Sunday

What an appropriate name for the day! The morning started with a nice walk with Sophie. A little fog on the water and a beautiful sunrise.

Lot's of geese and ducks flying overhead and honking on the water. Our neighborhood Sandhill crane's were at the park this morning. Usually they start walking away as soon as they see us - this morning they didn't seem to care that we were walking by.

Once home we loaded up the bikes for a ride to New Glarus Brewery! 42 miles round trip. It was beautiful - days like today are meant to be enjoyed. And we did! Look at that blue sky!

RUNNING: My running has not been great lately. While I have been getting in 4, 5 and 6 mile runs - with a half marathon in a little over a month - I need some double digit runs. That is hard to do during the week, since I run in the morning before work. Better planning and getting to bed earlier are what is needed. I am a person that needs a good 8 hours of sleep - getting up at 5 means heading to bed at 9 - not 10, like tonight! And if I really want to get 10+ miles in before work - I need to be out the door at 5 - not rolling out of bed.

So I need to get to sleep and get this post sent!

 

 

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Flexible

I have been involved wih a local homeless program for 4 years called, The Road Home. They provide shelter, housing and case management for homeless families. My church acts as one of the many host churches, providing overnight shelter to families 4 times a year. Families stay in a church for a week and are then moved to the next host church. Individuals from the congregation provide meals, entertain children in the early evenings and stay overnight with the families during their week. In general families stay in this Shelter portion of the program 8 weeks!

I am on the overnight crew. Sleeping over night at the church 1 evening or sometimes 2, during the week we host. My sleepover occurred on Wed evening.

Always thinking of biking and running - I planned to run to work from our church on Thursday morning and bike home Thursday evening. This allows me to get a longer run in during the week, which usually doesn't happen. Generally I find it very difficult to fit in anything longer than 3 miles in the morning, before work.

But, in order to run to work and bike home, a few things had to happen. I would need to bring work clothes to the office the day before. Since I try to bring my lunch, I packed two lunches on Wed morning. I also had to bring my bike and helmet to work on Wed and leave it there, so hat I could bike home on Thursday. Plans were in place and everything was executed.

We woke up Thursday morning to rain, lots of thunder, lighting and rain. The overnight guests are picked up every morning at 7 by a volunteer and the children are dropped off at their schools, and parents dropped off at work or The Road Home day shelter, where case managers assist with searching for homes and work. (The agency has a 15 passenger van which allows 14 individuals to be part of the shelter program at any one time).

Once the families left I decided to drive to work and get a run in from there. That way, if the weather was bad, I wouldn't be that far from shelter. The heavy rain had stopped by the time I got to work. It was sprinkling at best when I took off. A few sprinkles along with the mild temp's made for a beautiful run.

 

This is a picture of Lake Monona, near the Yahara River entrance to the lake.

 

Here is the bridge I took over the river. Not long after I crossed this bridge it started to POUR. Oh well, I stuck to the sidewalks which allowed for lots of tree cover!

At the end of the day there was another deluge so instead of biking home I put my bike back on the trailer and drove home.

I must remain flexible - plans don't always work out perfectly.

 

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Trying to keep it simple!

I was getting ready to write a new post and realized I didn't publish this one from a couple of days ago.

I am in a bit of a funk. Seriously I thought it would be over and am trying to tell myself to just get "over it". Looking at pretty much everything as "sucking" is hard work. But it is, what it is, work - sucks, cleaning the house - sucks, shorter days - sucks . . . etc.

No more words - I am trying not to dwell on the negative so probably need to just move on.

Took a walk with Sophie this morning and our neighborhood cranes finally came out of hiding. While I have been hearing them - they have been in hiding and I haven't seen them in a couple weeks.

The lake was shedding its warm and there was a nice layer of fog on top of the water.

It has been a couple of cool days, especially in the morning, Temp's have been in the mod 40's - but I have biked to work on both days this week and got to enjoy pleasant bike rides home. Tomorrow I need (am going to try) to run 5-6 miles and am still going to try to bike to work.

Simple post for a "keepin it simple" day.

 

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Sunday bike ride

I slept so good last night - wish I could replicate it! I did enjoy a cup tea in bed before shutting the lights out. While that might be part of the reason I slept well - I don't like to drink tea right before going to sleep - because then I have to get out of bed to brush my teeth! Arggggg - I am so comfy in bed - then up to brush your teeth! It just isn't conducive to sleeping!

I started the day with a great breakfast, inspired by a friends Facebook post. Scrambled egg, bacon and avocado - on the patio with my coffee. Oh how grand it would be to start every day with this yummy food!

Then we were off the Cottage Grove to the trail head for the Glacial Drumlin trail - for a bike ride to Lake Mills and a stop at Tyranena Brewery!

Here are my biking companions, Todd, Joe and his girlfriend Chelsea.

 

Stopped for a photo at the south end of Rock Lake, which is the lake that Lake Mills surrounds.

We were very colorful today. . I enjoyed a glass of Three Beaches Honey Blonde, light and thirst quenching and Painted Ladies Pumpkin Spice Ale, yummy with a very nice nutmeg flavor. Both were great beers!

 

Back to town.

Dinner was chili and baguette - I realize it isn't really chili season, but we were hungry from the bike ride and chili always sounds good.

It was a great day - great breakfast - great weather - great bike ride - great beer - great chili!

Still spending too much time moving photo's around - I need to develop a plan and process. Downloading from camera to Mac book, transferring to Photo Stream, uploading to Flickr. I must come up with a simpler process.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Monday Monday

I am feeling melancholy. After a delightful weekend spent with Todd's brother and wife and quick trip to see his other brother and his wife in Fond du Lac - I am left in a melancholy mood - it actually started last week. So instead of working out of it - I am embracing it and will simply post a couple of pictures from my sunset walk with Sophie.

 

 

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Sunday bike ride

I slept so good last night - wish I could replicate it! I did enjoy a cup tea in bed before shutting the lights out. While that might be part of the reason I slept well - I don't like to drink tea right before going to sleep - because then I have to get out of bed to brush my teeth! Arggggg - I am so comfy in bed - then up to brush your teeth! It just isn't conducive to sleeping!

I started the day with a great breakfast, inspired by a friends Facebook post. Scrambled egg, bacon and avocado - on the patio with my coffee. Oh how grand it would be to start every day with this yummy food!

Then we were off the Cottage Grove to the trail head for the Glacial Drumlin trail - for a bike ride to Lake Mills and a stop at Tyranena Brewery!

Here are my biking companions, Todd, Joe and his girlfriend Chelsea.

Stopped for a photo at the south end of Rock Lake, which is the lake that Lake Mills surrounds.

We were very colorful today. . I enjoyed a glass of Three Beaches Honey Blonde, light and thirst quenching and Painted Ladies Pumpkin Spice Ale, yummy with a very nice nutmeg flavor. Both were great beers!

 

Back to town.

Dinner was chili and baguette - I realize it isn't really chili season, but we were hungry from the bike ride and chili always sounds good.

It was a great day - great breakfast - great weather - great bike ride - great beer - great chili!

Still spending too much time moving photo's around - I need to develop a plan and process. Downloading from camera to Mac book, transferring to Photo Stream, uploading to Flickr. I must come up with a simpler process.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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