Summertime!: Week #6

A sunny, warm, humid week complete with some good summer fun! 

Monday: Already 72 degrees at 5:25 am! Whew! Heavy, hot and humid. Ran the cart paths and enjoyed the pretty sky. Sunrise is definitely getting noticeably later... (6.0 miles)

Long day working at the kitchen table, but enjoyed seeing this little guy out back! He's not much bigger than the squirrels! 😍 First time he's come around, although we've seen both mom and dad groundhog regularly this spring and summer. 

Too hot for an afternoon walk, so just kept working instead 😁😁

Tuesday: Another warm day but Sam agreed to an afternoon walk provided we went to Dairy Queen 😉 Always good to get out to walk and talk with the kiddo! (2.0 miles walked)

Wednesday: Up and out early. Drove Ryan's car over to the dealership for oil change and inspection and started from there. Really lovely sky with some nice pastel colors on the horizon. Ran the powerlines out to the Gone Fishing trails. Stopped for a few handfuls of blueberries and raspberries and to watch a doe and her three fawn dance by. Still humid but much cooler, which was nice. (7.3 miles)

Saw both a baby downy woodpecker on the suet feeder and a baby fox out back today 😍 Such fun!

Sam and I headed out around 4:00 pm for a walk on the roads around the school loop while Ryan got in his run. Overcast and comfortable. (2.0 miles walked)

Thursday: Meh. Didn't run in the morning and just felt off all day. But Sam and I did get out for a lovely afternoon walk. We found the trifecta of berries out there! Blueberries, raspberries, and the first blackberries of the season. Yum! (2.0 miles walked)

Friday: Up early and out on the roads run around town. Cooler and overcast but muggy. Improved my CR on the Brookside/Homeplace segment and improved my time on the Highlands bike path segment, but gonna have to shave a fair amount of time to get that one 😉 Hey, I'll call the segment chasing silly but it is also acting as a bit of speedwork in a time of no structured training, so you know 😂 (7.0 miles)

Then it was off to the Reid State Park with Sam, where we met up with Anne and family. We decided to try Half Mile beach this time around, which was quite lovely, and definitely quieter than the main beach. Low tide was at 8:40 am and we arrived around 9:30, so we had a nice wide stretch of beach to enjoy. The water was still pretty darn cold, but the kids had fun! We walked twice to the other end of the beach to check out the river where the water from the lagoon and tidal flats drained and played around down there, as well as walked over the rocks to the other end of the main beach to see if it would be good for boogie boarding. Waves were too small, but it confirmed our choice of the smaller beach - the main beach was packed! By the time we left around 1:00, things were pretty busy though, regardless of beach. All told, a great morning with friends out in the sun and on the sand 😎😎

Saturday: The darn cat woke me up early but it was good to get out before it got too hot out there anyway. The early start didn't do anything for the humidity though! Whew! Soggy indeed 💦💦 So sweaty! Ran the cart paths out to hole 7, and included a loop around the Heath, before ducking into the woods and running the trails out to Head of Tides. The more open trails are getting rather overgrown, so a bit itch-inducing, but at least the deer flies seemed to be sleeping! Many mushrooms out in the woods, and some nice views en-route. 

Circled back via the road and then looped out onto the powerlines off Rt. 24 to the Lover's Lane loop plus a short section of mountain bike singletrack on the Gone Fishing system. Stopped a fair number of times for berry picking. So many berries! Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and even black raspberries out at Head of Tides. Can't beat that!! So good 😋 

Wore my new TMR shirt and it was quite comfy. Finished, as one would except, soaked and literally dripping in sweat. Felt a bit cooked by the time I finished, probably in part due not only to the weather but also the 4 hours in the sun at the beach on Friday. Ah, summer... (15.0 miles)

Black rasbperries out at Head of Tide

So many raspberries!

Blackberries are beginning to ripen. Going to be a good season for them! They are everywhere!

After lunch, we rallied to get up to Thorne Head for a short hike. It was warm, but it wasn't stifling and there was a bit of a breeze along the river at least. Always a good place for a walk. And we all tried out our new Goodr sunglasses 😎😍 - fun! (1.5 miles walked)

Lots of bullfrogs croaking

Kennebec view

Sunday: Tried to sleep in a bit and was partially successful. Got out around 7:45 and ran roads around town. Kind of a lazy cop-out for the morning but it was nice to just run along and not think much about it, and avoid the bugs too. Warm and muggy, but not bad in the shade and there was a bit of a breeze. (10.0 miles)

Another hot summer day on tap, so we're planning on laying low, playing some games, talking with the grandparents and doing a bit of prep for next week's camping trip!

Summertime!: Week #5

How the heck is it week 5 of summer already? Wow! CRAZY!

Monday: Busy day at work at the kitchen table and frankly neither Sam or I were feeling like getting outside in the late afternoon, so we gave in to our laziness and just stayed inside all day. Some days it is nice to have a true zero day, although I know physical activity is important! Sam did finish up her lego set of Hagrid's Hut. With a fireplace that lights up and everything. Fun!

Tuesday: Up and out early for a road run around town. Humid but not super warm, and I finished only feeling sweaty, not entirely soaked, so I will take it! 😉 Pretty morning light along the Androscoggin. (6.0 miles)

Rain started later in the morning and continued into the evening, so it was another no walking day.

Wednesday: Another early morning run, this time on the cart paths. A lot of excitement in six miles! One red eft, one snowshoe hare, bullfrogs croaking, wood lilies blooming, blueberries and raspberries to eat, and mushrooms galore! Cooler but still humid. (6.1 miles)

It was such a beautiful day that when we headed out for an afternoon walk - Sam's first time out of the house since Sunday afternoon and first time actually getting officially dressed in two days too 😂 - we decided to take advantage! We walked further down the powerlines to pick raspberries, stopping to eat the blueberries closer to home too of course, and admiring the wood lilies and the Swallowtails flitting about. So nice to be out and not sweating or too hot! And so many raspberries! A fun family walk. (3.5 miles walked)

Eastern Swallowtail on Wood Lily

So beautiful! 

Mom, stop taking pictures! 😝

Yum!

Thursday: Off for the day but up and out early to get in the run to get it done 😃 Fairly cool out, felt so nice! Can't resist the pull of berries and wood lilies at this time of year so set off down the powerlines. Dozens of wood lilies out in amongst the low bush blueberries and scrub towards the end of the powerlines, and some wonderfully sweet and ripe raspberries to eat too. Apparently I didn't eat enough of them on Wednesday afternoon's walk 😉 Legs felt a bit flat, but a beautiful morning to be out! (8.0 miles)

Came home and started in on tackling the to-do list: grocery shopping and Target runs, bringing recycling to the transfer station (which is finally back to accepting recycling - YAY!), getting a few books from the library (which is back open again!), doing laundry, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning up the kitchen and doing a quick clean of the house. Whew. With all of that done, Sam and I headed down to Harpswell for a bit of low tide exploration at Potts Point mid-afternoon. Couldn't have asked for a better day! There was a nice breeze, the sun was shining, temps were in the mid 60s down at the coast and we timed it perfectly and hit the point at low tide. Really lovely down there, and a fun meander along the rocks with the kiddo 💗 (1.5 miles walked)

💗

Love this kid! 💕

Friday: Five of the past six years, I've been headed to Vermont this Friday for the Vermont 100. I think all of us are thinking of the race this weekend. I've never run the race myself, but having crewed there 5 times, once for John, once for Amy and three times for Ryan, the atmosphere and nature of the race seeps into your being, and it holds a special place in my heart. 

But alas, like many things this year, VT was cancelled and will have to wait until 2021, and I think it will be even more meaningful to those running, crewing, and spectating when there is the chance to race and support and be together again. 

TMR put in a group order of Patagonia shirts back in the spring, and we had never gotten around to picking ours up from Val, so I messaged her to see if she wanted to meet up on Friday at Brad for a run and so that we could remove our bag of shirts from the back of her car. Looking back at my running log, I hadn't run at Brad since the middle of February, and hadn't run with another person since A Bad Idea at HVNC the first weekend of March. Crazy! 

I headed over a bit early to get in some additional miles, running up to the summit and meandering around on the mountain side for 4 miles before returning to the lot at 10:00 to pick up Val. As always, it is a joy to follow Val around on whatever route she choose, and it was great to have a chance to catch up in person! Thanks, Val! (10.1 miles)

High bush blueberries along the back of the Boundary Trail

I had done most of the chores on Thursday, so after lunch, I sat with Sam and read my book while she finished book #7 of the Harry Potter series. It's been fun watching her get so into the series that I have enjoyed so much myself! 😀 Once she was done, we headed across the street for a walk while Ryan got in his run. It was breezy and rather cool and we were both comfortable in our fleeces as we walked along. We did the school road loop, which yielded a very interesting find. I mean why wouldn't there be a taupe high heel along the roadside?! There has to be a good story there... (2.1 miles walked)

Saturday: Headed out early in an attempt to beat the predicted heat for the day. It was fairly cool but very muggy. Ran the cart paths and around the Heath before I set off down the powerlines to run out on the Riverside trails and then on some of the Gone Fishing mountain bike trails. So many raspberries, and I simply could not resist stopping multiple times to grab handfuls of berries. So good! Many mushrooms emerging after all the recent rains, wood lilies popping up in the midst of the greenery, and the summer wildflowers blooming. Nice morning to be out, and felt decent. Finished soaked 💦💦 (15.0 miles)

Ryan went out later in the morning and practically melted. Still, I wanted to get Sam out for a bit of exercise so I convinced them that we should head out for a short walk around 3:00 pm. We drove over to the end of the bike path along the Connector to cut off some road walking, and then connected up with the Highlands trail system. It really was quite toasty out, and we got fairly sweaty even though we were meandering along slowly. Ryan was not very pleased with me for dragging them out but I like this short little loop out in the woods, the trail meandering along the stream that snakes through the valley, and it's always good to get out for a walk together! 😁😑😀 (1.3 miles walked)

I think this is a variegated fritillary butterfly on the thistle. So pretty!

Sunday: We had originally planned to get in a longer day hike today, so I scheduled my runs for the week so that I wouldn't need to run this morning. But with the high temps predicted, we decided it probably wouldn't be the most pleasant day for that, and as such, I slept in, sat downstairs in the quiet drinking my coffee and had a rather lazy start to the day. Ahhh. I am not super good at relaxing, but sometimes it is quite nice 😂😂 

However, I will admit that a full day inside is not something I do well so I was kinda cranky mid-day... sorry, Ryan! I just really prefer to be doing something! And sitting around on a weekend day is just not right. Ugh. But it really was way too hot out. Hopefully this heat will abate a little bit at least, so that reasonable outside activities can resume without all of us melting!