OK this is Fall Weather!

I love to run in cooler temperatures so it has been great lately.  This last week we did get a little too chilly for this time of year with morning lows in the mid to upper 30's, which meant gloves and jackets - but today it was beautiful.  Temp's were in the mid to upper 50's with a breeze - I felt great.  I had 10 miles on the schedule again this weekend.  Last 3 were suppose to be at Tempo pace.  I decided to see how I felt to see what I did at the end.  

First couple miles were with Sophie - warm up and getting moving sort of miles . . . and stop and sniff sort of miles  ;-)  Then off for 8 more miles.  I felt great . . . Oh I already said that!  I have to remind myself that sometimes I really do feel great running longer distances - usually it just seems like a LOT of work.  

My avg pace was 9:50.  Mile 6 & 7 were just over 10 min miles and then the last three were faster with the last mile at 9:18.  I am happy with that.

Now for the rest of the day -  

I am home alone, since my hubbie is off to Milwaukee with my oldest son to look at a new car.  We bought both of our boys cars while they were in high school - he has now been out of college for 1+ years and still driving the Chevy Impala . . . with well over 110,000 miles on it and the transmission is not sounding good.  This is my conservative son, so this sort of surprises me . . . he is looking at a Subaru Impreza WRX - which is a sporty souped up car!  Oh well - he is young - he has a great job - and doesn't spent money easily - I am only hoping he will let me drive it!  It will be manual transmission, which I haven't driven in a few years, but love it!   ;-)

Off to shower - then mow the lawn - make chili - do a little cleaning - and listen to the Badger Football game.  

Peace and ENJOY the moment!

Pooltime

In honor of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 I ran 10 miles this morning.  While it was on my schedule, I did use the memory of that day as motivation to keep going.  It still shocks me when I think back to the quick chain of events that fateful morning.  I was at work and someone came by and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.  We immediately tried to get information from the Internet, which worked for awhile, but then just wasn't quite up to the task so the radio became our primary source.  Now 10 years later and it still seems unimaginable and unbelievable but something we will never forget!

This mornings Run:
The run actually went pretty good.  I did the usual 2 miles with Sophie and then headed back out for 8 more miles.  Temp's were great and it was a beautiful sunny morning.  I finished in 1:42 for a 10:15 pace, with the last three miles at 10:06, 10:10 and 10:08 - pretty happy with that.  It felt good.  And although it was great for a little 10 mile run - Today was also the WI Ford Ironman event.  At 7:30 pm the temp is 81 - certainly warmer than the athletes would have preferred.

K-9 Doggie Paddle fundraiser:
This afternoon my son, his girlfriend and I headed to our community pool with our dogs.  This was I think the 3rd annual K-9 doggie paddle.  The pool closed last weekend - but was opened today for dogs to enjoy and boy did our dogs love the water.  This event is a fund raiser for the Police K-9 unit with proceeds going to support the 6 dogs and necessary training.  One of the dogs was there and boy he was well behaved . . . .  There were about a couple hundred other dogs in the pool - but it was not crowded.

Sophie and Nutmeg will sleep well tonight!   I will too!  ;-)

Sophie and Nutmeg ready, get set, go!

Sophie headed back with her ball - Nutmeg still out looking.

Getting back onto the deck was made easy with this floating platforms

Sophie and her pink ball

Even the police on horses were there to enjoy the pool.

The horses seemed to enjoy cooling their legs down in the pool.

Lunchtime Run

First off: I LOVE HOT HUMID Weather . . . and I LOVE COLD and SNOW (to a point) . . . but right now we are experiencing drop dead gorgeous weather in Wisconsin. I had forgotten just how nice our fall weather could be!


The temp's have been in the mid 70's all week with nothing but pure sunshine and blue skies! Just beautiful. I realize that parts of the east coast and south have been experiencing more rain than necessary . . . but not here.

I have been following a training program getting ready for, a yet to be determined fall 1/2 marathon, since I will be on a mini vacation to Florida during the Haunted Hustle. On the schedule today was a moderate tempo run of 5 miles with 1 warm-up and 1 cool-down. Last night I stayed up too late - watching the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers!!!! and just couldn't drag myself out of bed early enough to not only get in 7 miles but also make it to work for an 8:00 meeting. I usually get to work around 8:30, so getting there for a 8:00 meeting throws a wrench into my normal routine . . . plus getting 7 miles in . . . just wasn't going to happen this morning. I did get up and ran 2 miles with Sophie - warm-up for 1 mile and then 9:10 pace for mile 2. I decided it was so nice out that I would run the other 5 miles at lunch. I work downtown and have access to a many wonderful routes, one along the lakeshore. So I set out a little after noon. Based on my first mile . . . I must have known that I had already did my warm up mile in the morning. Mile 1 - 9:02 Mile 2 - 9:18 Mile 3 - 9:49 and Mile 4 - 9:15 and then finished with a cool down 1/2 mile at 10:15. Happy - very happy with my time.

During my cool-down mile I stopped at a little coffee shop/ restaurant for a veggie wrap to go, because one other things that I didn't get up early enough to do this morning was make my salad for lunch, headed back to the office to shower and get back to work - oh and write a little post ;-)

WI Ironman is this Sunday - it was very motivating to see competitors in the water practicing, what I assume to be, their final swim before Sunday. Good luck to all!