Reality & Chaos

It was back to reality on Monday for all of us with school and work as usual. It's always hard to settle back in after a break. Work is especially busy right now with end of the year donations and reporting, so it's been a bit nuts. Of course, then there is also the larger chaos. Nothing like working all day and then finally checking social media after 8 hours on a Tuesday and finding out a bunch of domestic terrorists spurred on by the current president stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to keep the government from ratifying Biden as incoming president. D*mn, what the hell is wrong with some people? On top of that, Covid cases and deaths are rising. Seriously, it's enough to drive a person batty, and feel rather depressed about the world we live in. I know there is hope out there - a new president who actually is capable of empathy and has the greater good in mind will be in place within two weeks, we have multiple friends on the fronts lines who have received their Covid vaccine, there are still good people and beauty to be found out in the world. But still. Whew. Sometimes it is a bit too heavy. 

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Sam and I got out for a midday walk after lunch on Monday around the school block. Always good to walk and talk with the kiddo 💗 (1.7 miles walked)

Tuesday, I was back to my old habits of not getting up to run 😂😁 but on Wednesday, I did manage to get up and out for a run on the powerlines in the pre-dawn darkness. Conditions were decidedly meh, with not enough traffic to pack things down and very uneven. Felt a bit clunky, but good to get out after two days of not running. (6.7 miles)

Sun rising as I headed home

Sam and I got in another lunchtime walk on Wednesday, a good break from the computer screen and nice to enjoy a bit of time together outside. (1.7 miles walked)

Was awake from 1:00 to 3:00 on Thursday morning and opted for an additional hour of sleep instead of getting up to run. But there are goals to work towards and I didn't want to squander the day entirely, so headed out around 3:00 for an afternoon run once I was done with work for the day. I knew the roads would be much busier at that time of day so even though conditions hadn't been great the day prior I headed back out on the powerlines. Was pleasantly surprised to find things much more packed down. Ran a bit of random mix of trails and roads which entailed taking the Hillsounds on and off a few times, but it was a nice meander and I was glad to get out. (7.0 miles)

                                    

Friday morning, I headed over to Bradbury for a run after dropping Sam at school. The fat tire bikers had been out in force on the singletrack and had packed things quite nicely. Of course, since snow cover is thin there were still plenty of hazards and a fair amount of ice, but pretty nice. Had the trails all to myself. Tired, but a lovely wander in the woods to start the day. (6.0 miles)

Saturday, I got up and out early so that I could get back in time to take Sam to her xc ski lesson. In the very loose training plan that I've laid out, I marked a day a week either speed or hills, which I totally slacked on in 2020. So as I was going to do a road loop anyway, I figured I would put on my big girl pants and actually do the speed day that I had planned 😉😂 The path along the connector was icy, but the rest of the route was totally fine, and after about 2 miles I turned on the interval timer on the watch and did 10 x 60 on/90 off in the middle 3-ish miles. Gotta start somewhere! Bright, cool and calm. Saw an eagle in the same evergreen tree as last week on this loop. (7.0 miles)

The ski lessons seemed to go great. It was so fun to see Nate, and Sam, Anne and Thistle all had fun. I went to pick up some greens and goodies at the farmer's market but got back in time to watch the final 15 minutes of the lesson and the kids were racing around playing games on their skis and everyone was all smiles at the end. Perfect! It's a bummer for Nate that he has the time to do these lessons, as he should be on the carnival circuit with the Bowdoin team, but we are grateful for the chance to get Sam out there with other kids and with him as coach! Such a great opportunity!

Sunday morning, I headed out onto the powerlines again. Cold and bright. Moderately decent conditions although man, those icy ruts in the Gone Fishing trails are pretty nasty. Still, good to get out on the trails. (10.3 miles)

We headed over to Mom and Dad's around 2:00 for a walk on the trail in the stretch of woods behind their community. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sun was bright and it was fun to explore a bit. The trail was obviously used by their neighbors as it was fairly well packed, and marked occasionally with fake flowers too 😆 There were tons of animal tracks as well. Mom and Sam headed back after we had done the out and back of 1.2ish miles, while Ryan, Dad and I took the one untracked old road that appeared to head down to the river just to check out where it ended up. It was a short and steep descent down to the railroad tracks, with a neat small but deep quarry and some interesting rocks en route. There was no trail on the other side of the tracks but it was just a short ways down to the edge of the Androscoggin so we bushwacked our way down to the shore. Small pieces of ice had gathered in a little eddy, and with the wind pushing them against each other, they were making a neat twinkling sound. Cool. Always fun to see what you can find out there! (1.5 miles walked)

Trail marking

Edge of the Androscoggin

And just for fun, a few kitty photos for the week 💗

Such a comfortable sleeping position 😹

Aw, and aren't they cute 😻