After a while spent playing outside, the girls spent a little extra time at Emma's house while I did some shoveling, house cleaning and a little bit of relaxing on the couch too :) All in all, a solid snow day!
The plan called me to get in my long run today, but I wasn't sure what I was going to find. I dropped Sam off in the morning, did the grocery shopping and did a little driving around to check out road conditions. The back roads around us were all very slushy and messy, the back portion of Highland Green Road had yet to be plowed and the sidewalks through town were just starting to get cleared, so I decided I should stick with what Ryan and I had discussed the night before, which was laps on the bike path. It wasn't a fun sounding option but it would be a safe one.
I downloaded a few podcasts, packed up my vest, wore my trail shoes in case of slushy, slippery conditions and headed out into the sunshine from the bike path lot around 9:30 am. Right off the bat I didn't feel that peppy, it was windy, the traffic noise along Rt. 1 was loud even with my headphones in, and I knew by the time I got to the Old Brunswick/Bath Road end on that very first "out," that there was no way I was going to get through 8 x 2.5 mile laps on the path. Blerg. But I had the time and I needed to get in the miles due to the rest of the weekend's plans, so I decided I would venture out onto the road and see how things were, knowing if I could extend the out and backs a bit, it would make them more palatable and I'd have to do less repeats.
I was grateful to find that the shoulders on the road were pretty well cleared of snow and slush, so I continued on figuring I'd turn around at 3.5 miles. But when I got a little further out, the traffic thinned, the shoulders were still clear and on a whim, I just decided to keep going. I had never run far out on this road but knew Ryan had done so on some of his runs up to the Y from home, so I figured I would at least get to the spot where the road crossed the New Meadows River and take in the view before turning around.
It's rather unlike me to just enjoy a run where I don't have a fairly set plan of where I'm going. Usually my mind appreciates the heads-up on a route but today, with the Sally McRae Ginger Runner Live podcast playing in my ears, the sun shining, the traffic lessened as I got further out of town, I was just enjoying the journey. I took a photo at the river and sent it to Ryan to let him know I had altered my plans. Pretty spot.
New Meadows River view
Then I just kept running. After the river, the route got a bit more rolling and I was enjoying myself. I turned onto Ridge Road then onto Whiskeag Road, following the Bath golf course and crossing the Whiskeag River. It was a different view than can be seen along the Whiskeag Trail, and so lovely with all the ice chunks and the billowing clouds.
The Whiskeag
I got to a crossroads that I recognized from the 4 mile loop I've done a few times from the Y during swim practice and decided I'd continue on up to High Street. At this point I was getting close to 9 miles and also had to pee. I figured I'd run up to the Thorne Head parking lot and be able to sneak off into the woods there. So hard to pee on a road run especially one with lots of houses and traffic!
Of course, when I got to the lot, there was someone sitting in their truck, and another car pulled in right behind me. Hmmm. I noticed it looked like there had been a fair amount of traffic up the main trail to the overlook so decided I would meander up and just jump off into the woods to pee before turning around. But the trail was packed enough that I decided I would take it to the top and take in the view too! The trees were snow-covered and the snow beneath my feet was nice and tacky, and the view was gorgeous. Such a nice little out-and-back 1mile trail venture! And I got to pee too 😂😂
Thorne Head vista
Beautiful snow-covered woods
Tacky snow and footprints
Turns out, the vista was exactly 10 miles into my run, so all I had to do was retrace my steps, and voila! 20 miles! Totally unplanned route and not what I was intending for the day but it worked out well and was a fairly fun run. I listened to 3 podcasts to keep my mind occupied, and even though my stomach was feeling a bit wonky on the return trip and the legs didn't have a ton of pep, it was a solid run and I'm so glad to have gotten the miles in! (20.0 miles)
So far this training cycle, all of my long runs have been on the roads, which is rather unusual. It just hasn't been a great winter for long trail runs, or at least not on the days I've been trying to accomplish my miles. I don't quite know what this will mean overall for my Laurel training but I know the faster paced mileage probably isn't a bad thing, even though it leaves me with a little less time on my feet. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes, and I know I'll have a few months on trails once all this snow has melted to get in some long trail runs at least!
Looking forward to finishing off the week with a few mellow miles tomorrow and then some fun snowy miles up at Hidden Valley on Sunday!
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