Not Quite Spring

April is so wishy-washy. Kind of warm, kind of not. Kind of green, kind of not. We want SPRING but it's more like a whisper of spring. 

Tuesday, April 14. Got out for a 7:00 am run on the cart paths. Felt, smelled and sounded like spring out there. Damp and warm with that earthy smell, and peepers peeping in the Heath and birdsong everywhere. Also - Hole #8 just keeps turning up deer parts 🤷‍♀️ (6.0 miles)

Wednesday, I got out for around 10:00 for a quick walk to clear my head between budget work and heading into the office for afternoon meetings 🤪 (2.1 miles walked)

Thursday was a 3:00 pm run down to the river and back. Muggy and damp. River is roaring. Three deer, a lot of trailing arbutus buds but no more blooms, and one smaller than my hand turtle moved off the dirt. So cute! (6.0 miles)

Friday, I got work and errands done first in an attempt to wait out the dreary dampness of the morning  and headed out at 4:00 for a loop on the powerlines in the bright sunshine and mid-60 degree temps! Toasty!! Colts foot, skunk cabbage, trailing arbutus, one frog, and a few mourning cloak butterflies. (7.0 miles)

Saturday was nice if breezy. Headed out at 1:00 for a run on the powerlines out to Gone Fishing and then back along the bottom of the Heath. Three white breasted nuthatches, one downy woodpecker, and one turkey vulture seen. Lots of colts foot and more trailing arbutus in bloom. (10.4 miles)

Sunday was rain all day. Headed out around 10:30 for a random wander. Ran over to Bowdoin and back around on the roads. So many puddles. So very wet. (10.66 miles)

Really should have run on Monday, as it was a day off from work but I actually had budget work to get done and Sam wasn't feeling great and instead of spent too much time at the computer and never got out. So much for enjoying a day off! 😜

Tuesday, I headed out at 4:15 after being in the office for the day and looped up to the bottom of the Heath on the roads. Windy, bright and cool. (6.2miles)

We headed down to Boston on Wednesday around 10:00 for a few days of college touring, and after getting a few things done in the early morning, I headed around 7:45 to get in a few miles before we took off. Ran the cart paths and Heath. Cold and breezy. One turkey, one redtail hawk, and some cool salamander and frog eggs in the vernal pool. (7.0 miles)

First stop was a 1:30 tour at Tufts. It was cold, damp and drizzling. Definitely not ideal touring weather. Brr. But campus was quite pretty with all the flowering trees in bloom. We did the offficial tour and then wandered down to the pool for a bit of extra wandering. (1.5 miles walked)

After the tour we headed to the hotel to relax a bit and then found a post for dinner in Waltham where we had some delicious pizza, pasta and cannolis. Yum!

Thursday we headed to Babson first where we sat through the info session and a little bit of the tour before bailing. Beautiful campus and would be amazing if one was truly focused on business, but it was not for Sam. We got coffee and then headed to Brandeis for tour #2 for the day, where we wandered down to the pool before heading back into town for lunch. (0.75 miles walked) I then promptly forgot to start my watch for the official tour, but I'm guessing we walked around 1.5 miles. It was a big campus, with the original older buildings mixed in with some newer more modern spaces. Lots was happening around campus, they had some good programs that were of interest to Sam, and we all really liked it there. Dinner Thursday was a fun American-pub-style restaurant in Waltham.

Friday morning, I got up and out of the hotel around 6:15 for a run in Prospect Hill Park, which was only about a half mile from the hotel. Nice cool bright morning. Fun to be able to hit some trails! Nice mix of carriage and singletrack with some steep pitches too. Lots of stopping to look at the watch. Cool view of Boston from the top. Finished out the run with some loops around the interconnected parking lots near the hotel. (6.15 miles)

Then it was off to Riverside to get on the T into BU, which was our tour spot for the day. It was 0.5 miles from the T to the admissions office along the Charles. After the info session, our tour guide took us along Comm Ave and Bay State Street through the main campus area. After the official tour, we walked down to the west campus to check out the pool and then stopped at Chipotle for lunch (2.4 miles). I think Sam surprised herself by liking BU as much as she did, and while the Mom in me was a bit nervous about the true city-ness of the campus, it did truly seem to be that most of the people we saw walking around were students and while it was very different from a more traditional campus, it still had some good campus-y vibes. Also definitely had some programs that appealed to Sam and she was quite excited about the cadaver lab 😂

After lunch, we walked down to and along Newbury Street for some shopping. There were a ton of people out with it being a nice day and school vacation week, and Sam and I waited for 30 minutes to get into Brandy Melville. Yes, really! (2.6 miles)

From there, we took the T into the North End, where we had a yummy early dinner at Antico Forno after stopping at Mike's Pastries to pick up cannolis for dessert. 

I really meant to get up and run on Saturday, but I will admit to being fairly wiped out between the sleeping in a hotel room, late nights and all the pondering of Sam's future 😜 so I fell back to sleep when my alarm went off instead. The last tour of the trip was down to Stonehill. A much more traditional liberal arts campus, although quite large acreage-wise, and none of us came away feeling very excited about it. 

We stopped and met up with Irene and Dana for a late lunch at Off the Vine. It was nice to see them and to have a chance to catch up, but by the time we got home, I was toast! Still, it was a positive, productive trip and good to find two schools that really appealed to Sam. 

Sunday, did a bit of relaxing on the couch, got the grocery shopping done and bills paid, and then headed out after lunch for a run. Ran up to the bottom of the Heath and out on the Powerlines. Nice afternoon. Saw Ryan on hole #4 while he was golfing and I was running through. Phoebes flitting and eastern towhees calling. Skunk cabbage is up and many trailing arbutus in bloom. Felt good. (11.0 miles) 

Out Like A Lion, In Like a Lion

Oh yes, I am well aware it is supposed to be out like a lion, in like a lamb, but early April has been quite windy. Definitely still in the lion phase...

Tuesday, March 30, Ryan and I got out for a late afternoon walk around the school block. Damp and dreary. (2.6 miles walked)

Wednesday morning, I headed out around 6:20 am for a road/trail out and back through Topsham Crossing. Still damp. And so many worms on the pavement. They were everywhere 😬😩 Also one small patch of trailing arbutus budding! (6.0 miles)

Got out around 3:45 on Thursday for a run on the cart paths. Cool, overcast and windy, and the legs felt fairly sluggish - meh! But the trailing arbutus had opened 🌸 Also found the rest of the deer at the edge of the woods along hole #8 🤪😬 (6.0 miles)

Friday was a late afternoon run down to the river and back. Waited in the hopes of avoiding the rain. It was quite dreary with a bit of a fog/mist but not raining! Trails are very squishy. River is roaring. (7.0 miles)

Saturday, I had hoped the wind would die down and with that, got some work done and some stuff done around the house in the morning instead of heading right now. But alas, still windy when I headed out around 2:00 pm. Looped around town with a mix of road and trail. Trails surprisingly decent with only a bit of ice and a few mud sinkholes. With hazel blooming and heard first of the season peepers! 🐸 (11.0 miles)

Sunday was Easter. Had a quiet morning and then had a late breakfast of pancakes and bacon once Sam woke up, so it wasn't until the afternoon that I finally headed out for a run. Soggy out and definitely felt sluggish. Random road and trail wander. (10.0 miles)

This past Wednesday was another Topsham Crossing run, except in the late afternoon. Bright but a bit of a colder and stronger breeze than I’d prefer. Crocuses, one phoebe, one kestrel and one turkey vulture riding the air currents. (6.0 miles)

Thursday was a 3:45 pm run down to the river and back. So windy! Four deer seen and the river is roaring. (6.0 miles)

Got a bit of work done early on Friday then headed out around 9:45 for ar un on the powerlines. Nice out if breezy. Peepers, some colts foot blooming in the sun and a lot of skunk cabbage but otherwise not much of spring is showing yet. Trails have dried out finally after all the recent rains. (10.0 miles)

After a quick lunch, I headed out to get the errands done and then came home to pack for our quick trip down to CT for the weekend. We had a tour scheduled at Quinnipiac on Saturday at noon. With a lot of traffic on the road, we arrived around 8:00 at the hotel and got ourselves settled in. I woke up early and headed out for a run a little after 7:00 am on the roads from the hotel. It was seemingly quite rural right around the hotel except we were right off the highway. Very windy. More in bloom down here and a pretty reservoir to run by. (6.0 miles)

We had breakfast at the hotel and checked out, heading over to Quinnipiac a bit early to walk around. Very pretty setting, right at the edge of Sleeping Giant State Park, with a sprawling campus. The tour guide was very talkative and it seemed like they had some interesting program offerings. Definitely not an urban school and unfortuantely no pool, which is a bummer even if Sam isn't intending to swim competitively in college, but we all liked it there. Still, it was tour #1 of many as we head into that season, so we'll just have to see how it all plays out!

After our tour, we stopped in Hamden for a late but yummy lunch at a random poke place and then got on the road, getting home a bit before 7:00 pm. 

Sunday, I headed out early to get the grocery shopping done and pick up donuts, and then promptly sat on the couch to eat said donuts and read my book and did not get out to run as planned. Got some work done instead and then finally headed out around 2:00. Ran a mix of roads and trails. Underdressed. Why is it still so cool and windy?! (10.2 miles)

Hopefully spring will bring a bit of warmth and a bit less wind these next few weeks!

Here are the March stats:
151.62 miles run
9.33 miles walked
4.22 miles xc skiied
3x weights

YTD:
420.00 miles run
24.8 miles walked
4.22 miles xc skiied
10x weights