A Good Last Before the Start

This past weekend was the unofficial last weekend before "official" training starts for the Peak's 50.  Saturday, I ran the Connector with Val and Emma - it's really a tough route and I was feeling it.  Granted, I'm still getting over my cold, but just underscored my need to keep working at the hills and my endurance.  I have no designs about racing hard at Peaks, but I also don't want my goal to be "just finish".  Ultimately, I'd just like to feel relatively strong the whole time, which was pretty much my goal for the 40.  But back to the weekend...the Saturday run was awesome.  We ran the Connector and then over to visit the Heeland Coos with some hello's to the pigs and chickens (under the very watchful eye of the rooster, I can't remember his name).  To add on some miles, we ran the rest of the Animal Loop back to the powerlines and then back to the park.  I had been studying the maps the day before to get a better sense of where I am on the trail in relation to where it is on the map.  I think I had a good idea of where we were in my head as we went along.  Oh, we also added in a small detour to see some of the trails that Ian and I had scouted earlier in the week.  Val and Emma got some great pictures - the water crossings and the powerline trail covered in a dusting of snow is really beautiful.  We also saw tons of great animal tracks, turkeys, coyotes, squirrels, and some unidentifiable stuff (not big enough for Bigfoot) and even imprints of turkey feathers in the snow.  We ended up with about 16 on the nose, though my garmin is still acting weird (I think Val found the cause, though).  Unfortunately, E&L's was closed for a funeral and we couldn't complete our day there.  Today I was tired, the cold is not yet over, but tolerable.  Pete actually got me out of the house and we went over to try and link up two Greenbelt trails that I've been looking at.  We ran the Great Pond route over to the outer Gull Crest and over towards Scott Dyer Rd.  Out and back is about 5.3 miles; I want to add on a short piece of road to link up to Winnick's Woods.  I believe that whole lollipop would be about 10ish miles.  I have to say, I'm really not minding the lack of snow, though I know it sucks for all the skiiers and for the snowshoe races.  The winters are so long here, it's been nice to kind of have an extended Finter (between Fall and Winter).  When it does snow, though, my snowshoes are ready...