Trails, Water & New Neoprene

How was your weekend??
If you are a Daddy then I want to wish you a (belated) very Happy Fathers Day!!

It was a great weekend here in Maine. On Friday morning I ran with Lola in the jogger-9 wonderful miles. My Friday morning trail runs are becoming one of my favorite training days for sure! I have been running on this really amazing trail that is wide, flat and cool-thanks to the shade of the trees. Some days it is buggy but nothing a little Skin-So-Soft bug spray can't help-plus it makes me run faster right? I am slow with the jogger but heck, I am easily pushing an extra 60lbs...but it allows me to run without the worry of traffic, we get to see all kinds of stuff like chipmunks, squirrels, caterpillars and snakes! Plus, I can let Lola out of the jogger now and then to run with me and she likes to throw sticks into the many ponds we pass on our way. I am loving trail running and I have scoped out many new trails to run (joggerless).

The Trail Chiks in action:

Saturday I finally got my behind into a body of water that is NOT a pool for an open water swim--first of the season not counting my race last weekend. On a cold, foggy morning the last thing I wanted to do was get into water. I was not looking forward to swimming. I was dreading it actually and kept complaining to my friend, Marc about it on the drive to the pond. (As nice as he is, I am surprised he did not slap some tape over my mouth with all the complaining I was doing-thanks for your patience!) The start of the swim was slow and it took me a while to warm up and find my groove but once I did, I enjoyed it. Then I remembered why I love OWS vs. pool swimming. After swimming for a little over an hour, we ran a couple hill repeats (2 miles) and called it a day.

Saturday's Swim Scene

I need a new wetsuit--the one I have is a tad too big and I was surprised at just how much water came gushing out of it at the Pirate when I took it off. This was confirmed yet again on Saturday when another 400 gallons of water came spilling out. Pulling all the extra water around will certainly slow ya down, right??
I guess it is a good thing I scored a new one off Slowtwitch.com last week (and it was in brand new condition too!)

Lucky me!! The mailman delivered a big box to me on Saturday afternoon and I knew it was my new neoprene.

Not so lucky for me? It is a size small and while it fits, getting into it was....a wiggling act! Especially getting it up over my hips--looks like I have my OWN project wetsuit (remember this post?) But I love the feel of the new wetsuit and I think I want to make some cuts --I want to trim the calves and the arms. Gotta admit, I am scared to take some scissors to it. Any advice to a newbie neoprene cutter??

Sunday was an easy bike ride (18.5 miles) followed by a 3.2 mile run. Another beautiful Maine morning along the beach-we stopped at one point and just admired the ocean inlet where there were lobster boats anchored, the sun shining and the sounds of the ocean birds. One more reason to love where I live.

Did you enter my Tough Chik contest??

I was going to close this contest at midnight last night but I am feeling very nice after a fabulous weekend and I am going to leave it open for a few more days.

Wanna earn an extra entry?? Guess my finish time of my Run for Cash 5k coming up on Saturday. It's a small downhill at the start and the rest of the course is a series of short uphill climbs.



Did you vote for the best pee story?