Cherry Trees

Cherry Tree at Seward Park

Spring is here for sure. We've been getting quick blasting storms but then bright and sunny skies. 

I'm holding at 3 days of higher intensity running with solid cardio cross training and I'm enjoying it. With only 3 runs per week, I really look forward to those runs. biking usually on my roller trainer is the preferred cardio but I have also been rowing. 

The foot continues to do ok and I will take that. I ran 13 miles this morning and felt great. I will take it! 

Spring Plans

Life does go on. We'll be paying our respects to our friend this coming week. Meanwhile plans are in place for training (a post for later) and the garden.

Snap peas and sugar peas are ready to go and planted in between the spring showers we had this weekend.

The Favorite Vegetable

And a sure sign of spring: Asparagus! My favorite is just brushed with a bit of olive oil and roasted under a broiler for a few minutes. I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Another sure sign of spring? Cold pelting rain that changes in minutes to sun.  It made the short run this morning much faster. I wanted to be done! Ok, i was also late for a barre class. 

A Sure Sign of Spring.

Actually, it's been stormy, wet and miserable here the past week.  Cold and windy with major squalls moving though the area and a ton of snow in the mountains.  It seems like it has been like this all week.  the wind downtown was unreal.  I was walking to work and the wind was strong enough to push me around.

And of course this coincides with the highest mileage week in marathon training.  Sigh.

Spring is here though!  It's definitely lighter and I was back on a trail this morning.  I am so not in single track trail shape right now.  Wow.  It's amazing how different running single track trails feels when you've been doing roads/groomed trails.  I could feel the strength workout and enjoyed the hip/calf/hamstring workout.  And since we've had so much rain, the trails were pretty muddy and slick which gives a good core workout.  Fun stuff!  I had a great time trotting easily on Coal Creek Trail from the shore of Lake Washington to Wilderness Peak on Cougar Mountain and back down the mountain to SR 900.  Ok the trot down the mountain was a bit painful.  My quads were a bit quivery by the time i was done!

Coal Creek between Lake Washington and Red Town Trailhead is my favorite in-city trail.  Yep, it's a slog uphill the whole way but the trail feels very remote and goes by some historic mining activity.  It's single track and winds around the ravine of Coal Creek.  A few years ago the trail was heavily damaged in a severe rain event.  They've replaced bridges which were washed away and today i saw they've been working on patching some of the rougher trail areas.  They were getting a bit barren in places and I often felt like i was in danger of loosing the trail and slipping down the hillside to the creek. It's great to see that these well-loved trails are being cared for. 

Early April means the trilliums are just blooming and the bleeding hearts are getting ready.  The moss is a brilliant chartreuse color which looks like sunlight is hitting it but it really is just glowing all by itself.  Coal Creek was running strongly and the falls were the fullest I've seen.  The forest smells wonderfully fresh and clean and I felt fabulous.  Just 10 miles for this run although it is a longer and harder run just because of terrain and time spent running.  I'll follow today's fun trot with a longer road run and hope my quads don't complain too much. I lived up to the blog name.  Even after scrubbing my toes in the shower, i still have mud. 

And now we have a new ritual of spring.  Last fall we planted a rhubarb plant.  Today was the first harvest day.  Rhubarb is just bizarre.  We've been watching its growth with interest.  So I went out and wiggled and then yanked out a couple of stalks.  chopped them up and we now have some rhubarb bread to enjoy.

Spring!

April Fools Spring!

April 1st 2009, 5:30 am.

It is snowing. The temps for the day barely crawl into the 40's. Every run lately has been done in cold rain and it's pissing me off!

Seattlites are so done with winter.

Wait. Don't get your hopes up. Don't look at that forecast. The weekend is supposed to dry and warm. Saturday dawns clear although still frozen and a perfect morning for a long run. Photo courtesy of RPD - Dawn from Salty's @ Alki. Where am I? Sick with the yearly Busy Season plague which has swept through work. It's stunningly gorgeous the rest of the day and I'm riding the couch. April Fools!

Sunday? It's not freezing in the morning. It is still clear and temps climb to almost 70 degrees. I'm not running. I'm not biking. I'm bitter about it. I don't feel well enough to do those activities.

However, we did get out into the garden for some ongoing clean up. I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt and got hot in the sun. We chatted with all the neighbors and were chased around by one angry bee. Just one. The beekeeper neighbors were not sure what...er...bee had gotten in it's bonnet.

We've lost a lot of plants in this past (harsh for us) winter.

• Mexican orange - spectacular sprawling death.
• The big rosemary - fortunately we have another one for roasted potato seasoning. Seriously this rosemary was going to take over the world so it might be a good thing it has died.
• Cistus - not sure about this one yet. It may still rebound but it is not a long lived shrub anyway.
• Hebe - a big purple edged one by the rock had survived being rolled on by Max the neighbor cat some years ago but did not like this winter at all!

In an act of daring, I've left the faucet cover off. What are the chances of another hard frost?

Stop fooling with us Nature!

The forsythia in full glory: