Sunday Snowy Sunday

Headed over to Bradbury this morning for a run, thinking I was more likely to find something slightly packed/tracked there than around here. I left the house around 7:15 and was treated to a beautiful sky on the drive over. There was only one car in the lot when I arrived - and it was Andy. He was just leaving, having finished up his hill repeats to the summit. Since I knew I'd have the trails all to myself, I figured I would head up to the summit - it was just such a pretty morning. There had definitely been some activity out to the Ski Trail which meant the trail was semi packed, but from there, it was only one set of ski tracks, so it was a bit slow going up that stretch. The light glimmering through the iced tree branches at the summit was gorgeous. The sky was a brilliant blue and there was no wind. Truly lovely.

Frosty summit

Blue skies

I retraced my steps the way I came and headed across the street. The Link had been tracked by a skier, so again, slow going, but once I hit the Snowmobile Trail, I found it tracked out by at least one machine. The snow was still soft, but I was able to pick up the pace a little bit anyway, maybe into 12:00 minute miles ;) I ran out beyond the park boundary to a little beyond the 2 mile mark on the snomo trails and turned around, as much of the low lying areas were still showing open water and/or were icy, so I had to do a fair amount of picking my way around so as to not end up wet and iced over. 

Snowmobile trail

I wanted to get in at least 8 miles, so when I got back to Lanzo along the Link, I turned and followed the ski tracks out onto the singletrack. Once again, slow going and my feet were soaked through at this point, but I was having fun and the woods were gorgeous, so I continued on to Tuttle Road and then turned back around. 

Snowy singletrack

Finished up with a few 1/10ths on the west side to get to a round 8.0 and called it a day. Nothing like snowshoeing to give you a workout! Especially the first snowshoe of the season in semi tracked, soft snow!

Frosted pigtails

When I got home, Ryan headed out himself to do some snowshoe course recon and after lunch, Sam and I got ourselves ready for our own snowshoe. Only fair that she got in some snow time today too! We headed over to the Cathance and enjoyed a wonderful hike down to the river. The day had warmed up nicely, there was no breeze, the trails were quiet, and we had a lot of fun. Of course, 0.8 miles took us 1:11 with only about 30 minutes of time spent moving, but you know :) That's hiking with a 6-year old! Walk a few steps, stop to talk about the animal tracks, walk one more step, talk to discuss the other snowshoe tracks, walk three steps, stop to eat snow, etc etc etc. Ha. We saw a lot of prints - snowshoe hare, deer, squirrel, mouse - and even saw a beaver floating (and eating, I think) in the river! We stopped and watched it for a while - very cool! Insanely beautiful out there today and happy to have the chance to enjoy it with her! As we were finishing up our hike, Sam said, "That was fun but tiring." Yup, that was the intent, kiddo :)

My leader for the afternoon

Snowshoe hare prints abounded

Sammy print :)

Through the snow

Snowy vernal pool

Happy snowshoer

Trail selfie

Ice. Photo by Sam.

Beaver!

Happy girl

Busy Snowy Day

Today ended up being a pretty busy day despite the snowstorm. It had looked OK when I woke up, but as I headed out around 7:30 for my run, it started to hail and freezing rain, and a nice icy sheen had settled atop the pavement as I ran across the street. It was slow, slippery going, even with screwshoes. I decided to run over to Wicked Joe and access the groomed xc stuff from there. This was good in theory, but the groomed snow was extremely soft and not well packed, so I felt like all the energy I was expending was just sinking right into the snow and there was no real give-back. Once off the golf course, I headed out around the Heath and down to the river again, but honestly, was not enjoying myself as much as I had yesterday and things just felt slow. Ah well, they can't all be great. I ended up with 5.5 miles on a rather nasty morning.

Soon after I got home, the hail turned to snow, big white fluffy flakes. We had a TMR meeting scheduled at Frontier, with a few hardy souls braving the road conditions. Sam was really good for the 2 1/2 hours we were there, and even got a fancy drink ;) Yum!

A bit of sunshine on a snowy day

When we got home, the skies were clearing so we suited up and headed across the street for a short ski, as Sam really wanted to try out her new skis! It was a bit tricky in the ungroomed snow but we had fun!

Out skiing

Happy skiers

Making tracks

Skiing

Fun skiing

As the sun sets

Post-storm vista

Of course, there was also this... you know, she had such a day, gotta relax ;)

Such a rough life ;)

Snowy Cathance

I was originally planning to get up and run at my normal hour so that in the time between dropping the car off for service after getting Sam to school and heading to Portland to see Dr. Jamie at lunchtime I could get stuff done around the house. But you know what? Running in the daylight is way more appealing than cleaning and printing things off for tax time.  So when the alarm went off at o-dark-thirty, I shut it off and went back to sleep. And then after I dropped Sam at school and the car at Lee's, I headed out for my run from there. Luckily, the car place is right across the street so it's easy to run from there and then head home, get ready and walk back across the street :)

I hit the powerlines first, following some ATV and fat bike tracks. These stopped across the street at the top of the hill, so I took the road up to the Quarry and hit the trails there. The trails went from semi-packed along the first part of the river to lightly tracked by one snowshoer along the Heath and one hiker once I took the Rapids Loop to no tracks in a few parts where the hiker had taken his own route and strayed from the trail. This made for slow going, but it was beautiful out there. The river was roaring and had flooded its banks in a few spots. There were some incredible icicles stuck to the trees along the river's banks, and a number of animal tracks - snowshoe hare, deer, mouse. I turned up onto the back dirt road and then ran back up over Mt. A., the backside of which had been groomed by the guy who grooms the fields and a few of the golf holes for xc skiing. Very soft and thin, but groomed. Ended up with a nice 6.5 miles for the morning.

Winter Heath

Icicles

The roaring Cathance

Untracked

Highland Green x2

Motivation has not been super high these days which means that I didn't even manage to get out the door on Tuesday morning, a morning when the trails were clear of snow after the big rainstorm and before Tueday afternoon's snowfall. Aie. I was kind of mad at myself, but in a way it made my decision regarding VT 100 a bit easier. I've been toying with the idea of sitting down with the masses at 7:00 this coming Sunday night and signing myself up for a little while now, but I kept having the same arguments with myself (and Ryan) that I had last January when I decided against VT and went with TARC for my first 100. I just could not get my mind to commit to VT. I was not overly excited, and therefore, I just haven't garnered enough true enthusiasm to really start training.

When Ryan finally said that I should just give it up, I felt fine with it. Yup. VT just isn't for me. I want to want it, but I don't, so nope. This leaves me feeling a little bit sad, as I love the idea of a challenge and not having something big on the calendar just doesn't feel quite right, but honestly, I'm also a bit relieved. I certainly have other running goals for the year, and my plan is to continue to challenge myself in running and racing. Since I didn't quite reach 2000 miles in 2015, I'm thinking 2016 miles, while rather gimmicky perhaps, has a nice ring to it. Or maybe even more ;) Racing-wise, there is April's Grayson Highland 50k, which I'm really looking forward to, and I've signed up for TARC's new to Hale and Back 6 Hour race in March. More Hale? What's not to love ? :) But otherwise, for now, the rest of the year is open. I've been spending a little bit too much time on ultrasignup the past two days pondering what's next, but I have a feeling this will be a year without a 100 unless training really goes well this spring and something truly sparks my interest for the fall. Again, a bit sad about that, but I know I don't have to do a 100 this year. My thinking right now is to find a few "shorter" and different races in new places near home this fall, and then sign myself up for a 100 that I am really excited about next year, which will likely involve some travel and hopefully be a good adventure! 

So, with all of that out of the way, I did manage to get myself out the door yesterday morning. Things were a bit messy with 5" of new snow on the ground, a bit more snow than I anticipated. It was light and fluffy though, but still made for slow going on the powerlines. Highland Green Road had been plowed but was still a bit slick, and they hadn't plowed the back side, so I just went out and back on the pavement. It was cold and windy but I managed to at least keep the pace below 9:30 for the middle 3 miles though.

I had pondered going out on my snowshoes this morning, but honestly, I really like to run in my snowshoes when it is more packed down, so I bailed on that idea and headed out to Highland Green again. This time around, the back side was plowed so I was able to do the full loop. The powerlines might have been even slower than yesterday though, as with all the wind after the storm, the snow had drifted like crazy and it wasn't as easy to consistently run through the snow. But no problem, I wasn't going for any speed records anyway ;) Another cold morning - only 8 degrees this time - but no wind, so not bad. Decent two day "start" to the week, even if a bit late ;)

Fun with Sam

After the morning's run, the rest of the day yesterday was spent inside as the rain fell and the wind howled. Several projects were completed including the ice cream science project! Not really a true kid project, but it was fun!

Shake it up!

Yummy vanilla! 

The rain melted pretty much all the snow away so this afternoon after Sam's dentist appointment, we took a short walk on the Garden Trail to check out the Labrynth in the Woods. A fun little exploration on a January afternoon!

In the Labrynth

Happy kid

Fun in the woods

Out hiking

Rain and Fog

Amy and I had planned to meet up this morning for a run. I asked her if she would be up for 12 miles, you know, just because I wanted to see how things would feel with a few hours on the legs. Of course, the morning dawned 37 degrees, rainy, misty, foggy, just the kind of weather you do not want to run in. But with a scheduled meet-up, there was nothing to do but layer up and head out. Always good to have a friend to run with on a day you might otherwise just spend inside due to nasty weather!

 We ended up sitting in the car for a bit, waiting for the sky to lighten. Without any reflective gear on such a dreary day, we didn't want to chance it. Just after 7:00, we broke from the warmth of the car and headed off down Rt 9, turning a bit later onto Poland Range Road. The marsh lining the road was awash with the early winter hues of brown and maroons, the remaining white fluffs on the cotton sedge highlighted against the darkness of the grasses. Pretty in a quiet way.

 At the T, we turned left into Lawrence, where the road became more uneven and much icier until we hit the Big Brad course area. We took Lawrence to the end and crossed over for a short ways, but it was much too icy, even with screwshoes. Luckily, mileage was a bit more than six at this point, so we turned around and retraced our steps back to the park.

 Finished up with 12.5 miles, some good hills, some rain, mist and ice and a fun 2 hours running with a friend. Thanks, Amy! Of course we couldn't resist a chocolate chip cookie and coffee to cap off the morning before heading home :)

Over These Green Hills...

"Over these green hills, blue electric sky
Always in my blood, forever in my eyes...

...Once again, we'll breathe in the view
It's part of me, part of you

 And it has to be clear
It has to be clear, inside my head"

-Part of Me, Part of You, the Finn Brothers

This song came on Pandora as I was driving over to Bradbury this morning. And if you know me, you know running is part this:

Courtesy: The Oatmeal

And part this:

Green hills, blue sky. Oh, and today, also icy rocks ;)

I run for my sanity, for my health, to escape, to explore, to breathe in the air and listen to the birds, to watch the sun rise, to feel suffering and joy, and because aside from my family and friends nothing makes me happier than being out in the woods running. 

So with the Finn Brother lyrics ringing in my head, I ran up to the summit this morning, and stopped and basked in the sun for a few minutes while taking in the view before heading back down and across the street to explore the east side. The fat tire bikers have packed down the singletrack amazingly well and there was some fine screwshoe running to be had. 

Winter light

Of course, there was also frozen mud, ice, and several open water streams and puddles to manuever around. I ran the Bruiser (minus the Island) up to the snowmobile trail and then came down that. The snowmobile trail was a bit bony, with a wide mix of packed snow, long stretches of ice plus some frozen mud and frozen waterways.. 

Variable to say the least

I came up the Knights Wood Trail and there was even a frozen waterfall for a trail in one section! All in all, I'd call it early season screwshoe conditions, even if it is January, but a fine way to spend an hour+ on a Friday morning! 

Because I was running by myself, I decided to be dorky and wear both the Garmin and the Suunto to compare while on the run. A few observations: The Garmin, while much bulkier, is much easier to read with a larger screen. The Suunto's face is much smaller, but the watch itself is more comfortable. The Garmin beeps are much louder. Not sure that is a good thing or not. The Suunto nicely uploaded my run to Strava in the car - hurray! The Suunto logged 0.08 less mileage over the 6.4 mile run. Perhaps it is more accurate? Need to figure out if I can use the interval timer as an "alarm" for my "eat something every 1/2 hour" reminder, which is something I find really useful to have on the Garmin on long runs and during long races. A work in progress, but warming up to it.

Yes, I have my hood up! It was chilly out there :)

Out, In, Out

Temps were reading 2 degrees on Tuesday morning. Quite a change from this past week running in 30 and 40 degree weather down in NY and MA! Aie. But not to be deterred, I bundled up and headed out around 6:15. The snow crunched with that satisfying dry, cold snow crunch beneath my screwshoes and my face got all frosty. I ran down to the river and back and was surprised to find conditions decent, even if variable. There had been a fair amount of traffic so things were packed to a certain degree, and despite the cold, boy was it was a beautiful morning. So happy to have gotten out. What a nice start to the day!

Sunrise

Soft light, over the Heath

Wednesday I didn't quite make it out of bed and wanted to get into work at 7:00 so I could get enough done by 3:00 when I was leaving to get Sam for her swim lessons. While we were home having a quick snack and changing I had the thought that perhaps I could spend some time on the indoor track at the Y while she swam. I asked her if it would be OK if I didn't sit in the balcony and watch - truthfully, Wednesdays are hard as the kids are in the therapy pool while the high school swim team practices in the main pool, and it's difficult to actually see anything anyway. Sam was fine with it, so I quickly changed and did a few stretches before we dashed out the door. The indoor track is 13 laps to a mile (!!!) and I quickly lost count; my watch was in no way picking up the mileage; and I was dodging little kids and walkers. When I realized I had no idea how long I had gone, except that I had certainly gone more than the 0.6 my watch was reading, I headed into the gym to get on the treadmill. With not much time left, I set it for 20 minutes and started to run. Ugh. I really dislike the treadmill. I racheted up the pace a bit but didn't push too hard. The treadmill was making a lot of noise as I pounded along and I was a bit afraid to push it too much!! Got in 2.3 miles in the 20 minutes and got downstairs to the pool just in time ;) So, 3.3 miles or maybe more. Hey, a little something is better than nothing, but I knew I was going to head outside this morning! I am just not an indoor exerciser!

This morning, it was a bit warmer out, ie. 9 degrees instead of 2 ;) I bundled up again but not quite as much and headed out at 6:00 am. I was treated to an incredible view of the crescent moon with Venus and Mars shining brightly nearby. What a gorgeous sight! Ran up Mt A and along hole #3 to the Heath. Ran down along the Cathance, listening to the river rush and roar but not quite seeing it in the darkness. Conditions fairly packed and not bad for early season screwshoe running. As I was running up into the field from the river, the sky began to lighten. I took the singletrack back to the ecology center and returned via the Heath, cart path and Mt A. I finished up with 6.6 miles on the Suunto Ambit3 Run, but I think it might be shorting me! I have run this loop many times and always gotten 7. Grrr.... Not sure about the new watch yet. It's pretty - lime green! - and it finds satellites quickly, has connection to my phone for uploading runs, etc, but not quite loving it yet. The Garmin 310 drives me nuts with the charging and upload inconsistencies but I do like a lot about it so don't know if the switch is worth it. Will have to do a few more runs before I decide for sure.

More Holiday Fun

With two weeks of vacation and three separate visits with family to celebrate the holidays, things have been a bit chaotic, if fun, around Snowplug land. I think there's going to be a bit of adjustment heading into the week as we get back to reality! Aie... But before we do that, we'll revel in the fun a bit more :) We had a good second Christmas celebration with Irene, Dana, Meg, Chris and Gavin this weekend, and it is always great to see the kids together.

Cousins

Out getting some energy out :)

Family dinner

It's only one beer...

Hello Kitty

Dinosaur fun

Sam and Grammie

Hugs from Grampie

Ready to play school!

Reading us some new jokes

Rounded out the weekend with a morning run up through the Weldon Farm neighborhood, out along the Newburyport marsh and back through Fatherland today. A good 10 mile road loop. Legs felt a bit like cement - there just seems to be no speed there. I suppose this is normal after slow 100 mile training but I definitely want to figure out a way to work on turnover. It's not as obvious in trails but out on the roads it sure is! A bit windy on the return trip but a beautiful morning to be out and a good way to start the day. Saw many juncoes, three cardinals, a whole lot of sparrows and robins, and what I think was a broad winged hawk flying overhead. First 30 mile week in a long while. 

Pretty sky

Pretty marsh

New Year's Day

Can't start off the year with a zero after all :) so Ryan and I headed over to the other Brad for a trail run. Conditions were interesting to say the least, frozen slush, ice, mush, granular packed snow, you name it. My screws weren't giving me the greatest traction so there was a fair bit of slipping and sliding along with tiptoeing across the icy spots, but we certainly put in the effort! ;) I definitely need to work on my turnover as all the 100 mile training last year did nothing for my speed, but I felt strong on the hills today, so that was a good feeling. Got in 6.6 miles on this lovely morning, and always nice to share a run with Ryan, something that doesn't happen very often!

Looking Back: 2015

Our New York visit was a lot of fun. It was great to spend some time with Kristen, Morgan and Rob, and we were lucky to be there for Morgan's birthday for the second time in two years. With them moving to Seattle this coming summer, it is going to get even harder to get the girls together, so I am incredibly thankful for the chance to give Sam and Morgan time together to hang out! It really is special.

Mom and Dad dropped us off at the airport yesterday morning bright and early for our flight. They certainly are troopers, and we so appreciate everything they've done for us the past few weeks. It has been a fun and crazy time together!

Amy and Will were kind enough to pick us up at the airport - such good friends! - and we went on to spend part of the afternoon together, eating lunch at Big Top followed up by, of course, a visit to Gelato Fiasco, plus a bit of playtime for the kids. We didn't quite get out for a snowshoe hike like we intended, but there is a lot of winter left :) Sam and Will had a good time playing together, and it was fun to have the chance to catch up with Amy, not to mention it kept the kids busy for most of the day, which is always a good thing!

 
Never a dull moment with this crew ;)

Last night I realized that, OMG, tomorrow was the 31st! I swear, sometimes I really don't know where the time goes. I took some time and looked back at my end-of-the-year posts from the past few years, which was fun (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009). It's amazing to me how much has changed in six years. As a parent, the passage of time is readily apparent right before my eyes with Sam in our lives. She is still growing and changing daily, and I am incredibly lucky to be mom to the adorable, mischievous, happy, organized, incredibly smart, cute, loving, sweet, goofy, curious girl that she has become. Every day Sam amazes us in some way and I look forward to continuing to watch her evolve in the years to come and to sharing many adventures with her along the way.

        

So sweet, and oh so goofy ;) (those are pens hanging from a makeshift belt)

On the running front, the morph of time is a bit more subtle. I had forgotten that it was only in 2010 that I did my first trail marathon and am always sort of surprised to remember that my first 50 was only two years ago. Although these past few months haven't quite been what I had been hoping for running-wise as I recovered from TARC this fall, overall, there is no doubt that this was a pretty solid year. My intent for the year was to challenge myself and to run new races in different places, and I feel I definitely accomplished that. I was focused and steady in my training for the first nine months of the year, ran a few fun, new races, had a lot of really good training runs, and am incredibly proud to have finished my first 100 mile race at TARC this fall, so yup, I'd have to say that 2015 was a pretty darn good year!

The last run of the year was also the first screwshoe run of the season and the first of no doubt many Highland Green loops for the winter. I took my time getting out of the house this morning but finally got going around 8:30 or so. Someone had been out on the powerlines on an ATV yesterday, so there was a narrow strip of packed snow to run on. I was happy to see that the tracks continued across Highland Green Road, but they looped back at the top of the hill so I did too, hitting the road and turning onto the back dirt road, which had been nicely plowed down to a thin layer of packed, rather icy snow. Perfect screwshoe running. I stopped to check out the trailhead down to the river but although there were a number of foot prints, I knew it wouldn't be good running. Not packed enough, so I continued back on the pavement. A bit slushy and wet, but not bad. Got in a nice 5.1 miles for the morning for a total of 1,963.6 miles for 2015. Part of me wishes I could have gotten to 2,000 miles and that I had been a bit more on top of things today and had run an extra 0.4 miles to get to a round number, but these are trivial things, I know, as this was my highest yearly mileage without a doubt, and now I have a goal to aspire to for next year - 2,000+ miles and ending on a nice round number ;) Ha!

Hoping to build on the strength and endurance gained this year and am looking forward to many miles in 2016. Cheers to a 2016 filled with fun, laughter, adventures, time with family and friends, and a whole lot of running!

Happy New Year , everyone!!
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Running Log Files:

2015 - 1963.60

2014 - 1702.00

2013 - 1557.75

2012 - 1400.00 

2011 - 1375.00

2010 - 1100.00

2009 - 675.50 *pregnant/Sam born

2008 - 1112.00