This

I don't run because of the races. Sure, they're great motivators, but really, I run for the process. The experience. The journey. The time spent on trails with friends. The time alone in the woods. For mornings like this, complete with a brilliant sunrise, ice pancakes and animal tracks. Glorious. 💗 (5.4 miles)

A Little Bit of Everything

The past few days have featured a little bit of everything... 21 road miles on Friday, a good screwshoe run on the powerlines/snowmobile trail yesterday and a mixed bag Hillsounds trail run out in the Cathance this morning. It seems shoulder season has arrived early this year, but of course, as I type, snow is falling... crazy weather!

Friday morning I headed out around 7:00 am while Sam and Ryan were still asleep. I decided to do the same loop I had been attempting last Friday. It was a bit colder and windier, and admittedly, I felt a bit less peppy but nonetheless, the roads were in good shape and I was moving along fairly well. As with last week, I wasn't sure how I'd hold up in the final half of the run and although the hills along Meadow definitely made me work for it, I was able to keep things pretty steady pace-wise. Happy with the effort, and glad to get in a solid road run in right around 3 hours, but honestly, road running is rough - the pounding is real! 😏 My legs were most definitely tired when I finished and I managed to get a blister under my left pinkie toe.  I never get blisters!! 😁 In any event, a good way to kick off a Friday and good to have cracked 20 for the first time in this training cycle! Fauna-wise, I saw one bluebird out in the fields along Meadow Cross and two separate groups of 8 turkeys foraging in the fields on Meadow. Oh, and I most definitely ate the whole of this big, delicious cupcake after lunch 😀 (21.0 miles)

Yum! 

I got back in time to see Ryan and Sam off to the trampoline park for the morning. Sam had a blast jumping around and they finished up the excursion with lunch at Elevation Burger. A good excursion on the final day of winter vacation!

Jump!

Lost in the tubes, somewhere...

Bounce!

Whee!

Saturday morning, I got up and out for a creaky run around 7:30 am on the powerline/snowmobile trails out around the dump. The hail/sleet/little bit of snow that we got overnight made for a nice, tacky surface, perfect for screwshoe running. The rising mist and light were gorgeous, and with temps right around freezing, the trails were solid snow and ice, which actually made for some pretty decent running. Hadn't been out that way in a while and it was a nice change of pace. (8.0 miles)

Rising mist

Morning light

Through the trees

The afternoon was spent up at the Y for Sam's last regular season swim meet. Irene and Dana came up to watch too so she had a good cheering section, and she has most definitely improved since she started swim team back in the fall. It's been fun to see!

50 free

This morning, I got up and out around 7:30 am again for a run out in the Cathance. It was a full on mixed bag of conditions, from bare ground to large patches of ice, and packed snow to open water. Hillsounds were the weapon of choice and most definitely needed. The river was roaring and I even found a patch of ice pancakes mixed in with some foam - pancakes and syrup, anyone?! 😆 (7.0 miles)

Roaring river

Lots of ice and water

Along the river

Pancakes and syrup

The snow didn't start falling until around 10:00 am, right as Sam and I were picking up her friend Mazie to come back to the house for a playdate and shortly after Ryan headed out for his run. The snow started fast and furious, and hid some ice that he managed to hit and fall on. Ugh! 😔 That shortened his run up, but seems like he didn't do too much damage. This time of year, you just never know what the weather is going to throw at you! Which no doubt means it will be back to the 50s midweek this week 😂

Happy to finish up the week with a solid 47+ miles and extra happy that this coming week is a down week. I need it! 😀

Third Time's A Charm!

Third time's a charm! I finally got up with my 4:00 am alarm and out the door for a morning run today.

Tuesday, I turned off the alarm and fell back to sleep for another 1.5 hours. Oops! Guess I was tired!😆 So, the indoor track it was! Sam was swimming laps for her team's aquathon fundraiser so I had a bit more time, but there were so many people on the track that the requisite 65 laps was all I could muster. While I ran all those laps, Sam swam 50 laps! Wow! She is getting strong for sure 😃 (5.0 miles)

Yesterday, temperatures rose to an unseasonably high around 60 degrees, with a whole lot of melting going on, but again, I failed to get up with the alarm so I took the day as zero day #2 for the week, and just enjoyed a long walk around town doing work errands midday instead.

Finally, this morning, I got up and out! Temps had cooled overnight but it was still a few degrees above freezing. I knew I was going to be doing my long run on the roads tomorrow, so I decided to carry my Hillsounds and hope that I could get in a few trail miles. There was a lot of solid ice and some bare ground, but once out on the Cathance trails, things were actually pretty decent, as long as you didn't stray off the thin packed ribbon down the middle of the trails!

The sky had lightened as I came around the Heath for the second time, but with the overcast sky there was no spectacular sunrise this morning. Still, the soft light was quite lovely! Glad to have gotten out! (6.3 miles)

Vacation Day

A fun start to vacation week and a great day with the kiddo! 💗

Donuts, a short and windy oceanside walk at Wolfe's Neck State Park and a visit to the farm to visit the new lambs and calves. (0.6 miles walked)

Fun with Friends

This year's Mockingbird Lane Fat Ass started off with us waking up to 7+" of snow! Hadn't quite been expecting that! In fact, perhaps the plowing crew hadn't either, since they didn't arrive to plow out our area of the parking lot until right as we were starting to wonder if we'd even be able to get to Val and Linda's! Thankfully, we managed to arrive pretty much on time, and since everyone was dealing with the same snow, it was a bit of a late start anyway!

The snow had frosted all the trees and the sun had come out - it truly was an oh so beautiful morning! After all the runners took off, Sam and I donned our snowshoes and got out for a short jaunt on the course. We didn't get very far, as she's still tired out from having a bit of a cold earlier this week, but it is always fun to get outside with the kiddo 💗 (0.9 miles snowshoed)

Once we came inside, Sam spent most of the time sitting in Linda's massage chair 😂 and then later in the morning once Ryan and Ian had both gotten in their 3 loops, Emma and I got out for our own run. It worked out perfectly to do a 2nd shift together, as most people had stopped after two or three loops and only Jamie and John were out running while we were out there. Conditions were pretty much perfect on our first loop from all the traffic and it was fun catching up as we ran along. I had only planned on one loop as my thought process was for this to be a down week due to Friday's run interuptus but Emma didn't have to work too hard to convince me to do a second lap 😉 As I wasn't carrying a pack and didn't have any sort of fuel with me, I had a delicious no bake cookie and a few sips of water back at the house in between laps. Fueled by cookies! (2 before since it was lunchtime by the time we headed out; one between laps; and one at the finish) 😆🍪 

By the second lap, temps really had warmed up quite a bit and the trail was starting to get a bit soft and slushy, but overall, still pretty good conditions given the new snow and all our crazy winter weather so far! Always good to run with Emma and I was glad to feel good out there and feel like I could absorb some extra miles with no problem! (11.3 miles)

All in all, as always, a fun day with friends and a good way to celebrate Val and Linda's birthdays!