Sunday, February 21, 2016

Making Lemonade

Somehow, I managed to squeeze 50.5 miles out of this week. I suppose running one extra long run - Monday's 13 miler with Ryan - will do that! Of course, last week I only managed 27. But if you take the last four days of last week and add in Monday's run with Ryan, I ran 40 miles over those 5 consecutive days. That leaves 37 miles this week, run over the past four days. So whatever way you split it, decent mileage for me, especially at this time of year.

Honestly, prior to last year I would never have thought I could pull a 50 mile week off *a little bit out of nowhere* without it being a big deal, mentally if nothing else. But if last year taught me nothing else, it's that my body can handle a lot more than I ever would have imagined. I'm not saying all my runs this week were perfect or that I felt awesome for each and every mile but overall, I felt solid, I got in some good hills, ran some fast-ish miles during my 16 miler, and today's 4 miles around the Heath, while bit creaky initially, were decent considering the variable spring-like conditions and my legs really didn't feel especially heavy or tired. I never intended to run 50 miles this week but hey, sometimes you just take what you can get (or what you make of it) :)

And in the same vein, when life gives you lemons (or no snow and a 48 degree day in late February), you make yourself some lemonade and enjoy it (or in our case, head out for a hike down to the ocean)!

Our destination was Wolfe's Neck. Apparently, many others had the same idea as we ran into a lot of people out there, but it never felt crowded. The trails were a bit icy to start, but some careful footwork was all that was needed. We wound our way out through the woods, and even got in a bit of running, at Sam's request, on the bare, dry stretches. It seemed to be an extremely low tide, and with no wind and some lovely late afternoon light, we enjoyed checking out the water's edge, and trekking far along the shoreline, farther than I think we've ever been able to explore before. We saw two pairs of loons out in the still waters, found clams and mussels and oysters living in the mud flats, and saw many large, beautiful scallop shells along with many horseshoe crab exoskeleton pieces (no whole ones, Amy, sorry!).

A lovely way to spend 2 miles and 2 hours (probably only a little more than 1 hour spent actually hiking) :) And a good a way as any to enjoy this wacky weather we've been having!

Headed out

Bog bridges

Leading the way

So little snow...

Little kid, big rock

Goofy girl

Stomping in the mud

Squish

Oops! ;)

Beautiful light

Big scallop shell

Humming to the periwinkles along the shore

Late afternoon light, low tide

Along the shoreline

Winter light

Clam shell!

Hummmm....

Looking for treasures

Shoreline exploration



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