned around when the watch beeped 5.0 miles, which was conveniently at the bathroom 😂, and then turned around and retraced my steps. (10.0 miles)
Woke up to rain and 37 degrees this morning which turned into rolling over and going back to sleep + eating donuts + having a lazy morning instead of going out for a run. It's pretty atypical for me to not just get up and run but the weather was kind of crappy and it looked like it was going to clear later in the day, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that would be the case! Anne came over for playdate with Sam, and I was starved, so I ate lunch while Ryan took the first running shift around noon when it appeared the rain had ended and the wind was picking up as the weather was moving out. I finally headed out around 2:00 pm once he got back and looped around town, surprised to find that 99% of the ice I'd found yesterday had been melted by the warm temps and the rain. Crazy! Felt much more spry than during yesterday's road miles, although having clear sidewalks certainly helped! Could have done without the wind and the spraying spittle in my face for the last 3 miles, but I did see a rainbow, so that was nice. (8.0 miles)
Happy to finish up a solid 50 mile week and good to come home and hang out in front of the "fire" with these two 😻
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