New Hampshire Fun

This weekend was our annual Bowdoin reunion weekend. We shifted from camping at Wolfe's Neck to Neal and Kendra's house on Chalk Pond in 2021, and it is always just such a great weekend of catching up with friends, laughing, eating and drinking, chilling, running and enjoying time together. 

It was a busy few days leading up to the trip with a lot of work to be done, a trip to Freeport with Neenie for Sam, and a PT visit and continuing to work on building back up to running for me. Oh yes, and a trip to the optometrist for Sam as the stye that she's had for almost 2 weeks was just getting worse. Oh, the joys!

Monday morning, I got out the door around 6:30 am and looped through Highland Green, running the back dirt road for the first time in a long time. Nice morning with one deer seen, and 6x 0.6 mile run/0.1 mile walk. (4.2 miles)

Tuesday afternoon, the three of us got out for an afternoon walk together. Warm. (2.3 miles walked)

Wednesday morning, I headed out around 6:15 am for a slightly longer Highland Green loop. Very hazy skies with the sun a low orange orb in the sky, apparently due to the wildfires up in Canada, and muggy. 6x 0.75 mile run/0.1 mile walk. (5.2 miles) 

Had my PT appointment in the afternoon, and nothing is seriously off, but a few imbalances that need to be corrected and a few stretches and strengthening exercises prescribed. No real constraints put on any sort of movement except that it should not hurt, so I feel positive about things, although still plan to be conservative as I really don't want to have to redo this phase again!

Sam went to Freeport with Neenie for pizza and some shopping, followed up by a quick walk down to the shore at Wolfes Neck, while I crossed things off on my to do list after my PT appointment. I think she probably had the more fun afternoon 😂😉😊

Ryan headed over to NH late in the afternoon, and then on Thursday, after getting up early to cook some things up and get organized for the weekend, plus getting some work done, I had a massage with Lauren right after lunch and then Sam and I headed south to pick up Lauren in Old Orchard Beach.

We arrived just in time for the evening dog walk around the pond, which involved a whole lot of stopping on my part to rescue all the red efts that were out on the pavement, including the smallest one I've seen yet! So cute 😍 (1.2 miles walked)

So tiny! 

Then it was pretty much right into the hot tub for the girls 😂😂

Friday morning, Ryan and I headed out for a run around 8:00 am. We ran to the Sunset Hill trailhead plus a bit on the flat start of the trail (1.2 miles total or so), hiked up, hiked/ran down, and then ran back. Very heavy out, and many red efts plus various mushrooms seen. No one on the trail but a lot of people getting in their runs/walks on Chalk Pond Road. Leg felt good. (4.0 miles)

Another baby!

Fun to get in a run with this guy!💕

Then while Neal, Kendra and Ryan went golfing with Peyron, there was a lot of relaxing, dog petting, some reading, and catching up with Vicky for me, while the girls got in a short run/walk around the pond and had fun in the hot tub and on the water on the paddleboards and in the floats. A nice relaxing afternoon!

Bumblebee on the pepperbush

💗

😂😂

People arrived throughout the evening and we had fun eating, drinking, chatting and laughing late into the evening.

It was a foggy start to the morning on Saturday. Vicky, Laurie and I headed out around 9:15 am. We ran around the pond, up through Stony Brook on the trails, connected to Baker Hill Road and then cut through on the muddy ATV trail back to Chalk Pond Road. Yay for running with friends 😊❤️ So good to catch up with Vicky and Laurie! Misty, humid, cool. Many red efts. Walked a bit but mostly runnning. Felt decent. (5.2 miles)

We got out for a dog walk around the pond with the girls, Neal, Ryan, Nate and Laurie before spending the rest of the day on the deck, chilling out and chatting. (1.2 miles walked)

We were all pretty wiped out by this morning, but it was a great weekend with friends! 💗💗

Fair and Beach Fun

Well, not for me, but for Sam 😂😂

Monday was a zero day, and then on Tuesday, I headed out at 6:00 am on a drizzly, humid and overcast morning for a run/walk intervals for a total of 3 miles run and 1 mile walk. Felt decent. (4.10 miles run)

Later in the afternoon, I dropped Sam, Rohan and Lauren off at the Topsham Fair for a few hours for some fair fun.

Wednesday, Sam and I got out for a nice late afternoon walk around the block. When we got back home, we all did the circuit that Sam's swim coach prescribed - definitely got in my core/weight work for the day! (2.08 miles walked)

Thursday, Ryan and I got out for an after dinner walk with Ryan. Beautiful evening. (2.92 miles walked)

Friday morning, I got out for another run/walk on a rainy morning with 8x 0.4 miles run/0.1 mile walk. (4.22 miles)

Then after some chores and some work, and at 3:00 pm, Ryan and I sat on the couch for 6 hours to get caught up on Olympic track and field 😂😂

Saturday, it was rainy in the morning so I waited to get out for a walk until after the rain stopped, by which time it had turned toasty and very heavy. Thankfully I was only walking! Still got quite sweaty. Then Sam and I did her swim circuit when I got back. (3.09 miles walked)

Then it was back to the fair for Sam!

Sunday, I headed out for another run/walk, this time with 6 x 0.6 mile run/0.1 mile walk before we headed to Bradbury to volunteer at the Breaker. It's nice to be able to move a bit faster again, but still trying to be pretty conservative. (4.3 miles)

And while we were at Bradbury helping at the finish line, cheering on runners and catching up with friends, Sam joined Lauren and family at Sebago Lake for a beach day! 🌞

Beach to Mountains

Started off the week with a misty late afternoon walk around the school block with Ryan and Sam before dinner. (2.0 miles walked)

Tuesday was a solo walk after getting home from work. Muggy. (2.6 miles walked)

Wednesday, I got out early for a run/walk across the street. Mostly walking but 10 sets of 0.1 mile run mixed in. Being very conservative here... (3.0 miles run)

Took the day off on Thursday and started out with a walk on the powerlines and up and over Mt. A. Very humid. And should have brought a bag or container - so many blackberries! (2.4 miles walked)

Then it was off to get some of my errands done and onto a massage with Lauren. It was great to catch up with her and hopefully the massage loosens things up too. Ryan headed over to New Hampshire late in the afternoon and Sam and I headed to Smitty's to watch Despicable Me 4 and then came home and supermarket sushi for dinner 😊 The movie was cute and it is always fun to have some time with the kiddo 💗

Friday morning, I headed across the street for another run/walk. This time more running than walking. Leg feels decent, a bit of tightness but no pain. Fingers crossed. Humid. (3.1 miles)

After a quick trip to the farmer's market, it was off to the vet with the cats. Gigi was most displeased 😹

Then we picked up Kylee and headed to the beach! First beach trip of the season, and always nice to get up to Reid. We walked up to the tidal river, where the girls got into the water and floated with the currents out to the open ocean. I stuck to the water's edge 😉 Beautiful afternoon for a few hours on the sand and along the water, and a nice breeze to keep the bugs away. (1.3 miles walked)

Sam had a sleepover at Kylee's after our afternoon at the beach, and Ryan got home late, so the house was quiet on Saturday morning. I got out midmorning for a walk up and over Mt A. Insanely humid, and so many delicious blackberries. (2.9 miles walked)

Although the weather was looking a bit unsettled, we got ourselves ready to head out for a hike on Sunday morning. I had chosen Burnt Meadow Mountain over in Brownfield as we had not hiked it before, it looked like a nice loop and it wasn't too long of a hike for what was really our first true hike of the season. It was raining on and off when I woke up but the radar was showing things clearing late morning, so we set out around 8:00 after a stop at Dunkin for breakfast for Sam. Of course, once we hit the highway, it started to pour like crazy, and there was just an insane amount of water on the road, with driving being less than ideal, and then we had to stop because the low tire pressure light came on, so that was fun 😜 Ryan was not pleased with me 😬 

Rain stopped by the time we got to the trailhead but it was insanely gooey and humid without a lot of air movement. I enjoyed myself but the other two were not having as much fun. 🤷‍♀️ Lots of mushrooms, multiple baby toads and a lot of bear poop. Only a few blueberries still on the bushes, but I think it would have been good picking earlier. I thought it was a nice rugged little loop, and it was good to get out in the woods for a few hours. Even better, the butt/hamstring was not an issue. Hurray. (3.7 mile walked)

Luna moth caterpillar - very neon green!

Very large centipede!

How they really felt about me dragging them out on this hike 😂😂

And since July is now done, here's the wrap-up for the month:

July:
8.5 run miles (AIE!)
59.25 walk miles
0.0 XC miles

YTD:
900.00 run miles
160.99 walk miles
0.0 XC miles