Sore Legs!

It's been a while since I've had sore quads. I feel like I earned them this weekend. Saturday, I joined TMs Ian, Jim, Erik with Django, Mary with Ruby, Sara, Christine with Suzy, Erin, and Mindy at Bradbury. For a short stretch, Ian, Jim, Mindy and I ran in the lead together. Ian and Jim soon put some distance between Mindy and I. They were planning on doing the Beautiful Loop where as Mindy and I were only looking for six miles on the east side before heading out for some more miles on the mountain side. Erik came from behind with Django and ran with us for maybe a mile before pulling ahead to follow Ian and Jim on the BL, pretty much at Mindy and my turnaround.

We enjoyed our run filling it with constant conversation, some of which returned periodically to the unexpected ass-kicking the run was giving us. I always love running with Mindy; it was especially good since we seemed to be right at the same level of conditioning. We met up with Mary, Sara, Erin, and Christine in the parking lot. They'd had enough for the day. We visited for a few minutes admiring Suzy's frosty beard (someone compared it to Jim's).

Mindy and I started up the mountain. Yay! The trail was packed better on this side. We followed the snowmobile trail up to the summit and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before heading back down. Not quite happy with the mileage, added another mile before finishing, ending with nine. It was really the perfect length because Edna and Lucy's was opened by then!

Mindy and I both opted for the breakfast sandwich and hot coffee, but I added a carrot cake cupcake to my order. Mmmmm! We were just about finished when we heard Jim (no, he wasn't still out on the trail). He sat down with the breakfast sandwich, too. It wasn't long before Ian followed. Ian had done the complete loop while Jim had cut it a little short (I've never done the loop so don't know where or how much even though Jim did say where he cut back). Wow, Ian sat down with an amazing looking sandwich. It was loaded with black pastrami, caramelized onions, cheese (?), and maybe a Russian-dressing type sauce. It smelled heavenly. Jim actually went back for one after his breakfast sandwich. I could have. I wanted to. Next run, I'm getting one.

I was about to leave when Erik came in. He looked beat and like he earned his pastrami sandwich (yup, he went for one, too). I really could have sat there all day, but...time to head home, very satisfied.

Today (technically, yesterday now) I had planned to head back to Bradbury, but opted to stay closer to home. I ran Thorncrag. It has challenging hills, made even more so by the snow. It was runnable, but definitely not as well-packed as other winters. I think the reduced traffic due to banning dogs is the probable cause. There was only one trail that I couldn't run with my Inov8s; I would have needed snowshoes. I did 5.9 miles and was happy with my 13 min/mile pace (that's how hard it is). My legs are now mildly sore, but they felt pretty trashed at the end of my run.