Sunday Funday

Joined in on David's 6-hour Back Cove Fun Run this morning around Back Cove. This fatass style run is a fundraiser for Preble Street - everyone brings food for the food pantry - and does as many loops as they want around the 3.5 mile loop. I knew I wasn't going to be up for much, but wanted to be able to participate and support David in this event. A good group of Trail Monsters and others gathered early on a cold, windy November morning, dropping off food and chatting until the crowd headed off a little after 8:00 am.

Back Cove Fun

I waited for Amy to arrive and then we took off, chatting away as we ran. We got in two solid loops for a total of 7.1 miles and called it good. I was happy with that, and happier that my right hip/butt felt better than Friday. A Dr. Jamie visit plus a lot of home stretching and rolling certainly helped.

After chatting for a bit with friends, I headed home to hang up the gorgeous wreath that Amy made us. Isn't it beautiful?! I love it. Thank you, Amy.

Winterberry and turkey feathers

Later in the afternoon, Ryan, Sam and I headed over to the Cathance for a nice two mile hike along the river. Hiking with Sam takes a while, but it is fun to explore the woods with her and always good to get outside together.

Very colorful today

On the bogbridges

Looking at the river flowing

Cathance roaring

That is one big stump

Stump jumping

Little brown mushroom (a Galerina praticola?)

Goofiness on the trail

Grrr ;)

Rattlesnake plantain

Christmas fern, moss and another galerina-type mushroom(?)

Wood pine

A fun, active day for sure!

Mild

After Tuesday's frosty run, the past few mornings have seemed awfully mild in comparison. Got out yesterday morning and ran the cart paths in reverse, just to change it up. Beautiful sky as the sun began to color the clouds midway through the run. As I finished up on hole #1, the glowing orange orb was just peeking out above the tops of the trees. A good 6 miles for the morning.

I must admit that this morning's run didn't feel as quite good. My legs were really tight, particularly my hips. Very glad I am heading to see Dr. Jamie this afternoon as I feel like my body is just still a bit out of whack after the 100 and needs a bit of readjusting to get back on track. Ah well. Although I feel the push to get back to running some higher mileage, I know that what I really need to do is make sure I am good and recovered so I am still intending to keep my mileage low through the end of the month. The leaf-covered trails and the bog bridges were also very slick this morning after yesterday's rain, so it was a slow one down to the river and back, but with yet again another beautiful November sky.

Running with Sam

Cross county was a wonderful way to add some exercise to Sam's routine this fall, and we missed it once practices stopped. The xc season made us realize that we should be better about making sure Sam gets in some exercise at least a few times during the week as well as on the weekends. It is what we want for ourselves, and we want to give her the same opportunity. She might say she is tired, but as a growing kid, she has a crazy amount of energy and movement is always a good thing. She only has gym once during the week at school, and yes, there is recess but only once a day. If it's nice out, she will play outside at her after-school care program, but with shorter days and less light, that time is dwindling.

Our fridge houses a "chore" chart for her, which allows her to see what we are expecting of her each day and to get her involved in the daily household chores; it also enables us to put exercise on the schedule as an expected activity. She is swimming on both Wednesday and Saturday now, and typically we'll get out at least once over the weekend for a hike or walk. This leaves us with one or two other days where I try to get out with her after school/work. We recently purchased a new reflective vest for ourselves, ours being a hold-over from our Bowdoin XC days (!!), and got one for her too (pink, of course ;) ) so that we could get out in the dark and still be safe running or walking around the neighborhood at this time of year. Today, we decided to do one loop around the block, which is about 0.4 miles. We donned our reflective gear and our headlamps and set off. Sam kept up a decent pace and we only walked a few steps at the top of the hill near the stop sign, and we had fun talking about food (Ha! Such a runner already ;) ) as we ran.

Although our walks/runs/hikes are short mid-week and it is an effort to get her out the door some days, it is really wonderful to be able to spend time running, walking and hiking with her on a regular basis!


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Got out this morning for six miles on the cart paths. Everything was covered in frost, and even the sky seemed white. Very pretty. Very quiet too, with the exception of my feet crunching on the thin layer of hoar frost building up in the packed sand. Felt good.

Pineland with Amy

Met up with Amy yesterday morning for a nice, mellow run around Oak Hill. Temps were a bit more seasonable and the trails were quiet at 7:00 am. We chatted the run away and kicked up the fallen leaves as we ran by. The sun shone bright and low through the bare branches of the now leafless trees. Got in a good 4 miles and then went and chatted some more at the market over coffee and a bagel. Always good to run with Amy, and a great way to start off Sunday!! :)

Running, Pie and the Brad

Started the day off with a short three mile run on the powerlines. Didn't quite get up and out early enough for more miles, but that's ok, I'm keeping mileage low so it isn't a big deal. Actually felt pretty good out there, so I'll call it a win. Maybe I am on my way back to feeling "normal" again? Hopefully so.

Needed to get back early so Ryan could get over to Woodside for the 5k Pie Run. Sam had swimming at 10:00 so we decided it wouldn't be ideal for her to run, so we just went to spectate and cheer. Oh, and eat pie at the pie breakfast after the race too ;) Delish! Ryan had a pretty good race for not doing any speedwork, coming in 5th in 19:00 on the dot. Some pretty fast dudes out there today to race against for sure! As he says, his cherry picking skills are awful, as he probably would have had the leading time on any other year. Ha ;) Figures... But anyway, a good cause and a good workout.

Running for pie ;)

After swimming and lunch, Sam was still bouncing off the walls so we decided a hike at Bradbury would be a good way to work off some of that excess kiddo energy ;) It was yet another warm November day as we set off to hike up the summit. We took the long way down, hiking the Boundary Trail around the perimeter of the park, for a nice 2.3 mile adventure out in the woods to cap off the day.

Up to the quarry

Switchback

Off the summit

Coming down Boundary

New boundary section

Stump

Serious, goofy and happy ;)

A Bit of Catchup

The intent to run has been there this week but it hasn't always panned out ;) Tuesday, I just never got up early enough which meant I really wanted to be sure I dragged myself out of bed on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I had to be to work early so I didn't have a ton of time. Still, I managed to get up and out and run 4 miles around the neighborhood. Nothing special but at least I got up and out. Wednesday evening, I was exhausted and asleep before 9:00 pm. I didn't wake up until 4:00 am, which for me is practically a miracle! But did I get out for a run? Nah... oops...still feeling a bit less motivation than normal for sure.

This morning, I knew I had a long laundry list of things to do before I headed over to Woodside at 2:00 pm to volunteer in Sam's classroom so I decided to get in a run before Sam woke up so as to free up the rest of the morning. It was warm out - 50 degrees! - but very foggy and misty. I headed out at 6:00 am and while it should have been light enough to see without a headlamp, I needed one to cut through the semi-darkness brought on by the overcast and fog. I had to tiptoe a bit along the singletrack out in the woods and along the river, as the trails are covered with a thick and rather slippery layer of golden beech leaves. Got in a solid 8 miles, but in one of my slowest times along the route this year. Legs still recovering? Indeed.

After Sam and I left school, we did a few errands then went over to the Cathance for a short late afternoon hike/walk/run down to the river. We had the trails to ourselves and enjoyed kicking up the leaves and listening to the roaring river on a nice little 20 minute outing on a warm November afternoon. We would have stayed out longer but were running out of light! Ah, these daylight savings days... Regardless, always good to be out in the woods with the kiddo!

Wearing our reflective gear to make up for the fact that we didn't have on hunter's orange 

(even though no hunting is allowed in the Cathance anyway)

Late fall trail

Kicking up leaves

Cutie pie

Roaring river

Running

Late afternoon light

November sky

Daylight Savings

It's always hard to turn back the clocks. Leaving work as the sun sets, driving home from picking Sam up with the headlights on, and having it be pitch black by dinnertime - ugh. But on the flip side, daylight savings offers up early morning daylight again, which means morning runs done without headlamp (at least for now)! And to that, I say, yah! Trying to look on the bright side here ;)

Yesterday morning, I got out around 6:20 for a short 3 mile run on the powerlines. The sky was filled with layers of periwinkle blue clouds tinged in pink, the glow of the sunrise peeking through at intervals. So pretty.

I also was able to join in on Sam's class field trip out to Wolfe's Neck Farm for the morning. It was an incredibly gorgeous day out there - blue skies, sunshine, warm temps. The kids explored the farm and learned about the animals on the farm and then we took a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. What a fun way to spend a beautiful November morning!

King of the Mountain

At the chicken coop

Selfie by Sam

Pumpkin patch

Sam and her pumpkin

Halloween and Heath

Much fun was had last night at the Halloween parade at the Topsham Fair Mall. We never ended up doing any trick or treating elsewhere as we went over to Anne's house after the parade for dinner, but Sam came home with a reasonable amount of candy and had a great time, so we'll call it a win!

Happy Halloween from Anna from Frozen

Anna

Two princesses and a monster ;)

Parade selfie

Candy!

The loot

After a busy night last night, we had a quiet morning at home and then got out mid-afternoon for a hike around the Heath. It was overcast and windy, but warm and comfortable in the woods. Always good to spend some time with my two favorite people out on the trail!

Our hiker ready to lead the way

Fall Heath

Heath overlook

Trail portrait

Goofin' around 

Running

Up on a stump