Wow, that was a busy couple of days!

Yesterday, I got a decent 5.0 mile run in before the Berlin, NH flip-flop, then this morning I decided to go back to my iPhone, walk the dogs, play on the treadmill, before daring to tempt fate by heading to WalMart after I finished.

After I ate lunch, I gave in to the Sandman and napped longer than I have in a long time, but it must have been necessary, because I woke up, talked to Mary for a minute, then promptly fell back to sleep for another hour. Yeah, I guess it was needed.

Yesterday

I came very, very close to not running at all, my allergies are starting to act up a bit, especially when the sun does finally show. Then our Bennie/Hunter walk went a bit longer than I figured – the weather was too nice, even with the breeze and the sun was actually out – a pretty rare occasion around here lately. So I didn’t blame them.

After sitting for a couple of minutes, I got my arse in gear and got moving. I did wear my running jacket and felt comfortable until the last mile having it on.

I purposely kept the pace under control and didn’t push. I mainly just ran comfortably and got in 5 plus miles in that I almost didn’t do. So I was very happy to even get this run in.

In the afternoon, we went over to Berlin, NH to attend a wake for a childhood friend of Mary’s wife. Kind of a sad reason for going over there, but it was the right thing to do and we felt good about doing it. She got to reminisce about a few of the old days with him.

On the way back, we were looking at the Rock Pile aka Mt. Washington and it was pretty spectacular with the way the clouds were surrounding it. So I stopped in the old Shaw’s parking lot to grab a photo. No, the picture doesn’t do the view justice.

Then on the way back, we couldn’t believe how high the Androscoggin River was and decided to go through Rumford to see how the Falls were.

Needless to say, they were spectacular as well!

A pretty long day and combined with the trip to Portsmouth on Wednesday, I had a lot of hours of sitting in the driver’s seat those days. Which does tire me out quite a bit. When I got home last night I was toast, but I did look at the photos and wasn’t impressed with the quality and made up my mind that I was going back to my iPhone 7 in the morning.

Today

Yeah, after breakfast I went online and switched back to the iPhone. It took a bit more to figure out the right screen, but I eventually found it and got everything working the way that it should. I just feel very comfortable using the iPhone and while my old Android phone would have worked, the iPhone works better.

Then we did a Bennie/Hunter walk down-back. The Town has made the mud run a bit flatter, but I wouldn’t want to drive through where they fixed, hell I wouldn’t even want to walk through that area.

I would have sunk up to my knees in a couple of places. I have a feeling that their work will be for naught because over the weekend the boys and their toys will go and play in the mud some more.

Although with all the rain we have gotten over the past few weeks, SD2’s side lawn has become a favorite place for some of the local ducks.

Oh, yeah I did decide to get a run in, but with the raw conditions, the promise of cold rain and a pretty good breeze, I decided to go plod on the treadmill. This is the kind of weather that I tend to pull a muscle or something, so I figured it was smarter to be safe than sorry.

At the last minute, I decided to do something a little faster to remind the body that it still needed to run fast. I am not going to do any of the local 5Ks this weekend and just felt the need for speed and to stretch the legs out more than usual.

• 1.0 @ 6.6 mph – warm-up
• 2.0 @ 8.6 mph – Race pace, I had thought about doing a 5K time trial, but I didn’t have the stamina to get into the well this morning. All the driving over the past few days had taken their toll on my body and mind, so I shut it down at 2.0 miles and felt really good. I didn’t feel bad at all and could have physically kept going, but the brain was tired.
• .50 @ 6.6 mph – cool-down
• Then I decided to finish up a bit quicker.
• 2 x .20 @ 9.1 mph with a .10 @ 6.6 mph recovery between

Overall, I was surprised about how well that I did on this run and glad that I followed my gut feeling about what I should be doing today for a workout.

Yeah, I managed to get to WalMart,  emerged unscathed and didn’t find anything beyond what I went in for to buy on my way through the store. 😉

It has been a busy last few days, but I am happy with how I am feeling tonight. One thing about all the rain is that my allergies are not nearly as bad as they normally would be – which I consider a mixed blessing. I still think that I would prefer some warmer weather and get some sunshine.