Tapering

This cycle I've cut my taper to two weeks. Hopefully it will be enough to let my legs rest without making me feel too crazed from not running! 😆😁 I'm starting to get nervous for JFK. I feel like I've had a good round of training for the most part leading up to this race, but it is such a different animal than the typical trail ultras I've run! There's a few miles of road at the start, then 13 miles on the AT, then 26 miles on the flat C&O canal path, followed up by a final 8 mile road stretch to the finish. I know the start will be fairly slow due to the more technical terrain and the fact that it's a large race, and I'm fine with that. It's the canal path that is scaring me the most, and I just hope I can stay strong enough to run that whole stretch and still have legs for the final miles. I guess we'll find out!

Monday was a day off and then Tuesday morning, I headed out into the dark and rainy morning.... again... Man, it has been a stretch of dreary, rainy weather around here, whew! Ran the cart paths, minus holes 1 & 2. Lots of puddles to run through and five deer seen in the misty pre-dawn light. (5.1 miles)

Tuesday, I woke to clear skies and it was so lovely! Still dark when I headed out to run but with a lovely glow on the horizon. Ran the Highland Green road loop with 10x 60 seconds on/90 seconds off thrown into the middle three miles, just to get the legs moving. (5.0 miles)

Friday, Mindy and Val came here to meet up with me for a run out on the Cathance trails. It was great to catch up with them and nice to have a chance to share my home trails with them! We started out under bright, sunny, blue skies and enjoyed running along the river, stopping to marvel at the flowing water a few times. Water levels have dropped a fair amount since Sam and my walk out there on Sunday, but there is still a lot of water flowing right now! On the way back, Val decided to get further out into the Heath for a better photo of the cotton sedge. She didn't fall in, but she didn't quite stay dry 😉 It is definitely a true bog out there! 😂 (6.7 miles)

Quarry view (photo by Val)

The perfect little mushroom (photo by Val)

Out atop the bog grass 

We followed up the run with a delicious lunch at Union Street Cafe. Yum! What a fun morning spent with friends! Thanks guys!

I woke to the pitter patter of rain on Saturday morning and went downstairs early to have coffee and relax a bit in the hopes that skies would clear a bit before I headed out. Bah. I ended up deciding that the best course of action was to head out around 9:00 am and run up the YMCA to meet up with Ryan and Sam there for the first swim meet of the season. Thankfully Ryan was on board with the plan, and doing a point to point would keep things interesting. It was still cold and dreary, emphasized by the fact that no one was on the bike path other than me 😉, but at least the rain had stopped... at least until mile 6, at which time it started to rain again and the wind picked up. 😣😬 Ah well. Guess that's what I get for trying to outwit the weather! 😆 In any event, despite the overcast skies and rain later in the run, there were still a few hints of color out there and the legs felt pretty snappy, so all was not lost. (10.0 miles)

I warmed up at the Y with a cup of coffee and we spent the next 3 1/2 hours watching Sam's swim meet. Most definitely pay back for making our parents sit through endless track meets! 😂😂 I do love that Sam loves swim so much and is so comfortable out there on the swim deck with her teammates! It is fun to watch 😃 On the actual swimming front, while we don't have official results yet, she had three strong events, which is always nice!

Spent the day watching that pink swim cap 😍

This morning, Emma came up to join me for a run. It was only 31 degrees and after yesterday's rain, there was a lot of ice out there, but it was a glorious sunshiney crisp morning! We ran the cart paths, catching up and chatting away the miles. Always good to run with Emma, and a great way to cap off the week! (6.0 miles)