Thankfully the forecast was wrong

It was a beautiful day, if somewhat on the chilly side.

This weekend was to be another 16 mile long run (see Reality for what happened to the other 16 miler) . I had made arrangements with a friend to run on Saturday. Friday we talked and decided to delay the run to Sunday as the forecast was for "chance of rain" with less chance of snow and howling winds.

Saturday was nasty weather. Duluth did not get hit with the multiple inches of snow that got other parts of northern Minnesota, but it was very windy, alternating between snow and rain. Not even much fun to walk the dog in!

Today dawned sunny! Sunny! So nice to see the sun again. So what if it started out at 29 degrees F. Sun! By the time we headed out for the run it had warmed up into the low 30's and was still.... sunny. Can you tell it has been kind of gloomy this week (all made worse by the 70 degree day last Wednesday).

For a wonder we actually had the wind in our face on the way out. The course we chose was a mix of paved road, gravel road and paved biking trail. Lots of hills mixed in. Vernal ponds had ice on them this morning, so no frogs singing. Saw lots of birds including a "butterbutt" (yellow-rumped warbler), broad-winged hawk (saw it twice as it was hanging out in a tree along the trail), flicker, bluejays, robins, chickadees and heard the song of a white-throated sparrow and the call of a pileated woodpecker and a raven.

The aspen are all blooming as are the alders and the maples (harder to see their flowers as they are up a lot higher).

Run went pretty well. I was definitely pushing the heart rate up on this one. Usually I try to keep my heart rate between 142-162 on the long runs (avg. around 156 or so). Today the avg. was 168, with a peak of 183. I was talking with my running partner the whole time - not struggling to talk and run (except on the uphills) so may need to revise my max heart rate up, must be higher than 203.

We did walk several times; at the turn around, a steep hill or two. Good opportunity to eat and drink. Temps by the time we were done had hit the low to mid-40's.

On the knitting front:

Bird mittens - no progress made,

Bobble cable hat - cable strap cast on, three repeats done, set aside

Baby Surprise - yeah, I have a commitment issue right now. Cast on this morning using fingering weight main color held with some varigated sock yarn. Needed something to work on that didn't require a chart. Not sure who this is for, but I am sure it will become clear it all good time.