Start of the Week

Monday, I took a total rest day. No running or walking. I felt like I needed it, but on the other hand, it is nice to move! But I knew I would be pretty busy running and walking the rest of the week so I wasn't worried about one true zero day.

Tuesday morning, I was up and out a little before 6:00 am for a run on the cart paths and down to the river and back. Very humid, with the smoke from the western wildfires turning the sun into a bright red orb in the hazy sky. One great blue heron, a handful of blackberries to eat, towhees calling and bullfrogs croaking. (8.0 miles)

Witch's butter

That evening after work, we headed down to Falmouth to Theresa and Dave's house for a family get-together. Due to the pandemic, we hadn't been to see their house, which they moved into last summer, and Jason, Amy and Nick, plus the kids, were all in town for the week visiting. Sarah and Tom were there too, as were Susie and John and Mom and Dad. It was the first time we had seen Jason, Amy, Nick and the kids since Mim's memorial service! Nick cooked up lobster and mussels to have with the corn and salads everyone brought, and Sarah made up a delish blueberry galette and homemade ice cream. Yum! It was really nice to be able to all be together and catch up. Grateful to have a chance to see everyone! #thanksscience💗

It was a fun but late night, but as I was off on Wednesday and had a long laundry list of things to do after my run, I was up and out early anyway. I wanted to get in some miles this week before we headed north for our camping trip, but I didn't want to wreck myself and I was also cognizant that I had run 21 miles on Saturday, so I settled on a medium-long run. I headed out for a short loop in the Cathance and then onto the powerlines. Three deer, one snowshoe hare, one great blue heron plus a ton of mushrooms seen, plus blackberries, blueberries and raspberries eaten. Felt pretty decent considering, and was glad for cooler temps and a bit less humidity. Although I was still of course soaked by the end of the run 💦😂 (15.0 miles)

Spent the rest of the day getting ready for our camping trip. It is always great once we get there, but getting everything organized and into the car is always a challenge!

This morning, I rolled out a little after 6:00 for a run on the roads. In the low 50s and with little humidity - felt lovely! A bit tired, but a nice bright sunny morning to get in some miles. Glad to have been able to put together a nice little block of mileage the past three days, although admittedly, my more ambitious plan had be running 40 miles, not 31. Ah well, given the craziness of the past few days and wanting to be sure I have energy for some fun the rest of the week, I'm going to call it good! (8.0 miles)

And now it is time to head north! ⛺

As an added bonus for this start of the week wrap-up, here are two of the cute visitors we had out back the other evening! Little fox kits - so cute! 😍😍

 

Damp & Humid

According to the statistics, it has been an incredibly wet July. Yes, we needed the rain, but it seems like we've had an overabundance of it now. And even beyond the rain, it has just been so humid. I feel like every run the past few weeks have had the descriptor "so soggy" in one way or another. 💦💦

Monday, I took a walk on the streets of Bath during swim practice. Overcast and muggy. (2.2 miles walked)

Tuesday, I got out on the cart paths. Heavy and so many deer flies. It appears that smoke from some western wildfires has settled over New England, creating an haziness that actually was quite pretty with the sun rising. (6.0 miles)

Wednesday, I stuck to the roads, running across the river on both the connector and green bridge for a good loop with a few hills. Pretty sunrise, but it was once again so humid! Felt like I was running through soup. Drenched by the end of the run. (8.0 miles)

I headed into work for the day and Mom and Dad took Sam to swim practice and then up to Reid for a beach day! What fun 😃 and sounds like they had the beach almost entirely to themselves!

And of course, they stopped for ice cream on the way home 😋🍦What a lucky kid!

Thursday, by some miracle, it was cool and almost crisp - or at least compared to the past few days! Got in a nice walk during swim practice. (2.0 miles walked)

Friday was another cool morning, even if still humid. I ran the cart paths and looped through the Cathance down along the river and around Mt A before heading home. So many mushrooms! They are everywhere after all this rain. I hadn't slept well and my legs felt super heavy, but it was still a nice morning to be out. (12.0 miles)

After the typical Friday chores, the three of us headed down to Harpswell for a short walk in the afternoon. Of course, we apparently chose the one-hour window where an intense storm was moving through the area, so our walk down to the water view at Wilson Cove was replete with thunder overhead and turned into a trail run at the end so as to escape the impending rain. We made it back to the car just before the skies opened up in earnest and thankfully, the hail occurred while we were sitting inside waiting for the rain to stop! (0.6 miles walked)

Pinesap

Hail!

Saturday morning, I drove over to the field house and looped out on the roads and trails of Brunswick. I first headed over to Crystal Spring, enjoying the mushrooms in the deep woods and the wood lilies and blueberries out in the field. From there, I ran through the extended Commons, taking a slightly adventurous shortcut to connect two of the three "shoots" of trails out there and then took one of the side roads to connect back up to the Commons proper. Might have had to run along someone's driveway for a few yards to get to the trail connection, but it made for a nice loop! 😁😆😉

Juvenile bald eagle! 😍

Got back to the car at just about 12 miles, refilled my pack, had a snack and attempted to dry myself off - so humid again! - and then headed back out into the Commons for a loop out into Pennelville and onto the Landing trails. I had originally been hoping for a few more miles, but my route came up a bit short and after adding on a few loops around the field, I decided 21 was good enough 😂 Still a solid run. (21.0 miles)

After lunch, Mom and Dad picked us up for a walk down at Curtis Farm in Harpswell. Always such a nice place to walk with field, woods and ocean views within a short trail system. The humidity had cleared out a bit and it was a beautiful afternoon to be outside! (2.0 miles walked)

Of course, we followed up the walk with ice cream! 😋😊

Emma came up to join me for a Sunday morning run, which was really fun! We ran out on the powerlines, enjoying a few raspberries en route and chatting away. Always good to catch up and nice to show her some of my favorite home trails! It was insanely humid and finally started to rain with about a mile left in the run. Felt good. (8.2 miles)

After Ryan got in his run and we had a bit of lunch, we headed up to Keri and Tyler's for the afternoon. The original plan was to lounge poolside in the sunshine, but since it was pouring, we hung out inside chatting instead 😊 Elise and Sam did, of course, get into the pool for a bit, no matter the weather! It was great to have the chance to catch up, and Keri fed us a delicious meal before we headed home. 

Such a fun day with friends, and a great way to wrap up the weekend!

Another Fun Week

After a long day at the computer on Monday,  I headed across the street at 4:00 pm for a walk on the powerlines. Blueberries, wood lilies, and a beautiful Eastern Swallowtail a gorgeous patch of milkweed 😍 (1.9 miles walked)

Nate came over for dinner, and it was great to have the chance to catch up. It has been way too long! So nice to be able to get together with friends again 💜 #thanksscience

Tuesday morning was a run on the powerlines. Multiple Towhees, one deer and one Common Yellowthroat seen. Very heavy and humid out. So soaked. (6.7 miles)

Mom and Dad came over for Taco Tuesday - yum! - and we took a look at the Y Facebook page, where there was a photo of Sam and Anne getting ready to head out onto the lake on stand up paddleboards earlier in the day. What fun!

Woke up to rain and another very heavy feeling morning Wednesday. Sunrise is getting later by the day, and it always seems darker on the rainy mornings, so when I looked out back, I could just barely see these little forms rumbling around out in amongst the strewn birdseed on the ground. Turns out it was 5 (!!) baby raccoons and mom. So adorable to watch them!

4 of the babies and mom, the 5th is somewhere behind the tree 💗🐾

A little bit later, I headed out for my run. Stuck to the roads. Finished up soaked again, but usually seems better to be wet from rain than sweat! 💦💦(8.0 miles)

Worked three long days Monday through Wednesday, but I can't complain as I was off on Thursday and Friday for some fun! Thursday morning, Ryan and I headed up to run/hike Ragged and Bald. Such a cool trail system and neat area. Always a joy to get up there! Of course, it was another super humid, high dew point day, and everything was wet - the rocks, the roots, us - as we started out in a thick fog/cloud. Parked at the new Round the Mountain Trail parking lot on Hope Street and then ducked onto the Georges Highland Path to head up to Little Bald.

Cool light 😍

Ryan was not impressed with the weather and may have been grumbling by about a half mile in... but seriously, we were soaked pretty much right from the start, which was kind of nasty! So soggy. 💦💦

We took the top of Red Diamond over to the summit tower of Ragged and then looped back around on Georges Highland Path. I had forgotten how that stretch was a lot of exposed rock and definitely much more hiking than running! But there were at least a lot of blueberries to stop and eat. Yum!

We continued back on Georges Highland Path over Little Ragged and down to Barnestown Road, carefully maneuvering the wet rocky ledges. Lots of bunchberries turning red, many mushrooms and some pretty patches of blue bead lilies, along with some clearing. As the clouds dissipated, the heat turned up a bit.

Between the weather and the terrain, Ryan was definitely not enjoying the route as much as I was. We have differing opinions on what constitutes a run, and he was just not having any of it today. 😁😂Honestly, I thought he was doing great, but he was definitely not entirely pleased with me. Oops! We had some nice views at the top of Bald, but before we headed down, Ryan gave me the car keys and told me we were going to go our own pace on the way back. We pretty much got to the bottom of Bald together, but then looking at Strava after the fact, I managed to get 6 minutes ahead of him on the 1 mile climb back up to Little Bald 😂 What can I say? I much prefer the ups!

Skies cleared out nicely and I stopped for some views at the open ledges before the final push to the junction. From there, I apparently lost 2 minutes on the final 1.6 mile descent, but I did enjoy the slightly more runnable terrain! Of course, it was still insanely humid, and I finished up with shoes squishing and everything completely soaked! Ha. Sign of a good summer day in the hills 😉😊 (9.6 miles)

Emily had messaged last week to see if we wanted to run on Friday. Originally the plan was for both of  us to head over to Brad to meet up with her, but in the end, Ryan decided to take the day off running so I headed over solo. Yet another hot, heavy, humid morning. See a pattern here?! Seriously, the humidity could give us a break!! It was great to catch up with Emily and we chatted away easily the entire time we were running, but I was feeling Thursday's vert and humidity and time on feet, and I was definitely dragging a bit. We ended up cutting things a bit shorter than planned, but it was still so nice to get in a run with a good friend! Thanks, Emily! Oh yes, and I was completely soaked when we finished 😂😂💦💦 (8.6 miles)

Headed back home and cleaned the house and got a few things done. Ryan finished up work and then headed over to Highland Green to play 9 holes of golf, so after I finished up prepping for dinner and making pasta salad for Saturday night, I sat on the couch for a bit and then decided around 5:00 pm that I would head out for a walk. What can I say? We've said it before, I just am not good at sitting still! 😆 It was still warm but there was a bit of a breeze at least and I just stuck to the shade as much as I could. (1.9 miles walked)

Saturday morning was camp pick up and a day off from running. Fed the cats and then went back to bed for a bit before finally coming downstairs and enjoying a bit of quiet before we headed out around 8:45 to pick up Sam! While I have enjoyed the time with Ryan, and we've made the most of the two weeks Sam has been away doing some exploring and seeing friends and having fun together, I really have missed the kiddo a lot and was so excited to see her and hear about camp! 💗

It was so cute to see all the kiddos milling around together, calling out to each other to say goodbye, etc. Sam and Anne were all smiles and it was clear they had had a blast! Yay camp 😀

It was also clear that Sam was exhausted 😂😉 but she did rally for a mid-afternoon walk on the powerlines with me to check out the wood lilies and pick blueberries. Always love time spent walking with my girl 😍 (1.8 miles walked) 

Rain started overnight on Saturday, and it was wet and dreary when I woke up. My intent was to stack a long run onto the end of the week and get in a 3-week block of solid miles. But I'll be honest and say my heart was not into it with the rain pouring down outside, and instead I went back to bed. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I'm continually modifying my running "plan," so I have no problem acknowledging that something is just not "right" for the day and moving things around. Whether I get in a big week this week or next doesn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things, and that long run will still be beneficial next week. Or so goes my rationalization anyway 😉

So I lounged around until I got so antsy that Ryan pretty much kicked me out the door at 10:00 am. It was pouring down rain, the cart paths were flooded, the gully at the bottom of the powerlines was filled with water ankle-deep and I was soaked in minutes. It was kind of funny actually. I did manage to find the first few ripe blackberries of the season along the powerline stretch, though, so yum! (6.0 miles)

We didn't end up doing much of anything all day due to the rain, which is just what Sam needed. Camp is tiring 😊

And a few random odds and ends to round out the post...

Whatever it takes to be comfy, Gigi 😹

Someone posted this online and this is totally how I feel...