Happy Easter!

Lots of Easter fun today, starting off with a 69 egg hunt in Mom and Dad's yard. That Sam is one lucky kid! :)

While Sam was counting up her booty, Ryan and I headed off for a short run, where we saw all sorts of reptiles, including a skink, a big snake and the alligator that has made its home in the neighborhood. It was one big splash when we ran by and he took to the water! I wasn't feeling super peppy due to not sleeping well last night and some of my allergies kicking in, but it was a good 6 miles to end the week.

We refueled with a big brunch up at the club, followed up by the requisite Easter pictures in "fancy" dress, or as fancy as we get!

It was warm and sunny out, so Sam wanted to head up to the pool for a bit before she joined Ryan and Dad for a few holes of golf. I think she should be nice and tired out tonight ;)

All in all, yet another fun vacation day! :)

NC Fun

An uneventful day of travel yesterday brought us down to NC for a visit with my parents. Thankful for little traffic, on time flights and a very good 7-year old traveling companion!

We arrived to find warmth, sunshine and things are in bloom - glorious! Of course, no arrival is complete without a trip to Pullen Park in Raleigh so that was our first stop :)

This morning, I came downstairs to find a little visitor on the window ;) and some glorious light and mist out back.

Once it got light out, Ryan and I headed out for an early morning run around River Landing. First run in shorts and t-shirt for me this year! It is flat as a pancake here but the loop we took got us out on the "nature trail" for a short bit as well as for several miles on the gravel road along the berm at the edge of the community. So good to hit some dirt! We got in a nice 12 miles, chatting away as we ran along. Always nice to get in some miles with Ryan, and thankful he was willing to keep a reasonable pace ;) 

The fog burned off quickly enough and it did get a bit toasty out there, but I am not complaining ;) Also had a few good wildlife sightings, including two cormorants, a great egret, an osprey, two muskrats in the pond along the berm and a bluebird.

After the run, we headed up to the community center, where Sam joined in on the Easter Egg hunt. I mean, candy, what's not to love?! ;)

And just because there is always so much beauty around at this time of year, here are a few shots from the yard, with more to come over the course of the week for sure :)
 

Momma bluebird giving me the stink eye as I check in on the nest ;)

Warm Weather!

This week it has been warm enough to open the windows, not wear a jacket during the day, for the crocuses to bloom outside the office and for a lot of the snow to melt. Finally! Spring really is coming :)

Tuesday morning, I thought I'd try out the cart paths and see what I could find. Well, things are quite soft out there and there were still some good stretches of packed snow/ice, but it was great to get off the pavement and onto the "dirt"! Felt like a lot of effort for the pace due to the squishy surface but a nice 6 mile run nonetheless.

Yesterday, I stuck to the 5 mile Highland Green loop, going out by way of the powerlines. I headed out at 5:45 am and it was light enough to not need a headlamp :) The powerlines are still pretty messy but the back dirt road had been nicely graded. A nice, warm morning and I was treated to a porcupine sighting too! He rambled across the road and into someone's yard around 2.5 miles in. Didn't seem concerned about me at all ;) Also saw one of our resident raccoons eating some seed out back and heard lots of birdsong!

This morning, I could not resist heading down to the river, despite the fact that Sunday's hike indicated there was still plenty of snow in the woods. I ran up and over Mt. A., enjoying the sight of the sun rising through the pine trees. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all the snow on the Mt. A. road had melted along with plenty on the cart paths too as I ran holes 1, 2 and 3 before veering off onto the Heath Trail. The Heath was also mostly free of snow although plenty squishy :)

Even the snow that we had found on the short lollypop down to and along the river had melted significantly and man, was the river roaring! A good 6.2 miles for the morning for sure!

Looking forward to some NC sunshine this next week and then excited about the thought of getting back out on the trails at home as things should be in good shape with another week+ of warm weather and melting snow!

Out Hiking!

Too nice of an afternoon to not all get outside for some fresh air and sunshine. We headed over to the Cathance and did a nice 1.2 mile loop. Lots of snow, ice and water along the trail, but warm and sunny and a roaring river besides! Always fun to get out in the woods ;)

Back to the Land of the Living

Well, turns out I really was sick this past weekend, oh and the next four days. Despite the fact that no one else in the household was sick, I somehow managed to get knocked down for the count. I blame my office, as two of the three people I work with have been hacking and sniffling and coughing for the past few weeks. Or maybe it's the weather, or the stress, or whatever. Regardless, I didn't do any running Monday through Thursday. Blah. I could have run on Thursday, but decided an extra day was probably a wise idea.

By Friday, I was feeling so much better and was itching to get out in the fresh air and get in a run, so after dropping Sam off at school I headed over to Pennelville for a run down to the ocean. It was overcast and windy, and there is most definitely still a lot of snow in the woods. But, the fields were clear of snow, pussywillows were in bloom along the roadside, redwinged blackbirds were calling and I saw two pairs of bluebirds flitting about. Spring is coming, slowly but surely....

Felt good to get out and run, even if I was a bit creaky, and I got in a nice 6 miles for the morning. Happy to be back to the land of the living (and running!) :)

Saturday, Ryan took off well before the crack of dawn with Zak and Chad to head over to VT for Runamuck. I really wanted to salvage the running week at least ever so slightly, so I headed out for a short run during Sam's swim lessons. Better some than none. A quick 4 miles through the streets of Bath on a very windy and not so warm morning.

We followed up swim lessons with a fun lunch out and our first trip to Dairy Queen this season, although it was so chilly we ate in the car with the heat on 😂🍦

While we were enjoying our girl's day, the boys had a great run over in VT, and a speedy one at that! Good VT100 training for sure!

This morning, with a plan to get in a (short) double digit run for the day, I headed out onto River Road, cut across on White House Crossing, which was new to me, and then back along Meadow. It was a nice, sunny morning and I focused on keeping things nice and mellow. No need to push too much. 10 miles in 1:30 right on the nose, perfect. The week may not have been what I was hoping for, but such is life. Onward and upward!

Weekend Sixes

Well, we kicked off April with an April Fool's Day snowstorm. I mean, why not?! 😜 Silly weather!

I headed out around 7:00 am in the blowing snow and ran a nice easy 6 miles on Highland Green via the powerlines with an added mile along Canam and home. Powerlines were ankle deep with wet snow but the pavement, although variably plowed, was topped with just enough of a sticky layer of snow to be tacky and decent running given the weather.

I realized a bit later in the morning that perhaps what I had been feeling (aside from the cranky hip flexors) yesterday at the Brad which left me feeling a bit dreary and not wanting to get in more miles was a bit of a head cold coming on, as I spent the rest of a snowy indoor day on Saturday sniffling and sneezing. Ugh! But at least we had nothing to do and nowhere to go so it was relatively relaxing.

I still had hopes to get in the 14 I had originally intended on Friday this morning, but I didn't sleep well and I decided that it might not be the wisest decision, given that I'd prefer for this cold to move along quickly and not settle in. I'm a bit disappointed, but mileage isn't everything so off I went for another mellow 6 to round out the weekend. Ran down the Connector and onto Highland Green and was surprised to find things down to just plain old wet pavement. Of course, the back part of the loop hadn't been plowed but had been driven on by one truck, so I figured what the heck and ran in the truck tracks until the gate, where they had headed down to Tedford Road instead of back to HG. That 0.3 miles in untracked heavy wet snow was not the most fun, but at least it was short! Took the powerlines back, as one snowmobiler had been through yesterday and while it wasn't solid, it was packed just enough. Finished up the miles once again by looping around Canam.

And now the sun is out, so melt snow melt! :) I am looking for spring and dirt!!