Early Spring

According to the calendar, it is spring, and while the arrival of the redwinged blackbird and all the birdsong in the air certainly signal the change of seasons, we are still very much in that in-between time, the shoulder season before what I consider to really be spring arrives. Temps ping-pong back and forth, we're not done with the snow quite yet, trails are still covered with snow and ice, and there is still a decent amount of time to go until the grass starts to green, the flowers begin to bloom and the trees bud. Always an interesting time of year!

Monday was a 5:00 pm walk around the school block with Ryan for a bit of movement for the day. (1.7 miles walked)

By the time I got out for my run on Tuesday afternoon, it had turned into a nice day and was warm enough for shorts! Ran the Highland Green loop and while the back road was soft and muddy, it, at least, was not a total mess! (6.0 miles)

Wednesday was the first time in *ages* that I actually got out before dawn for a run. Nice, calm morning with some pretty, soft light on the horizon as I crossed the Androscoggin. (7.0 miles)

Friday, I had to sit in on a 9:00 am work phone call, but thankfully Anne and Val were willing to wait and meet me for a later morning run. Such good friends 😊We didn't even try the trails, although we did make an attempt to head out on the powerlines, which were just sketchy enough that we turned around and stuck to the dirt roads off Lawrence for the rest of the run. Nice to have a chance to meet and catch up for a few miles! (6.2 miles)

After what felt like a long week, I think this photo of Gigi pretty much sums up how I felt by Friday evening 😹

Was feeling kind of meh on Saturday morning but ended up feeling good and running fairly smooth and fast once I got going. Who knows, but I won't complain?! Ran the River/Meadow loop, which I hadn't done in a while. Nice to do something different. (10.0 miles)

Then Sam and I made some yummy, although not quite as pretty as the magazine photo 😂, raspberry lemon whoopie pies. Always fun to take on a new baking project together 😋🍋

Ryan missed out, as he was headed back from skiing over in NH, but Sam and I joined Mom and Dad for dinner up at Frank's and enjoyed some tasty poutine and good food! Unfortunately, I didn't sleep great and woke up feeling pretty tired out this morning. The weather did not help matters. It had snowed overnight and a light mist was falling with temps in the mid-30s when I headed out a little after 7:30am. Definitely not the best as it was sloppy, soggy and slushy underfoot, and overall just damp and messy. But I just put my head down and got the miles in, with just enough completed to hit 40 miles for the week. (11.1 miles) 

Water Views

A water view on every run this week - always nice to have a pretty run view! 

With swim season officially over, there are no more evening walks on the indoor track or walks outside on the Bath sidewalks for a while. So with that, Ryan and I got out for a rather chilly and windy walk around the school block from home late on Monday afternoon once I got home from work. (1.7 miles walked)

A snow day was called late on Monday evening for Tuesday. Always nice when they call it early! But in this case, I actually think the kids could have gone to school, as although it started snowing mid-morning, it really didn't accumulate, and it wasn't until around 3:00 that the snow really started to come down and it looked like a storm out there. Ah well. 

With the forecast and the school snow day, I worked from home, so I did a bit of work early and then headed out around 7:30 for a run to beat the snow. Looped around Highland Green and added on the short out and back down to the river, just for fun. Road shoes were not quite the correct footwear choice for that short stretch 😂 but as always, it is pretty down along the river. (7.0 miles)

Wednesday was a busy day at work with a program audit and then a late afternoon committee meeting. And with things rather messy in the morning due to the snow clean-up, I didn't get out for a run. But that was OK, as I had already planned to take Thursday off from work, so I knew I'd be able to get a run in! Enjoyed a nice run out on the Wolfe's Neck roads after dropping Sam and school. The campground and park dirt roads were an interesting mix of ice, snow and frozen mud, but I never tire of those water views! And I love how the view changes, even after just an hour+ as the water ebbs and flows withthe tide. A lovely way to start an extra day off from work! (8.2 miles)

Friday was a professional development day, so a day off from school for Sam and with no big plans, I wasn't in a rush in the morning. Finally made it out around 8:45 am for a road run. Nice, calm, balmy morning, with a cloudy bright sky as the sun tried to shine through the thick clouds. (7.0 miles)

The rest of the day was reasonably chill, , but I did take a break mid-afternoon from the house chores to get out for a walk. No one else was interested in joining, so it was just me. I took the high route out on the powerlines which was essentially clear, but in the shade on the other side, the snow is still deep. (2.0 miles walked)

Saturday morning, I headed out for the same route I had run on Friday over the two bridges, but ran up through Mom and Dad's neighborhood to make it a mile longer. Damp and overcast. (8.0 miles)

After lunch, Ryan and I took a walk around the school block just for a bit of movement. (1.7 miles walked)

Wrapped up the running week today with my long run - an out and back on Foreside. There was a bit of snow falling right before I headed out, so I was sure to be extra careful on the bike path along the connector as it tends to be slick, and sure enough I saw a runner going the opposite way with a bloody knee and later saw where he'd fallen. Ouch, and very grateful that, unlike him, I managed to stay upright! 

Some pretty views along the Androscoggin and out at my turn-around point at the Muddy River, with two eagles seen too! Plus a lot of other smaller birds flitting and chirping about. A bright and pretty morning but very windy, especially on the way back.💨💨 (15.0 miles)

Happy to finish out the week with 45 miles and a decent long run. 

Spring Ahead

Work was a bit crazy this week. Our ED is leaving, there are a lot of upcoming deadlines, a program audit and I'm still helping our newest employee settle into her role. I will readily admit to feeling stressed and a bit prickly as a result. Sigh. 

In any event, took Monday as a zero day and worked a long day. Tuesday, I had planned to run in the afternoon but my 1:00 meeting went way long and I didn't end up getting home until 4:00, as which point I simply did not have the energy to get out the door. But I figured a bit of movement would be good, so got in a walk on the track during late swim practice. (2.2 miles walked) 

Yup, nothing like starting the running week on Wednesday 😜😐😂 Oh well, not like I haven't done that before... Wednesday I was working from home with no meetings (ahhh...) so I got some work done  in the early morning hours and then headed out for my run at 9:00. I couldn't resist trying the powerlines but things were a bit too soft with too little traffic, so after 3 miles, I bailed to the roads for the return trip. (7.0 miles)

Thursday was an afternoon Highland Green run. Windy, and muddy mucky on the back dirt road where the construction vehicles have torn things up. (7.0 miles)

Friday, I had a late morning work meeting I needed to sit in on, so I got a few errands done after dropping Sam at school and then headed out for a road run around town at 9:30. Bright and windy, with tired legs and not feeling quite as smooth as I would have liked, but oh well. (7.0 miles)

Friday evening was Sam's final swim meet of the season, the Y State meet. We are incredibly lucky that the Bath Y is one of the best pools in the Y system throughout the state, and so for the second year in a row, the State meet was being held at our home pool. With so many kids swimming, they split the meet up over three days, and Sam's group was slated for Friday evening. Kind of a tough time after a full day of school but she swam well, and we are incredibly proud of her improvement and dedication to the team and her own swimming this season! Way to go, kiddo 💗👏 And now, it is time for a bit of a swim break after 6 months of solid swimming. 

Headed out early on Saturday in in the hopes of more solid trail conditions, and ran the powerlines out to the Gone Fishing trails. Things were more solid than Wednesday but rather choppy and uneven out to Rt. 24. Once I hit the Lover's Lane loop that had been groomed for the mountain bikers, things were in much better shape, although with temps not quite cold enough things weren't entirely solidly set. Still, some decent running. (8.1 miles)

Sam headed to OOB with Lauren and family, so it was a quiet afternoon, which was fine with me as frankly I was feeling pretty tired. Headed to bed early and was glad I did, as even though I had written it down, I'd forgotten we'd be losing an hour with daylight savings. I woke up naturally at my regular time around 5:00 am on Sunday but of course, it actually was 6:00 instead! I know having the extra light in the evenings is nice, but it's hard to go back to sunrise being around 7:00 am again now. Definitely not going to help me get back into my early morning running 😂😂 I think I'm just going to have to accept that that might not happen until May sometime once sunrise is back to being earlier in the morning and the days are getting warmer and the trails have melted out and it is spring. 

Speaking of spring, I know we are not quite there yet, but my favorite harbringer of the season arrived in the backyard today - first red winged blackbird of the season seen out back eating seed on Sunday morning!😍

Ryan headed up to Mt. Abram to ski and I headed out for a run. I thought it had been cold enough overnight that the trails might be reasonably good, so ran a bit of a mishmash of trails and roads out to Lover's Lane and then hopped on the Gone Fishing trails. Ran the entirety of the system, and things were mostly solid, although the trails were more torn up than I thought they would be, although mostly by deer 😆😆 On the return trip, the snow was getting soft in the bright sun. Definitely a bit of a meandering run but glad to get in some miles on a nice morning. (13.1 miles)

We wrapped up the weekend with dinner at Mom and Dad’s, which was delish, and it was great to see them! Mom ended up getting Covid at the tail end of February vacation week so we haven’t seen them since then. Luckily, she had a reasonably mild case and is feeling mostly back to normal, just still a bit of extra fatigue hanging on. 

Wintery ❄❄

There sure was a lot of snow this past week! I guess winter is not done with us yet ❄❄ 

Monday was a walk on the indoor track during swim practice. I would rather be outside but I didn't want to deal with the inevitably crappy sidewalks, so I chose loops instead. 😜 (2.2 miles walked)

A light snow started falling early in the morning hours on Tuesday. A snow day was called and I wrote in to say I would be working at home. No need to be driving out on the roads if you don't have to! But I figured I could get a run in before too much snow fell so until it was light out and headed out at 7:00 am. Screwshoes did the trick although in a few spots I would have been glad to have on my spikes. There was a fair amount of nice, tacky, fluffy snow out there! Looped around Highland Green and down into Topsham Crossing. (8.0 miles)

Snow fell lightly but steadily all day, and we ended up getting about 6". Worked from home on Wednesday but wanted to wait for the roads to clear up, so didn't end up getting out until 3:00 for my run. By then roads and sidewalks were 99% clear, which was nice. Legs felt sluggish but it was a nice, reasonably warm and calm afternoon to be out for more Highland Green miles. (8.0 miles)

More weather on Thursday, which started as a cold rain, changed to snow and then went back to a cold misty rain. Yuck. As we are headed up to Great Glen for the weekend, I wanted to get in some running miles so I headed out at 3:00 across the street into Highland Green. Ugh. It was not nice out. Did the bare minimum and called it good. (6.0 miles)

Then it was on to packing! Gigi thought she should come with us 😹

Friday, I headed over to Pennelville for a run. Legs were definitely not having it, and that combined with the fact that the sides of the roads were slick with a thin veneer of ice after yesterday's rain meant that it was not the fastest nor the most enjoyable run, but as always, the views were lovely. (8.0 miles)

Then it was off to get the regular Friday errands done and get ready for the afternoon drive over to Great Glen! We were psyched to realize that our xc skiing weekend was looking like it was going to coincide with a big dump of snow, and we were not disappointed. Ryan had already been over in NH for a meeting earlier in the day so Sam and I drove over after school. Reasonably easy drive with some lovely mountain views as we got closer to the notch and to the hotel. 

Once we got our things inside, we headed out into the main lobby bar area to enjoy a drink and some appetizers, as we were having a late dinner in the restaurant with Howie and Sue. So good to see them and get to hear about some of their adventures! 

Snow started sometime overnight, and when I wandered out into the lobby for some early morning coffee, snow was already piling up outside. 

Then after a big breakfast, we suited up and headed out for a ski! So much fluffy snow, it was like a winter wonderland! We enjoyed the beautiful woods, the snow piling up on the trees and falling quietly as we skiied along. Sam was testing out some "new" longer skis and was doing a great job but we realized that as she was slipping even in these new snow conditions that the skis were a bit too long, so we started to loop back to the touring center to get a shorter pair. And then I realized that the upper on one of my 20 year old bumblebee boot was entirely separating from the hard plastic lower component of the boot. Aie! Thankfully it held up until we got back to the touring center, and small feet for the win, as I was able to find some good boots in the 50% off section to replace them! (3.25 miles xc skiied)

Happy skiers!

So.much.snow!

We ran into Nate out grooming and enjoyed the fresh tracks on the way back in

So lovely!

After exchanging the skis and picking up new boots for me, we headed back to the room for something to eat before going back out for an afternoon ski. Even more snow this time around! Crazy fluffy stuff and so pretty. Sam did great on the newer shorter skis and we had a fun tour up to the cabin and back. (3.1 miles xc skiied)

Happy snow-covered skiers!

At the cabin

Then it was back to the hotel to shower up and relax a bit before heading out to the bar for some drinks and a big pile of fries before a yummy diner. 

Awoke to clearing skies and a morning coffee with a view 😊 before we packed up, cleared off the cars and headed down to Jackson for a ski along the Ellis.

Beautiful blue skies, decent temps, no wind, and a lovely meander through the woods on some wonderfully groomed classic tracks. What more could you ask for?! Made for a really nice morning 😍😎 There may have been a bit of whining on Sam's part on the way out, but once we finished up, she said, without prompting even (!), that it had been a lot of fun. (4.8 miles xc skiied)

So pretty!

That classic Jackson view!

All in all, a really fun weekend winter getaway and so nice to get to enjoy the snow on our xc skis together! 💗

I could have run up at Great Glen on the treadmill but honestly my heart was not in it and there was no real need. Feeling reasonably decent about where I am at this time of winter with my running. Nothing spectacular, but I've remained in what I consider to be my sweet spot in terms of mileage with all weeks since the first full week of December being between 37-43 miles (40.4, 37.7, 40, 41.8, 40.3, 38.5, 40.1, 41.4, 42.4, 39, 43.4, 40.1), with this past week being the exception and a reasonably dig dip with only 30 miles run. I'll get back to it after these past few days off from running and I'm hopeful that this base will allow me to ramp up a bit more easily once the snow melts later in the spring and do some higher volume this year in terms of long runs leading up to Rim to River.

Here's the February wrap-up:

167.0 miles run
20.06 miles walked
2.16 miles xc skied
6 full zero days

YTD:

341.6 miles run

38.95 miles walked

6.9 miles xc skied

12 full zero days