Clearing skies

An new to us flower called a Columbine grown from seed by the master gardener (definitely not me)!
Siberian Iris provides some nice color around the fish pond.
Of course the bird bath is well topped up and the garden looks rather lush after 2 weeks of rain.
And Coach is hard at work trying to keep the forest/weeds at bay. My main jobs around the yard are to keep the grass in check and the occasional construction project like the pumphouse or trellis. All the credit for the beauty and layout of our huge yard goes to J who breathes and dreams gardening like I do my running.

Running? Yes, it's going well so far with a 63 mile week 2 of 18 with all planned runs done according to the schedule. Knock, knock on wood that is. I know you shouldn't go from 30 miles to 60 miles in one week but I took 3 days off to recover from Cabot Trail and during the weeks before CTR the mileage had been 42, 46 and 51. So verdict my is that the base is there and the down week was just a needed rest before the push in the new training plan.

Friday: 11 miles in 85:40 (7:46 pace) with 2x2 mile at tempo pace (14:07 and 13:37 for the 2 segments). Started out feeling a little lethargic and slow but once I kicked the pace in it went well if not a little faster than planned. Was aiming for about 7:00 pace and HR around 150 but with some flat/downhill terrain the pace went down below that for the 2nd burst of semi-speed after a 1 mile easy run break. Finished up with 4 miles of easy running on a cloudy overcast day where the rain let up a bit during the run.

Saturday: pouring down rain again for most of the day. Went about 6.5 miles at 8:28 pace and got soaked of course. Did part of the run on the empty but very soggy golf course and was tempted to stop and do a few strides barefoot in the warm rain but resisted the urge. Instead did 6x100m strides on the road at 1:00 intervals and felt slow, awkward and the legs were tight. I think I need to take more time with these getting full recovery between, not timing anything, but just running the short bursts until it feels smooth and fast.

Sunday: today was a better day with the sky almost clearing at times but interrupted by the occasional shower (but not during the run). Woke up early at 6:29 (one minute before the alarm) and was on the road by 7am after a quick bowl of cereal and coffee. It was a bit of a slog today with 18 miles in 2:32 (8:27 pace) and the effort felt like it should have been closer to 8:00 pace. Drank 3 bottles (64oz) of gatorade during the effort and listened to good old SteveRunner for the 1st hour. His podcast theme today was 'Becoming a Good Animal' with an interesting discussion and his usual tongue in cheek humour.

Today's route was a bit roundabout with a trip past the Bunny Hill scattering at least 10-12 rabbits along the road and then across the Bar Road on the ocean floor to the gates of Minister's Island. At low tide as it was today you can drive (or walk/run) across to the island which is ofter cut off with the rushing ocean waters as the tides rise or fall here by nearly 20ft every 6 hours. Back up the hill, scattering yet more bunnies and a circuitous route around town before arriving back home for a gatorade refill at the 1hr mark.

Finished out the run with a trip out of town where I was surprised to run across another runner L who was out for a run in preparation for next weekends Father's Day race here in St. Andrews. Check out all the details on the RunNB website and don't forget to make the trip here if you can for our little race. After going for a few miles and having a nice chat with L we went out separate ways. Just made it back in time for a quick shower and then off to Sunday mass.

This afternoon we saw the sun for a few moments but was quickly followed by another rain shower. Have a great week everyone, summer is just around the corner!