Stretching The Legs

It was quite a weekend. Saturday was my third time running one of the most awesome trail races here on the East coast – the Hyner View Trail Challenge! I ran the 50K flavor along with my very good buddy Jason Lang. I was considering NOT doing the event this year as I knew my training wasn’t at the level it needed to be…just not enough hours and miles on my feet. This was Jason’s first 50K and after some good spirited cajoling, he convinced me to stick with it and run it with him…no matter how slow or how long it took us…and thus we did!

These type of events bring a wonderful collection of folks together; hard core athletes, athletes for the love simply of motion, outdoor enthusiasts, tree huggers and of course…craft beer drinkers! You’d be hard pressed to find an event like this…running through the woods for hours at a time, up and down single track trails, over roots and rocks, across (and through) streams…where there wasn’t stellar food, great comradery and local beer to be had during the after party. “Hyner” exemplifies this!

Jason and I finished after 9 brutal hours on the trail. We were one of the last sets of 50k’ers to finish and we’re fine with that. We both had our struggles individually during the race, but sticking together, we found a way to make it through. And as always, we met a ton of great people along the way. The staff and volunteers are out of this world! Something like this couldn’t be done without some incredible folks and Hyner has them in spades! The only rub…as we’d finished a tad later than most, the beer tent was down and only chicken and beans were left for dinner. “Hooray for beans and root beer!” says this veghead 😉

So…onto the Farm. As you can guess, my legs were not in the best shape Sunday (the day after)…but as any runner will tell you it’s “the day AFTER the day after” is where it really gets bad. That day just happened to be my “Farm day”. As it turns out, it could not have been a better work out. Today was spent clearing the remainder of the “old Keystone Road”, which will serve as our access road for the tractor and any other heavy equipment to access the upper fields. This was pretty much a few hours of up and down, clearing brush, pulling stumps and saplings, ripping out overgrowth…bend the knees, twist, stretch…it was slow and deliberate but it kept my leg muscles from just becoming lactic acid reservoirs!

Additionally, it was time to get some soil samples. Again, slow but deliberately I took the walk first up to the existing hopyard to gather a sample…then further to the barley field…then finally to the new hopyard in the far Northwest corner of the Farm. Could I have fired up the tractor to complete the walk? Of course, but it was another chance to keep those legs in motion and just enjoy the peace and beauty of the day.

And finally, I had some cleaning of oil to do back on the barn patio. When I’d parked the tractor the other week, I neglected to place some cardboard under it. Any older machine you have, you can pretty much bet it’ll be leaking something…so cover your bases. I did not and as such had a little oil to deal with that I wanted to try and get up BEFORE my folks arrive back North in a few days.

Also, the copy of the IH674 owner’s manual arrived that we’d ordered. If I’m really wanting to get to deep down know this machine inside and out, this will be a stellar start. All in all, a good day to stretch the legs!