Lost in the woods

No, I didn't get lost in the woods (especially with the Garmin to find the way) but this little tree somehow ended up in the doghouse. It looked nice in the garden center but once we had it home and did some research, it was declared unwelcome. The main problem was long seedpods that are hard to clean up and which attract caterpillars.
Here's another shot (just for Thomas) showing it over the fence and in the clearing with the little guy in the center of the pic.
Enough of trees though it is pleasant to run along wooded trails away from traffic.

Yesterday, instead of running I washed the house which sounds a bit crazy but was something that needed to be done. Our vinyl siding seems to accumulate moss and algae over time and the only way to get it off is to apply a javex and soap solution with a bit of elbow grease. Worked most of the day at it only getting part of the job done and was rewarded with sore arms and shoulders this morning. Also spent some time in the fish pond moving plants around for Jo and getting cooled off at the same time.

Today was the 1st official day of my week's holidays since Monday was just part of our long weekend. Somehow (like Mike) I often find Tuesday's to be a tough day to run and this is despite always taking Monday as a complete rest day, from running at least. It might be residual effects from Saturday's race and the cumulative effect of Sunday's 20 miler but typically my Tuesday runs start off like they did today. Stiff tight legs, a bit sore, lethargic feeling in general at first but soon enough things usually perk up. Sure enough it ended up being a pleasant easy 11 miles in about 1:30 but I didn't do any of the strides that were called for. I'll save that for later in the week when the legs feel fresher.

Not much happened on the run, saw 2 other runners and 2 walkers with large dogs whom I met on a narrow trail. They asked me to slow down so as to not spook the dogs and I was happy to comply. Did I say they were 'large' dogs (and well behaved too)?

Rest of my day off was spent getting the van fixed so our 'cruise' now works and some shopping in St. Stephen/Calais. Went by Andrew's bank office but it was deserted being the 4th of July. Happy 4th! Hope you're taking it easy and getting the runs in.

Finally, here's a little graph of my running progress so far on the way to the next marathon (Wineglass only 88 days away). The red line is the total weekly mileage since Boston and the green line is the longest run each week. The races are shown along the way as well. So far so good and knock on wood. Good running!