Spring Has Sprung

I did skip yesterday's run. Happily. Without guilt. Knowing it was the best thing that I could do for myself and my training.
Actually, I was getting a bit freaked because I'd pulled up so tired from the weekend. I still have fairly fresh memories of last year - feeling exhausted and not being able to recover after even short, easy runs. I'm terrified of going back there so that was why it was easy to miss just one run.
Intellectually I knew that it was fair and reasonable to be feeling tired. I'd run a good, hard race after no taper and after running some of my longest mileage weeks ever, so fatigue is a natural outcome. And at my age recovery is slower. But emotionally all I could think of was last year and how long it took me to feel normal again. It made me question the wisdom of doing a half marathon right at this point of marathon training.
But today I woke up and felt good. Normal. Energetic. Ready to run 32k tomorrow morning.
I felt good enough to take the dogs on a walk. Yes, everyone benefits from me having a bit of time off running. We got to sniff at all the interesting posts and patches of grass. We got to smell the jasmine that's starting to flower. We got to see that our local bag man has been moved on and his bags cleaned away. And we got to see this.

Now I understand why the drake has been so aggressive the last couple of times I've walked/run through that park. Looks to me like spring has sprung.
And talking about happy families, I just wanted to share some lovely photos of mine.

Sam and Hannah

Josh and Serena

Luke and Becky

I put a new app on my phone and was playing around with it the other night and it got me thinking about how blessed I am that I have these lovely girls in my life. When I had my third son I was a bit sad that I didn't have a daughter and that when my sons found girlfriends I'd lose them just a little. But it certainly hasn't been the case. I feel like I've gained three daughters (and without having to go through those harrowing puberty years). And after having such a testosterone-dominated household it's so refreshing to find make up and hair pins and smell perfume in the house.
Isn't it great when life turns out better than you'd expected?!