Wrapping Up January

Hard to believe it's the end of January. 

Stretched our legs with an afternoon walk on the powerlines on Monday. Warmer than Sunday but still quite windy so felt rather chilly. Still, good to get out on the trails together for a bit! (1.8 miles walked)

Tuesday, I had a board meeting at 5:00 so opted to go into work early and leave at 2:00 for a nice afternoon run to break up the day. Ran the cart paths, which were essentially clear. One porcupine seen, intently digging around in the grass. (6.0 miles)

Snow started later in the evening and I awoke Wednesday morning to a 2" coating on the ground. Donned my screwshoes and headed out just getting light. Ran out and back on Canam and Highland Green. Roads were a bit messy and legs felt a bit clunky but glad to have gotten a few miles in! (6.0 miles)

The more moderate temps headed out in the wake of the storm, and Friday morning at 8:00, it was a real feel of -6 with the wind. Brrr! Headed out once again in my screwshoes, but this time over at the parking lot by the dump to run the Gone Fishing mountain bike trails. I had anticipated they would be fairly tracked and packed, and was a bit disappointed to find there had been little traffic since the snow. Ah well, it was still fairly decent, if a bit slow. It might have been a bit warmer in the woods but still, chilly! (7.4 miles)

Did some of the typical Friday afternoon errands and then joined Ryan for a mid-afternoon walk around the school block. The wind was whipping and it was quite cold. You'd think I would have known better after having been out there in the morning 😂😂 (1.7 miles walked)

The cold temps did not abate all weekend, and Saturday was another sub-zero morning with feels like -4 temps when I headed out a little before 7:00 so that I could get back in time to take Sam to her xc ski lesson at 9:00. So once again, it was a lot of layers 😉 Stuck to the roads but it's hard to move quickly when it is so cold out. The pavement was mostly clear with the exception of the connector path which was covered with blown snow and some of the sidewalks which still had some good stretches of ice. (7.6 miles)

Despite the cold temps, the kids had a good time at their xc ski lesson, and when I came back from the farmer's market, pretty much all of them had shed their jackets😉😂 

I would have been up for a walk later in the day, but Sam was tired out so the rest of the day was spent relaxing and then Mom and Dad came over for dinner. Butternut squash and bacon soup with farmer's market bread was perfect for a cold January night!

Woke up to the thermometer reading -5 on Sunday morning and said no way so I went back to bed for a bit instead 😂 Temps were slow to rise so I monitored the situation from the couch, enjoying a bit of relaxation plus an extra cup of coffee and the triple berry hand pie I picked up at the farmer's market. Yum!

Finally, by 9:00, temps were above zero, so I suited up to head out the door. Still, honestly, I wasn't feeling it at all and may have been slightly cranky about it 😏

Ran across the street and donned my spikes. Not quite enough traffic from the high school to Rt. 24 for good conditions but things improved dramatically once I got down onto the "main" powerlines loop and out on the Gone Fishing trails. Plenty of traffic made for packed trails, and it was quite lovely in the bright sunshine. Pleasantly surprised to feel fairly decent too. Had the trails to myself. (10.3 miles)

Temps had warmed up into the low 20s by lunchtime - balmy! - so we headed down to Harpswell for a walk at Curtis Farm Preserve. We all wore our Hillsounds although we probably could have gotten away without them due to the thin snowcover in the woods and the packed trails. It was high tide, which offered some neat views at Basin and Curtis Cove. Although it was a bit chilly in the shadows, the sun was bright and felt nice and warm. A nice way to wrap up the weekend! (2.1 miles walked)

Wrapped up January with 170.1 miles run, 30.2 miles walked and 1.4 miles xc skiied. I'd guess those January run numbers are fairly low compared to the past few years when I've been gearing up for Frozen Yeti, but considering the fact that I've got nothing on the calendar until October and admit to having a bit of pandemic run fatigue, I'll take it. Onward and upward!