False Spring

March is a fickle month. This week featured both 50 degree weather a few days and a few days in the mid-20s with strong winds where it still most definitely felt like winter. You want to believe spring is coming, but it's not quite here yet...

Monday featured a late afternoon walk around the school block. Good to get out and into the fresh air and away from the computer. (1.7 miles walked)

Tuesday morning I ran the Highland Green loop, which involved a fair amount of tiptoeing around and across ice slicks. Not quite melted out yet! (6.0 miles)

On Wednesday, I simply did not get up and out to run. Tired. Sam was in school for the day and I was working at home, so while I didn't motivate for a mid-day run, I did get out for a nice solo walk before lunch, just to enjoy the warmer temps and the sunshine. Still a fair amount of ice and snow in the woods but the high route along the powerlines between home and Highland Green Road is clear. (2.0 miles)

Thursday, I did finally manage to get up and out in the murky pre-dawn light, chasing the sunrise as I ran down to the river. All paved surfaces were covered with a thin icy sheen of frost, but it was a nice morning to be out and the sunrise was truly lovely. (6.0 miles)

Sam was off on Friday for a teacher development day, so I headed out fairly early for a run on the roads around town. Nice, bright, blustery, mild morning. (8.0 miles)

Then after spending the rest of the morning crossing things off my to-do list, we headed out to Popham Beach after lunch with Mom and Dad for a walk. The tide was going out, the sun was shining, the wind was whipping and a lot of other people had the same idea as we did, but the beach is wide and big enough that everyone was able to have their own space. A lovely afternoon for a walk at the edge of the waves! (2.85 miles walked)

Found three sand dollars too!

Saw several of these small round jellyfish blobs, turns out they are sea gooseberries. Neat!

Love the designs the water makes in the sand. Looks like a lovely forest to walk through 😍

The wind was whipping on Saturday morning and temps had dropped from the low 50s of Friday to high 20s. With so much road running already for the week, I decided to risk it and head out onto the powerlines. The first mile was doable without spikes, but I put them on after that. The trails were probably about 50/50 ice and bare ground, but I wouldn't have wanted to maneuver across the long ice stretches without traction, even though the spikes were fairly useless on the dirt stretches. Things had firmed up enough that I didn't sink anywhere, but there were definitely a few sketchy undermined spots that required walking so as not to turn an ankle, and things are likely to be pretty messy out there once it warms up again. Very blustery and bright. (8.0 miles)

The time change overnight led to a late wake-up on Sunday and I just did not feel like rushing out, so I decided on a shorter run for the morning. Ran roads around town. High-20s and a bit of a breeze. (7.2 miles)

Then it was home to make a Pi Day pie with Sam! Yum! Never pass up a chance to make (and eat) pie 😋😍

All in all, a rather low mileage run week, but that's OK. I'm trying not to force it too much right now, and just run what I want to run with feeling the pressure of mileage. Hopefully, I can turn it around next month and kick myself into gear as warmer weather and more trail time arrives!