Monday morning, I got up and out right after sunrise to get in a run before the birthday celebrations began. It was a soggy, heavy morning. Ran out in the Cathance and saw two deer, five turkey and six mallards. Breaking in a new pair of Nike Wildhorse 3s in prep for Pinhoti. I have really come to like these shoes, but this third pair is no different from the first or second in that I've found they don't instantly feel good; they seem to need a more intensive breaking-in period than the Inov-8 Ultra 290s. More runs will be needed over the next few weeks to get these ready to wear. (8.1 miles)
Tuesday morning dawned muggy, heavy and foggy. 6x up and down both Suicide and Chicken Hill for a total of 12 repeats on wet pavement in the dark. Not as fast as last week's workout but got it done. (7.1 miles)
Mom joined me up at the Y in the afternoon to watch Sam's swim team practice, and then she and Sam had dinner out while Ryan and I had the chance to enjoy an anniversary date night to Frontier. Delish as always and good to have an evening out with Ryan :)
Wednesday was Sam's last midweek XC meet of the fall season down in Falmouth. A gorgeous fall day to run through the fields, and super proud of her strength and focus during this race!
Game face :)
Striding along!
Thursday morning truly felt like a fall morning. Gone was the muggy heaviness of earlier this week, replaced by crisp cool (maybe even cold!) air. Ahhh.... I even wore tights and gloves! Started at 5:04 am and ran the cart paths forwards and backwards, a really nice option for early morning darkness, as there is less to trip over, and it's easier to just glide along. ;) 8 of the 10 miles were done in the dark. But the stars were beautiful overhead and Venus was in view too, which is very cool. Felt decent and was able to keep up a fairly peppy pace given the darkness. (10.0 miles)
A little light at the end of a dark run
Friday morning, I met up with Emily at Bradbury. She had messaged asking if I was planning to run long today as she had the day off, so yay, fun company for the run! I was a bit nervous as she is young and fit, and I am, well, like 15 years old than her and not as speedy ;) but it was a great run and we had a good time chatting the miles away. I may have chatted a bit too much though, as I was not good about taking in fuel, but it's all good.
It was a very cold start, like 36 degrees cold, but a beautiful morning, sunny and bright, and the trails were strewn with brightly colored fallen leaves. We ran the east side BBU course section then headed up to the summit and out onto the Connector. Emily hadn't run the Wiggles before, so we took that route down to Lawrence Road and then at the top of the field, turned left to explore the new trail that's been blazed out through the woods along Chandler Brook and out to Elmwood Road. It was fun to run a new stretch of trail but it definitely needs some more foot traffic as it was a bit hard to follow in spots and very lightly traveled so far. We ran down the road a short ways and hooked up with the powerlines back to the Connector to return to the park.
Back to the lot with only 15+ miles on my watch so it was back to the east side for a meander. We ran into Val and Mindy and Evan marking the BBU course for Sunday's race, and managed to finish up with 20 miles showing on my watch at least! Although Emily's company had made the miles fly by, I could tell my legs were tired and I would have been more than happy to stop, but instead, I topped my pack off with a bit more water and headed out to run to the summit and back for 2 more miles. I was content with 22 solid miles and happy to have had Emily's cheerful company out there!
I stopped into Edna & Lucy's for a cup of soup and hung out with Mindy, Val and Evan for a few minutes before heading off to get my flu shot, do the end-of-the-week Target and grocery shopping run, get groceries put away, dishwasher emptied and laundry started before I rushed off to get Sam at school so she could get her flu shot! We decided that the shots called for a stop at Gelato Fiasco for some pumpkin pie gelato to soothe the arm pain before we headed home :)
Ice cream makes everything better ;)
(And don't mind my hair - I didn't have time to shower before heading to pick up! 😁 😂)
Saturday morning, I slept in as much as the cats would allow, got myself ready and headed out around 7:20 into the sun on the powerlines. Much warmer this morning and humid again. Weird weather, for sure... I was happy to find that my legs felt pretty decent and fairly strong, although overall, I most certainly felt fatigued. I kept the pace mellow and meandered along the powerlines, enjoying the smell of the hay scented ferns and the red berries on the winterberry bushes brightening the now browning brush along the trailside. After the powerlines loop, I returned to the high school and then headed up and over Mt. A. to head out into the Cathance for the second half of my miles.
River reflections
Red and green
The trails were littered with fall leaves and although the river is extremely low right now, it is still incredibly scenic out in the woods. These miles were a bit slower but I just kept chugging along. Added on an extra loop on the roads along Canam to round out the miles before heading home. A good long training weekend done and another 60+ mile week in the books. Now, bring on the taper! (15.0 miles)
After a bit of relaxation and a quick clean of the house since it was neglected yesterday, we headed down to Twin Brook for the Coastal Running League championship meet, the last XC meet of the season for Sam.
Down the field
Home stretch!
A beautiful, warm afternoon for the last meet of the season and Sam did great, running very focused! Very proud of her for running strong all season long!
After the meet we headed out to Toots for an ice cream and some time at the farm, wandering around looking at the animals and feeding grass to the goats! A fun way to celebrate a good XC season :)
Feeding the goats
Today is a no running day but we'll be heading over to Bradbury shortly to volunteer at Ryan's aid station at the BBU and to cheer everyone out running the races today!
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