Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know that it was 2 days ago, but I just can not get enough of these pumpkin cookies! You've got to try them out if you've got some left-over pumpkin. Or not left-over. Either way.

I had a great Thanksgiving. First thing in the morning, I signed up for The Battle at Midway Triathlon which is going to be the Rocky Mountain qualifier race for Age Group Nationals next year! I won my age group there this year so I'm hopeful! Just because there was only one other woman in my age group at that race doesn't mean I don't have a chance. I can't say I loved putting in 30 for the age I will be next year. The 30-35 age group is always bigger and more competitive. Plus, I'm sure there will be a lot more people racing now that it's a qualifier. Looking at this year's numbers, though, I just need to be 8 minutes faster to get into the top 5 (to qualify for Nationals). It was also comforting that I beat #5 in the swim and the bike, but she beat me in the run and therefore the whole thing. Even more reason to focus on running this year.

We went to Heber to spend Thanksgiving with my family, along with my dad's girlfriend and her kids. I went and worked with my sister at The Children's Place in Park City on Black Friday, and it was actually kind of a fun day. It went by really fast because it was so busy, and what could be nicer than folding clothes, listening to music and eating junk food all day, not having to worry about anyone else but myself? When we got home, I realized that my feet were really sore, though. I had planned on going running after work, but couldn't bring myself to do it with my feet hurting so much. I didn't even want to stand any longer!

We spent one more night at my Dad's house which was nice because Pete and I were able to go to our favorite place for dinner, Tarahumara. The lady who owns it was happy to see us. She's so sweet. We also drove by the house that we really liked when we were looking, but couldn't afford at the time. Now, it is still for sale, and for 20,000 less than what we paid for this house! Plus it's in Heber! We're going to watch it and think about it for a while. It sure would be nice to live there again, though.

This morning I finally got that run in. It was a really hard run! It seemed like most of the run was uphill, against the wind. Plus my ipod died after one song. One song! Come on ipod! It was kind of fun to run on the roads where I really first started running, and where I realized that running could be fun. It's so nice running there because not once did I have to stop for cars or a traffic light. I saw very few cars, and the ones I did see were able to go into the other lane to stay away from me, and they would smile and wave. I did have one scary dog come running out after me, though. It was a Blue Heeler which is the kind of dog my grandpa has always had, and they've never seemed scary to me. This one did, though. It had it's teeth bared and it was just looking at me like it wanted to rip my throat out. I had to stop and yell at it for a few seconds before it would back off. So, there is a down side to running in the country.

I did 6.2 miles (10k) in exactly one hour. Here are my splits:

1. 9:02
2. 9:25
3. 9:58
4. 10:19 (uphill, against the wind remember?)
5. 9:33
6. 8:41 (heading home, downhill!)
7. 3:15 (really slow .2)

I jogged pretty slow for a little bit at the end. I was tired! Then I cut through the field and across the canal to get back to my dad's house, feeling a little bit like Emma or Ann of Green Gables. It didn't seem so romantic without the long flowing dress and and basket of freshly picked wildflowers, never mind the fact that I was covered in sweat and wearing running attire.

With such a good run last time, it was good to have a harder one today to be reminded that not all terrain is the same. The hills will just help me get faster. Plus, there are a LOT of hills at The Battle at Midway Tri.

Race Schedule & New PR

I I've got my race schedule (pretty much) figured out for 2010. Finally. I know you've been waiting and waiting for this moment, and it is finally here!

I haven't decided for sure about the first two. I told Pete a while ago that I would just do one race next year. Well, at least that's what he said. How can I just do one race though!? Maybe I meant I would just do one big race? Well, my big race, or my "A race" as they say, is going to be Bear Lake Half. Utah Valley Marathon won't be too little either. I'm so tempted to do Rage and St. George Tri, but then I think it might be better to just focus on running until after the marathon. But then I don't want to totally loose my triathlon fitness either.

• ❑ April 17 - Rage 1/2 (Lake Mead)

• ❑ May 15 - SGTri Sprint/Olympic (St. George)

• ✓ June 12 - Utah Valley Marathon

• ✓ July 31 - Spudman Olympic (Burley)

• ✓ August 7 - BAM Olympic

• ✓ August 28* - Bear Lake - 1/2 (bear lake)

* I can't find the date for next year's Bear Lake Half. It will be August 28th if they do it the same weekend as this year. Hopefully they'll get their new website up soon.

If you're looking for a good race to do in this area, these are some of my favorites, and it would be awesome if anyone wanted to join me at any of these races. If none of these work for you, here are the other ones I wanted to do, but I took off my list when I narrowed it down:

• ❑ June 12 - Boise 70.3

• ❑ July 10 ? - Echo Sprint/Olympic (Coalville) One of my favorites, and would be a great first tri!

• ❑ July 17 - Scofield Sprint/Olympic/escape/kids (Price)

• ❑ August 21 - Park City Marathon (Park City)

• ❑ September 16 - Kokopeli Sprint/Olympic (St. George)

• ❑ September 18 - Top of Utah Marathon (Logan)

• ✓ October 2 - St. George Marathon

• ❑ October 16 - Pumpkinman Sprint/Olympic and 1/2 (Las Vegas)

I will probably also do a few 5ks and 10ks in there somewhere on the way to the marathon, just for fun. In fact, there is one on Thanksgiving in Bountiful that I think we're all going to go do. There's a kids k and all the kids are really excited about doing that.

Now onto today:

This morning, Elle woke up at around 3 with a fever and she said her hands and feet hurt so I was a little worried about her. I gave her some Ibproufin and got her back to bed by like 4. Amazingly, she woke up just as happy as can be and seemed a lot better today. She didn't have a fever, but she's still got the runny nose and a little cough. She watched movies for most of the morning, and she sat with me while I watched Roman Holliday and folded laundry. She even kind of liked it. She kept asking, "Is that the princess?" That's a great movie by the way. After lunch, I got her to take a nap, then I headed out on a run since Pete was home sick too (yeah, with something different though).

I went out with just my long-sleeved shirt on since that's what I wore last time and I got hot, but I turned right back around to get my jacket. I guess when it's 37 degrees, and you can see your breath, it's time for a jacket. I also pulled my long sleeves out and over my hands which worked pretty well. I did warm up after a mile or so, just like I knew I would, but I had to be a little careful about the ice sidewalks. I need to get used to this running in the cold stuff.

I ran on the bike path by the river, and was trying to remember if the river froze last year and why I couldn't picture it. Then I remembered, I didn't run last winter. Like at all. I had a stress fracture in my heel from the St. George Marathon so I didn't run from October until January (around the time I started this blog). Even when I did start running again, it was on the indoor track for a while. (Man, just thinking about it is making my heel hurt.)

I wasn't feeling great starting out, but I started to feel pretty good after a while. I pushed it a little bit on this run, and it was worth it!

I ran 6 miles in 54:50!!

That is SO close to 9-minute-mile pace!

I've never ran that far that fast before! Pete was like, "That's a new PR! You should write that down somewhere." So I'm writing it down here. There is my fastest 6 miles: 54:50.

That would explain why my legs are so tired now.

Here are my mile splits:

1. 9:05
2. 9:15
3. 9:03
4. 9:10
5. 9:01
6. 9:10

The weird thing was that, if I'd look at the Garmin and notice I was going slower than 9:00 pace, say 9:30, I'd just start going a little faster. It would seem almost imperceptible how much faster I was going, and it would jump to 8:30. Wow, that is really good to know! So, a little bit more effort really helps a lot! From now on, I'm going to keep putting that little bit more effort into my runs. No more just coasting for me.

My Own 5k

Today I was planning on doing a 5k with my sister up in Logan (an hour and a half from here). I was going to go up last night and have a fun girl's night, sans kids, then do the race in the morning.

Well, when I talked to my sister last night, she told me she had to work this morning so she wouldn't be able to do the race. Well, I didn't want to go do it if she wasn't doing it. That was my whole reason for going up so I just stayed home. It looked like it might snow up there anyway.

This morning was a nice loung-around-in-bed kind of morning, then we went out to breakfast. I love going out to breakfast! Then we did some shopping. We got home just before 1:00 and I made an appointment for me and Mindy to get our hair cut at 2:00. At around this same time my brother (who also lives in Logan) invited us over for dinner tonight. Well, that meant I couldn't go running after our hair appointment so I had to hurry and go before! I couldn't not go, I just got a new sports bra and had to try it out! Plus I'd been looking forward to running today all week. It's weird that I get excited about running now...

I had planned on doing a long-ish run today, 6-7 miles, but since I only had an hour I decided to do my own little 5k to see how fast I could do it.

I headed out, and ran for about a mile, getting warmed up, then I turned on my Garmin and let the pain begin. My goal was to finish in under 27 minutes. To do this, I had to keep my pace at around 8:30, and it was really hard for the last 2 miles, but I did it!

Distance: 3.1 miles

Time: 26:14 (WOOT!)

Mile splits:

1. 8:28
2. 8:33
3. 8:24
4. :48

My max pace was 6:00/mile! Wow. It wasn't for very long, though. It was during my first mile, and I started off way to fast. I probably should have paced myself a little better, looking at my data chart, my speed was all over the place! But I'm happy that I met my goal even if I felt like my heart was going to explode and I was going to throw up for most of the time!

Having done an Ironman, I now know that anything is possible. It seems more impossible for me to get fast at running than to do the Ironman, but I am encouraged that I've been able to speed up this much so far! Who knows, maybe I'll be fast one day!

More Hills Please

It was 50 degrees today! Yeah! I've been planning on doing a bike ride today ever since I saw the weather forecast. Even though it was so much warmer today, I still felt cold and hesitant about a ride. Not to mention I was having severe period cramps. That didn't help. While I was making my pre-ride pb&j, I seriously was having a hard time even standing up strait, and then it hurt to sit down too. I just kept thinking that I would be justified if I was just lazy and took a nice hot bath instead. But I knew that doing something active would make me feel better. It always does, even if it seems like the worst thing to do at the time.

I also knew that a hot bath after a good bike ride would be so much better than just a hot bath so I got myself all dressed up to go, and got Elle all comfy in the bike trailer. She fell asleep right away, like usual. She's like clock-work, that girl! Of course, having a nap means she's trying to use her cuteness to stay up as late as possible right now.

I added more hills than I usually do with the bike trailer today, and it was hard work! I rode on the bike path along Beck Street up to North Salt Lake (almost bountiful...), and I didn't take it easy on that hill either. I worked it! I got my heart-rate up nice and high, and got myself nice and warm too. That's not too hard of a hill when I'm by myself, but with Elle, it's a different thing.

After our ride, I took Elle over to the river where the ducks are and we fed them some old bread. There were a lot of hungry ducks, so luckily a guy with 2 big bags of bread crumbs got there at the same time as us, and he let us throw out some of his bread too.

I rode (or was out, I'm not sure if I stopped my timer at the ducks or not) for an hour and a half, and went about 14.5 miles.

When we got home, I did get my hot bath, along with hot cocoa, and it was very nice. I felt so good for the whole ride, and as soon as I got home the cramps came back, but they weren't as bad. I knew the bike ride would do me good. Out of all the bike rides I've done, there's only one where I thought, "Man, I shouldn't have gone," and that was the one where it was pouring, freezing cold rain and my ankles were all purple when I got home. I felt a little stupid for going out in that, but hey, it was still a learning experience.

I Dream of Racing

Elle (August 17, 2008)

This morning I dreamt that I had just finished a Half Ironman, and I was surprised that I was just a little sore. The weird thing about the dream was that Carol from Triathlon Training Blog also came and did the race (whatever race it was, it must have been nearby) and she stayed with me. Unfortunately, I also had a ton of other people staying at my house (I have no idea where these people all slept!) and everything was so crazy that I didn't even get a chance to talk to her. I was bummed about that. A few weeks ago I dreamt that goSonja came to visit and we went swimming at this awesome swimming pool.

Maybe I'm on twitter a little too much!

So, the feeling sore was actually real. I was a little sore today from that hard run yesterday, but that's as it should be. No pain, no gain. I have always liked the feeling of sore muscles (to a point) because it means that I worked and that I'm getting stronger! I'm not going to get faster by just sitting around, am I?

I did just sit around today, though. Well, not really. Elle and I got the whole upstairs cleaned up using the laundry basket as a train. She'd push it around and we'd make a stop whenever we saw toys or shoes or books or anything that needed to be picked up. At some of the stops, some of the stuff had to get off to be put away and that thing would say, "Bye everyone!" It was so much fun, and Elle loved it! The best part was that I didn't just feel like a maid, I felt like I was spending time with my little girl.

It's amazing how much my stress level goes down when the house is clean! It's totally worth it for me to take a day to do that. I also planned out dinners for this week before I went grocery shopping, so that made dinner time a lot less stressful. I need to do that more often.

Elle and I also went on a little walk to the store, and she just held my hand as we walked. It was so sweet! That was my exercise for the day, and I was fine with that. Tomorrow I plan to go for a bike ride with the trailer since it's supposed to be the warmest day of the week.

Hill Run

I didn't do my long run on Saturday. In fact, I didn't run at all because it snowed and was freaking cold, but I figured it would be ok since I had that impromptu, awesome, almost long run on Friday.

Today I woke up feeling really tired and sick to my stomach so I didn't even plan on doing a run. I did make it to the store with Elle, though, and she was just so cute and good at the store that I came home feeling so much better! It's amazing how much control that girl has over my mood!

When the afternoon rolled around, I decided to leave Ethan and Elle with Pete and run during Mindy's ballet class. The ballet studio is up in The Avenues to I got to take off from there, and I just headed up (and I mean up) 2nd Ave. for 2 miles. It was really hard work, and I was pretty slow. Here are my first 2 mile splits:

1. 9:52

2. 11:32 (this is where it got steep)

I turned around at the top, and got to run down the hill. That is so fun! I love being able to go that fast. How do people do it on flat ground?? Even though it's easier, I think running that fast down the hill helps me know what it's like to go that fast. It gets my legs used to going that fast, or gets me used to seeing the scenery going by that fast, or something. I just kept telling myself, "Ok, this is how fast I need to go on Saturday." Here are my last 2 mile splits:

3. 8:09

4. 8:31

It was a fun run even though I forgot my ipod, and it was cold (27 degrees according to my car). My hands were cold for the first 10 minutes, but then I was fine, and I listened to my keys rattling around in my back pocket. I could have been annoyed by that, but I decided to just use the sound as my running beat. It's always fun running over all the fallen leaves too.

Note: It couldn't have really been that cold. It won't get much colder than that all winter so, if it was really that cold, I should be able to run all winter just fine.

Friday Flashback - My First Real 5k

March 10, 2007 - photo by Alexis Hjelm

This morning I didn't really have a run scheduled, but I actually felt good, and I really wanted to go running! This might be because my alarm didn't go off and I slept for an extra half an hour. (I still got the kids to school on time, though!) But, whatever the reason, I wasn't going to let wanting to run go to waste.

Man it was cold this morning (like 30 degrees), but I didn't even hesitate to grab some warm running tights and get all suited up. I had gloves and ear warmer, but just two long-sleeved shirts because I always end up wanting to take my jacket off. This ended up being perfect, and after a mile and a half I took the gloves off and tucked them into my shorts waist, then I took my ear warmer off at around 2 miles.

Starting out, listening to Muse, I felt like I was in a movie or even a cool running commercial or something. Muse will do that to you, I guess. I just felt so light and quick, and just good! It was awesome. I had decided to just do a quick, fun run and not worry about my time or speed or anything, and it was a good thing too because the battery on the Garmin died before I had even gone a mile. So I got to have that big, heavy thing on my wrist just for looks. (ok, it's not that heavy)

I ended up doing probably 5 miles. Maybe a little more. When I got to my house, I was listening to "Grounds For Divorce" by Elbow and I didn't want to start cooling down until it was over so I went around the block. But when it ended, "The Uprising" by Muse came on, and that is not a good cool down song. That's a good "Let's kill this run!" kind of song. So I kept going strong until that was over.

Really, I just felt so good and so fast the whole run. I don't know if I really was fast, but I felt good, and had a great time. That's what matters. Running is just so amazing!

I used to hate running. When I would go running before, every second was agony to me. I'm going to tell you about my first 5k, which was kind of a turning point for me. It helped me see that I really could run and that maybe it wasn't so bad.

When I got pregnant with Elle, I had already done my first Triathlon and fallen in love with the sport, but I still hated the running part of it. I had planned on doing several tris that summer, but getting pregnant put an end to those plans. I'm not complaining, though, I love Elle and I'm SO glad I have her! Anyway, shortly after she was born, I hurt my back in spin class so that also put a damper on triathlon training (I still did some later that year though). Even though I hated it, I wanted to get better at running so that I could at least run the whole 5k at the end of my next tri.

Around this time, my sister, Katie, decided to she wanted to start running so we planned to do the Red Cross 5k on March 10, 2007. That was my anniversary, but I think Pete had something going on that day too. This would be my first real 5k. One that wasn't at the end of a triathlon.

We lived in different cities, but we found a training plan online and we both stuck to it religiously. It's funny now to think about a training plan to build up distance to 3.1 miles, but that was our goal, and it was hard enough. We added like a quarter-mile every week or something like that so it wasn't too daunting for us non-runners.

When race day came, we were ready and excited! Here we are before the race. Man, I miss that pink jacket! The zipper broke so I brought it back to the Pearl Izumi factory outlet, where I got it, to see if I could trade. They did let me trade, but they didn't have any more pink so I took a red one instead, which is pretty cool. But I liked my pink one.

The race started and I just thought it was so weird to have it be so packed with runners like that, and weird to have so many people with me during the run. It was fun though!

Here I come into the finish! I don't know why I even wore that ugly hat, look how cloudy it was. I tried desperately to find out what my time was, but I can't find it anywhere. I know I must have written it somewhere, but I don't know where. I think I came it at right around half an hour, though. It seems like it was either 29 or 31 minutes.

Here comes Katie! I was so proud of her that day! I can't remember what her time was either. She kept training and did a half marathon that same year, and this year we plan to do the Park City Marathon together. That will be awesome!

In the mean time, we're going to do our second race together! Finally. I can't believe it's almost been 3 years!

Katie's doing a 5k next weekend in Logan, and I am going to go up and do it with her. I'm so excited to see how fast I can do it! Maybe that was my motivation for such a good run today. Maybe I need races in my life. Even in the winter.

Blustery Bike Ride

Look at my cute family fixin' bikes (taken 9/9/2008)

This morning it was all gray and windy so I didn't want to head out on my bike right away even though I probably could have gone by myself that way. I kind of thought that later in the day it would be a little nicer so I just worked on my sister's quilt for a few hours. I was getting close to getting it done so I was excited to get back to work on it. I did get all the squares/lines sewn together today too! Very exciting stuff! I'll post pictures when it's all done.

As I was spending the morning working on the quilt, I started to worry that it would actually get worse and start raining or something, then I wouldn't even get to go. After we made cookies (ok, we had to make cookies! It as a stormy looking day, what else could we do?) and had lunch, I got the bike trailer hooked up and we got all ready. I put Elle's pillow and blanket in there so she was all snuggly, and she fell asleep right away, and slept until we got home.

The great thing about riding in the wind is that you get to push hard and be humbled one way, and go fast and have fun the other way. It's the best when you do the hard part first, and that's how it was today, though it wasn't really that windy. In fact, it wasn't that cold either. It looked worse than it was. I forgot to wear gloves, and my hands never even got cold. My feet were pretty cold by the end, though, but that's to be expected.

I rode hard for 50 minutes, down Warm Springs Road and back, and managed 12 miles. Let's say that's really good for riding with a bike trailer in the wind.

I had a great day today!

We're Goin' Single!

First let me say that yesterday I was so stressed out and feeling depressed and defeated by my 3-year-old throwing a fit in the bathroom at Joann's (screaming so much that one of the employees came to see if everything was ok because a couple of customers had mentioned it) that I mopped around the house when we got home and missed my time window to go out on the bike ride I had planned. It was such a nice day too. I really wish I would have gone, I know it would have made me feel better!

I remembered that today when I woke up not feeling good, and just too tired to want to do anything. Plus I went to Walmart and ended up spending all my money without even getting anything fun, which is always depressing. On the way home, I decided I'd just get out and do my run right away instead of waiting for the kids to get out of school to go to the track like I had planned. Plus we still needed to try out our new stroller!

My brother and sister-in-law came down this weekend and brought their single jogging stroller to trade for my double one since they just had their second baby, and I'm just down to one baby. I can't say I won't miss my good ol' double stroller, but I was excited to try out this new, smaller one out today! Elle was really excited too, can you tell?

Look how little and compact it is! And so cozy for Elle! This is the InStep 10k Stroller from who knows what year. I think it was already used when my sister-in-law got it.

The sun shade is way bigger than my old one. This one might actually do some good if it rained (we'll have to see about that, though), and it will definitely keep the sun off.

Pushing this little stroller was so much lighter and faster than the big one. Ok, Duh. I must say, it was a little harder to turn, though, because the front wheel is just locked into place. It doesn't swivel like my old one. On the other hand, the swiveling one sometimes got out of hand and the stroller would start shaking when I got going fast, so it was nice that it didn't do that.

I started off taking it pretty easy, but I was amazed at how fast I was going still. I don't know my exact time for the first mile because I stopped to take my jacket off and take this picture:

My pace was somewhere around 9:30 before I stopped, but it ended up averaging 10:19 because of my forgetfulness.

As soon as I finished my first mile, I started into my second mile which was going to be a fast interval. I was able to get going pretty fast, but it was really hard to keep that up because there were a couple streets to cross and I even kind of stopped for a second to show Elle a little duck, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be going fast!

That mile seemed to take forever, and it was really hard! I had to stop and walk to catch my breath when my (I mean Pete's) wonderful Garmin finally beeped.

My time was 8:41 which isn't my best, but I think it's pretty good considering I was pushing a stroller, and considering the whole duck sighting incident.

It just so happened that I finished that mile right at the spot I had wanted to take a picture of Monday, and this time I had my camera! (I think it had a little better lighting last time...)

I had totally planned on recovering, then turning around and doing another hard mile, but while I was stopped, I noticed that not one, but two of the stroller's tires were flat. Both of the back tires. No wonder it had seemed so hard at the end! I wonder how long they'd been like that.

That's what I get for trusting tires from my brother who likes to go "off road" with his stroller. We even pulled a thorn out when he unloaded it from his car. I made sure to check the tires before we left, thinking I might have to fix one, but they were good so we just went with it.

I ended up walking home, trying to push the stroller like a wheelbarrow so it wouldn't just be riding on the rims (and also because I hate the sound of squishy flat tires!), but that was very hard to do for very long since it doesn't have the wheelbarrow's low handles.

My third mile was 17:29

The last .75 took me 13:31

Total of 3.75 miles in exactly 50 minutes! Wahoo!

Despite the setbacks, I still really enjoyed my run/outing this morning. It was a beautiful day, and I was outside doing something, listening to some good music, and just happy to be alive and healthy enough to be able to be doing what I was doing. I felt so much better than before I left, and my day was really pretty good from there on out.

Elle was having a good time too and even fell asleep before we got home. She ended up sleeping for another hour and a half or so, which I think she really needed. Yesterday she was a little pill, and I think it must have been from being over-tired.

Overall, a successful test of the stroller. I'm excited to get those tires fixed and take it out again!

Beautiful Tempo Run

My Street. Taken last year (Nov. 21, 2008).

This morning Mindy woke up and promptly threw up. She was so sad because she really wanted to go to school. What a good girl, hu? Luckily she didn't throw up again, and was feeling much better by this evening so I think she'll be OK to go tomorrow.

I put cartoons on for Mindy and Elle while I took Ethan in. When I got home, Pete said he'd be be around long enough for me to run, so I headed out. It was a little chilly when I first started, and I was wishing I'd worn gloves, but by the end I was getting hot.

I started off pretty easy, but not too easy. I had to keep holding myself back a little, reminding myself I was still warming up. I think I was just excited to be out running again. The time on my first (warm-up) mile was about 9:13.

This was a tempo run so I pushed it pretty hard. I decided to try and do the three miles in under 9-minute miles. Here are my mile splits:

1. 8:52
2. 8:53
3. 8:57

I did another mile to cool-down, but I didn't want to do it too slow. Most of the time I was running at about 10:30, but I ran fast at the end to get it down to 10:03.

I did the entire 5 miles in 46:03. Almost 9-minute miles (9:12 average, to be exact). I'm pretty happy with that!

Another thing to do to help you enjoy the fall is get out and see the beautiful scenery. I really wished I'd brought my camera because there was one spot on the running path that was just framed in with the orange and yellow leaves. It was really pretty, and I was so glad I got to see it.

I Love Fall

I hear people say, "I love fall!" a lot, and I always just think, "Why??" How can you like something that takes away the beautiful, warm summer, and brings in the cold, snow-filled winter?

The past few days have been SO nice that I've decided that I really need to just enjoy the season, and not dread what follows it.

I have also decided not to renew my gym membership. I'm going to see how it goes doing my workouts outside or at home for a while.

Wednesday was just the perfect day for a bike ride. About 60 degrees and no wind. I hooked the good ol' bike trailer up to my TT bike and took Elle out for about 1:15. It was a really good workout, and I pushed really hard. It was a fun ride.

Thursday I took the kids to the high school track. My plan was to do 2 1-mile repeats, and have the kids just play on the field while I did them. It was really windy, and the kids were having fun playing with a paper airplane I made them, and in the sand, but it didn't last long. I managed to warm up and get one mile done before Mindy needed to go to the bathroom. That mile took me 8:39 too! It's so much harder to run outside, especially in the wind!

I had to take Mindy back over to the school to go to the bathroom. That took 20 minutes, and I didn't really want to try going back after that. I kind of felt like I whimped out on this workout, but one mile is better than nothing.

I didn't do anything on Friday except work on my quilt, take the kids to the zoo to see the baby elephant (she's so cute!), and go see They Might Be Giants that night. They were so awesome, and it was such a fun night!

Today we rode bikes to the gateway (2 miles away) and back with the kids. That was my only workout for the day. Well, that, and bagging about a million leaves in my yard.

Stroller Day

I'm excited that my little sister, Katie, is getting back into running. She wants me to be her "coach" but it will just be me encouraging her more than anything, and maybe finding a plan online for us to follow. I'm planning on doing a marathon with her and my sister-in-law next year. Katie's started blogging about her training, and she did her first workout today, so go check it out! It will be fun to watch her progress over the next year.

Today was another stroller day for me.

I totally would have gone to the gym to run, but guess what. Yep, my gym membership is up. I'm so sad about it. I'm tempted to just go renew it, but I hate how far away it is, especially when they're building a new big place just a few blocks from my house. I'm not sure when it's supposed to be done, but it looks like it's getting pretty close. Who knows, though, it might not be open until next year or something. I've been debating and debating about what to do. Should I join another gym that's closer, and not as nice or should I just hold off, do my running outside this winter, and wait for the new gym? It's not like that's impossible. I haven't been swimming in forever, and that's the thing I really need the gym for. I don't know.....

Anyway, I just took Elle in the stroller about 40 minutes before I had to pick the kids up from school. I ran around for about half an hour or so, taking a round-about way to the school. Then walked/ran back with the added weight of Mindy (she rode in the bike trailer this morning). It was a good workout, as always, pushing that thing. I'm sure it's good for me.

Halloween

Saturday morning I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for our Halloween breakfast. They were so good, and they were great fuel for my run.

I took Pete's Garmin and ran up to The Avenues. The Aenues are streets in downtown Salt Lake that are up on the hill so it's a good workout to run up there. It was 44 degrees when I left at about 10 or 11, but I'm sure it warmed up a little by the time I got back. At least I warmed up. I was just wearing a light jacket, but I had to unzip it and I was pretty warm for most of the run.

This was the first time I've done this run with a timer that I could stop at the lights. There are quite a few lights I have to go through so it slows me down quite a bit. I didn't stop it at the first light, but I remembered to on all the following lights after watching my time go up.

Coming down the hill, as always, was really fun and fast. I looked at my speed and it said 8:30 while I was going down, but that had to take into account the flat part of the mile too.

I turned around at 4 miles, and it would have been an 8 mile run if I hadn't had the train stop on the tracks in front of me. I was SO tempted to just climb through between the cars, and I got a little rush just thinking about it, but then I imagined myself getting arrested and decided it wasn't worth it. Even though I was enjoying my run quite a bit, it still felt like a kick in the stomach to have to backtrack 4 bloks and go over a big overpass that I wasn't planning on. So, in all I probably did closer to 9 miles, but I stopped the timer when I got to 8, and just took it nice and slow the rest of the way home, some walking, some jogging. (I didn't want it to affect my average speed!)

Total distance: 8 miles

Total time: 1:16

Average speed: 9:30 (Wahoo!! Take that 10-minute mile pace!)

Here are my mile splits:

1. 9:19
2. 10:00 (first stop light)
3. 9:52
4. 10:35 (hardest part of the hill)
5. 8:31 (fun downhill!)
6. 8:50
7. 9:21
8. 9:32

It was a great run, and I was super happy with my time!

I wore my compression socks under my halloween socks, but I was running around so much the rest of the day (buying fabric for a quilt w/my sis, going to Heber, trick or treating with the kids, cutting the fabric into squares...) that by the end of the day, my legs were really sore, and they were still a little sore the next day. I think going from 7 miles (ahem, 2 weeks ago) to almost 9 miles was a little much, but what can you do when there's a train?

Anyway, here are my trick-or-treaters:

Ethan ended up getting really sick on Sunday so I kept him home from school Monday, just in case so I didn't get a workout in Monday. He's all better, and back to school today so I just need to figure out what to do. Run or bike? Stay tuned to find out what I choose...