Trail Time!

Greetings from the northwoods of Wisconsin! My youngest son and I are on another hiking adventure on some new-to-us segments on the Ice Age Trail. We're taking advantage of a trail chapter shuttle on 2 of their segments. This enables us to complete the full segment point-to-point instead of doing an out-and-back. I'm sharing all the details below.

Earlier in the week, I started to feel under the weather. On Wednesday, I struggled with my run and called it quits earlier than planned. I felt achy, and by the end of the day, I knew I was coming down with something. Pretty sure I know which little cutie in my clinic gave it to me, lol. No shade at him--I should have worn a mask when I was in the room. I'm glad I was off work on Thursday and Friday to give me time to ride this thing out before the weekend!

On the parents' front, I had some good news this week! I took my mom to see her neurology NP for her semi-annual checkup. Although we had scheduled this appointment 6 months ago, the timing was perfect as it was 6 weeks after her fall. We did see a dip in cognition after the fall, but after her cognitive testing at the appointment, we learned that she had returned to her baseline. We were both so happy!

Weekly Rundown

Sunday: Trail Sisters run 6 miles

Monday: Yoga with Adriene, Strength Training

Tuesday: Fluid Running

Wednesday: trail run 4.5 miles

Thursday: unscheduled rest day: Yoga with Adriene

Friday: unscheduled rest day: Drive to Lodi

Saturday: Ice Age Trail Hiking 11.3 miles

On Sunday, I met up with the Trail Sisters Chicago Northwest at Potawatomi Woods, which is adjacent to the Des Plaines River. We've had a lot of rain this spring, with subsequent flooding of several local rivers. We had hoped that the water would have receded from the trail, and for the first 1 1/2 miles, we were able to run. The trail was muddy in spots, and there was plenty of evidence along the trail of where the river had overflowed its banks. The river level was high, and it was fast moving. We came to one of the many bridges that cross the river, only to see that the bridge was completely submerged. There were 2 fisherman, one standing in the water, which was above his knees. 

We turned around and retraced our steps back to the trailhead. Not ready to call it quits, we crossed the road into a different section of the trail, 'Dam No. 1 Woods East, that none of us, except for Margaret, had ever run. We were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful this section was! After another 1 1/2 miles, we turned around and headed back to where we started, for a total of 6 miles. Not the run we had planned, but a very satisfying one. We will return to run that 'new' section soon! It needs a better name, doesn't it?

Monday's are for snatches! We started the workout with extensive warm ups and a snatch balance drill 4 rounds of 3 snatch balances using an empty barbell (35#). The strength complex was every 1:30 x 8 rounds at 60-70%: 

Full snatch + below the knee snatch (40#). I tried 45#, but struggled in the overhead position. Even 40# was a challenge. These lifts are no joke!

Accessory work x 15 min

4 rounds:

:40 weighted (15#) step-ups to box (16") per leg

:40 RDL (15#) per leg

15 v-ups

I headed to the woods Wednesday morning with every intention of shaking off the latest update from the caregivers. Feeling a little under the weather, I took it easy, soaking up the sights and sounds of spring. It was messy in the woods, but not as wet as it had been, so I moved easily. 

You can tell this is a buck because of the pedecels on his head-antlers will start growing there.

I ran into a friend, and we stopped to catch up for a while, and after that, I received a call from the home care agency. During that time, the wind shifted, the sun went behind the clouds, and the temperature dropped. I kind of lost my mojo, so I headed back to the car, reminding myself that big miles will be coming up this weekend!

On Friday night, I made a last minute decision to switch our hiking itinerary. While we were still heading up to Antigo and hiking some local trails, for a long time, I have wanted to hike the Dells of Eau Claire and the Plover River segments. Looking at the map, I saw how close we would be. So, we opted to do that on Saturday instead of the Kettlebowl Segment. I think you'll understand when you scroll through the photos.

We were up and out the door early Saturday morning to start our day. It was a 2 hour drive from the lake house to the Ice Age Trail Plover River Segment trailhead. This was a beautiful trail, and I kept saying how happy I was that I switched our itinerary. Photos don't do it justice. We hiked along the river, which was shallow and filled with large rocks. The trail was soft and wet in spots, but we made our way by stepping on large rocks that defined the path. The sun was shining, and the color green predominated. It felt as if we were in some fairytale kingdom!

Besides the beauty of this segment, a highlight was seeing a porcupine! He was scared of us and climbed a tree, but then came back down and ran away. I've heard they are common in northern Wisconsin, and it was fun seeing one in the wild!

Our next stop was the Dells of the Eau Claire River segment. We walked through a piney woods along the Eau Claire River. Along the way, we saw rock formations, waterfalls, and gorges. When we reached the dam, the area was fairly crowded with people climbing on the rocks. But what a beautiful place!

Off the road...

My son and I drove up to the lake house, stopping in Madison for lunch at a new place, Ba Lao. This is a little casual spot from the owners of Ahan, an award winning Southeast Asian/Lao restaurant. I'm so glad we stopped there. I had veggie summer rolls, and Matthew had a noodle dish, which was absolutely delicious! After that, we stopped at Working Draft for a beer, also delicious, before completing our drive to the lake house. 

After our hike on Saturday, we met a trail friend of mine from Madison and her friend for dinner in Antigo, where we were all staying. We had an enjoyable dinner, mostly talking about running, lol. My poor son. But I'm always reminded of the wonderful people that running has brought into my life!

How was your week? Are you still waiting for the cold, chilly weather to go away? Are you experiencing flooding? What was your favorite workout this week?

We've got one more hike today--if I can get my son out of bed, lol! I won't be responding to comments today, but I promise to catch up on blogs ASAP!

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown.