Wednesday morning, I met up with Amy G. again at her place. We ran out through the Oak Ridge development into Topsham Heights and saw Bill in the semi-darkness heading out of his place. He seemed surprised by the cheery hellos, so I called out that it was us, just in case he thought there would be two other ladies out running in the darkness through the neighborhood. 😉 We looped up through the Highlands and back on the connector path - nice to have it ice-free! - so that I could show her a few different places to run around town. Seemed like we were able to turn off our headlamps a lot earlier this week! Hurray for early morning light! Fun to catch up with Amy again! (8.0 miles)
When Sam and I got home after school/work, we went out for a short loop around the neighborhood. (0.6 miles walked)
No running yesterday but we did have our first DQ cones of the season! We've been patiently waiting for them to open and when I went to pick her up at daycare, I noticed a line out front. Now it's really spring!
I had 24 miles on tap for Friday. I was hoping not to have to run roads but knew trails around here wouldn't be in good enough condition yet. Sigh. I had seen a few posts from down south that had me wondering if I'd be able to find some dirt at Bradley Palmer. I put out a query on Facebook to the TARC page and one of the ladies was kind enough to do a bit of recon on Wednesday, giving me enough hope for decent conditions that I decided it would be worth the drive on Friday morning. I got up and out early, hitting the road around 5:40 am in the overcast darkness. I just hoped the forecasted showers wouldn't appear! Yes, I know it can rain on race day, but I do my fair share of running in adverse conditions and therefore feel no need to suffer needlessly through my long runs. I prefer to enjoy my long runs if at all possible, which for me in part means decent weather!
I headed out around 7:40 am under moody skies with temps in the low 40s. My plan was to run a few GAC loops combined with some loops up and over Blueberry and Moon hills. This would break up the run nicely and give me some hillwork too. I headed out on the GAC loop, finding a big blowdown and a few large slicks of ice in the first 1.5 miles. I also realized I was overdressed, so before I headed up the hill out onto the rest of the loop, I stopped briefly back at the car, took off my long sleeve shirt and put my sleeves on instead. Ah, that was better! The rest of the loop was clear of ice except down in the hollow near the start of the uphill singletrack, with a bit of ice going uphill there too, but not too bad. The ground was a mix of firm dirt, mud, a few puddles and some good stretches of that early season uneven, hoar-frosty, squishy ground that keep you on your toes wondering if you're going to sink in or not. It wasn't really looking spring-like yet, still brown and greys dominating the landscape but there were some skunk cabbage shooting up along the boggy, swampy edges!!
Back at the car at 6 miles, I headed up into the interior of the park, winding up the edge of Blueberry Hill, shooting back down to the road along the field and then back up again to Moon Hill. I love it up there. A big wide open field surrounded by trees, and this morning with a gorgeous light.
Moon Hill
I ran down the steep hill on the other side, which would have been great for some fast downhill work, except for the large and slick ice patches and the big blowdown ;) Ah well. At the bottom, I turned around and retraced my steps up over Moon Hill, down and then up Blueberry and back to the parking lot. My watch read 11.2 miles so I stopped at the car to refill my pack with water and gels, take off my gloves, pick up my earbuds to listen to a few podcasts for the second half of the run and let Ryan know how I was faring. Then it was off again for another GAC loop. The ice patches were a bit slicker this time around as temps warmed up, but otherwise all was good. I added on a short out and back at the back of the loop just to check out the bog/swamp areas a bit further and see if there was anything greening out that way, but to no avail. Lots of birds flitting about though, including a nice Hairy Woodpecker! And more skunk cabbage!
Back to the car and then back up and over Blueberry and Moon and back down again. My watch read 19.5 once I hit the path heading out onto the main portion of the GAC loop, so I knew doing that part of the loop would make it a perfect 24, and it did! Boom. Done. Felt pretty solid throughout and it was so lovely to run on dirt! I was one happy runner! (24.0 miles)
Ate my sandwich and chips and fruit in the car and was still hungry, so stopped in Portsmouth at the Cold Stone there, as I had a gift card with a few bucks on it. Of course, their machine was down so I couldn't use it, but oh well :) I got a big ice cream anyway!
Got home a little before 3:00 pm, vacuumed the house, did a few loads of laundry, emptied the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen and then sped off to pick Sam up at daycare. She had been on a nature walk during the day at school and been outside for recess, but it was too nice to go straight inside so we did a short walk around the block. Good to loosen up the legs after the run and all the drive time too. And of course, always good to walk and talk with Sam. (0.4 miles walked)
I'm tired now ;)
2 comments:
Such a productive and inventive Friday! Congrats of finding mostly dirt!
Ann
Very smart to head south for dirt! It's nice that you are that familiar with the trails down there! I agree, no need to suffer if you don't have too ;)
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