Marathon Training Weeks 8 & 9

WOW! Okay, so life took over after Week 7 and I failed in being able to keep the blog up-to-date. As the mileage for training peaked, other activities in my daily and weekly schedule suffered and got pushed aside. It still amazes me, as I look back on it, how I was able to keep my "normal life" going (to a certain extent) AND train for a marathon.

I know a lot of you really want to know about how the race went and how I felt during this last week, after the race. So I am cramming the last 4 weeks of training into two blog posts so that I can get to the good stuff! Here's a condensed version of what happened in my life with training.

Week 8: Total Weekly Mileage 25.67
Sunday 10/30/11 - Short, recovery run after our peek run of 16 miles last week. Schedule had me down for 6 miles - we did 6.52 miles. It was nice to have a shorter run morning because it allowed me to be home most of the day to prep for Halloween. I had a bunch of prep work to do for both kids' classrooms and for the house.

Monday 10/31/11 - Halloween Day! Super fun day BUT incredibly busy. Had celebrations in both kids' classes so when I dropped them off in the morning I was pretty much at school all day long. We got home from school at 3:30pm, had a little bit of resting time, ate dinner at 4:30pm so we could start visiting family at 5pm and meet up with friends to trick-or-treat starting at 6pm. This was the first year that the kids did real trick-or-treating and it was so fun to watch them. Jazper would come back down the path from each front door, holding up his basket and say "Momma, they gave me more candy!" Seriously one of those precious moments that you will remember forever.

Tuesday 11/1/11 - BAD DAY! Started out with the car not starting. Cathy, bless her heart, met me at the kids' school and we ran from there. We did 4.06 miles at a nice average pace of 10:02. After our run, the car started and she followed me to the gas station and waited for me to fill up to be sure the car started again. It did, barely, and I headed down to the dealership so they could see what was wrong. After being there for an hour, it was only the battery, thank goodness! I was able to make it out of there on time to go get an oil change as well. Got done with the oil change just in time to make it to work in Sevannah's classroom. Talk about a stressful morning! Then that afternoon there was the tantrum of the century from Jazper. I literally ahd to pull over onto the side of the road and sit there for 20 minutes until he stopped screaming and I could drive again. This was not a good day; one I wish to never repeat.

Wednesday 11/2/11 - Rough morning; didn't sleep well and just felt lethargic. I had to talk myself into running and didn't get to that point until noon. The schedule had me running a total of 8 miles so I split it into two runs. When I made it out at noon for the first run I did 4.25 miles at a nice pace of 10:04. Got back home just in time for Jazper to be dropped off by carpool. He and I ate lunch and then I headed off to work. After work, I drove straight to our evening run location to meet up with Cathy and Jennifer. We did 5.85 miles in the dark. We ran for about 20 minutes and then did 6 x 3 minutes pickups with 1 minute recovery at slow jog; then ran the rest of the way home. I felt a lot better after both runs. It still amazes me how running can rid me of a bad mood!

Thursday 11/3/11 - Cathy and I needed to do a 5 mile tempo run. I met her at her house and we headed out. We had a nice, slow first mile, then picked up the speed for miles 2, 3 and 4; slowed back down for mile 5. Mile 4 was a really fast mile for us (8:31 pace!) It was really cold this morning so we had oatmeal and coffee after we stretched. After that, I changed into some dry clothes and headed to my client. When I was done with my client it was time to pick up the kids from school. There had been some issues with my paychecks from my job at the hospital, so the kids and I drove over to St Helena to pick up my check. Seriously long day! Was so tired by the end.

Friday 11/4/11 - Right now, I do not even remember what I did on this morning. I didn't make any notes either. Oh well! I do know that when I picked the kids up from school I had 3 large bags of laundry from Jazper's kindergarten class that I had to take home and wash. OH! And the chicken pox and lice were in both kids' classrooms. Ya - this was a fun end to the week. The kids had been vaccinated for chicken pox but you can apparently still get a mild case. So we were on high alert, checking the kids for both chicken pox and lice. (Luckily, we didn't get either one -hooray!!) After dropping the kids at my mother-in-laws, I headed to work. After work, I got home and immediately turned around to leave again, with Sevannah, for her classes Lantern Walk. It was cold but really pretty!

Saturday 11/5/11 - James had to work all day, so I had both kids with me at Outdoor Family Fitness class. This proved to be a challenge today. I was tired and cranky, and Jazper wanted to be with Daddy. So we struggled to get through the morning. After class, we went home and I proceeded to work on getting the 5 loads of kindergarten laundry washed, dried and folded. The kids we're counting money while I was doing laundry and Jazper wanted to know what he could buy with his money. He had less than $2.00 in coins so I told him he had enough money to pay for his own hot chocolate at Starbucks. So guess where we ended up next? You guessed it - Starbucks - so the kids could pay for their own hot chocolates. It was a fun to see them order their own drinks, tell the lady their names for their cups and count out the coins.


Week 9: Total Weekly Mileage 32.74
Sunday 11/6/11 - 18 miles!! Yes we did it! We met at Cathy W's house up in Windsor because she lives near Chalk Hill Rd and our route was to go from her place, out Chalk Hill Rd to Hwy 128 and back. This is a very challenging route. We gained over 1,000 feet in elevation - yes really! It was super fun afterwards to look at the elevation chart on my Garmin report. In fact, I'll share that with you here...Chalk Hill Out & Back by annad83 at Garmin Connect - Details After the run, Cathy W had brunch all cooked and ready for us to eat! It was so great to be able to change into dry, warm cloths, sprawl on her floor and stretch, and fill up on good yummy food. When I got home, I ice bathed and took a shower before we headed out to go shopping for a new refrigerator. Our freezer wasn't closing properly, causing the refrigerator/freezer to thaw and not function properly. Really all I wanted to do was relax and take a nap, but this was important. We had to see what kind of prices we were dealing with.

Monday 11/7/11 - Recovery day = no running. I woke up with tight hips and sore quadriceps but over all felt pretty good.

Tuesday 11/8/11 - Ran from my house with Cathy B & Leslie. Faster than we were suppose to be (as usual for our Tuesdays) but it felt good! Heart rate was a little over, and in the last mile I could feel I was pushing a little harder than I probably should have been but it was cold, we were talking, and it wasn't like it felt bad. Total distance was 3.1 miles. We chatted about marathon pace afterwards. My usual Tuesday activities took place after that - acupuncture, work in Sevannah's class, drive two different carpools (kindergarten pick up and grades pick up). Had some MAJOR drama with my parents late in the morning that pretty much ruined my day. Had people come after dinner to purchase our large oak desk and hutch that we sold on Craigs List. I was glad when this day was over!

Wednesday 11/9/11 - Woke up still feeling crappy from all the drama on Tuesday. It was a Lecture Day at the hospital so after driving carpool in the morning I went home and got ready for work. Work went pretty well. I was leaving work when I got an email from the people who bought the desk and hutch. They decided they didn't want it and wanted to return it to us. Ummm NO! You and your husband came to my house, looked over both pieces from top to bottom, had a conversation amongst yourselves and decided to buy it. You both, with James' and my help, loaded the pieces into your vehicle, handed me the money and drove off! This, on top of the family issues just about pushed me over the edge. I got to our evening run location after work in the worst mood. Thank goodness for running and my running pals! Talking over the issues with them while we ran made a world of difference. Before I knew it, I was laughing so hard it was difficult to keep running. It was a full moon and so pretty on the creek path that we turned our headlamps off for a while and ran by moonlight. Amazing! On our way back we had an encounter with a skunk, which had us all laughing so hard we were crying! This run was the perfect way to bring a really bad day to a much better end.

Thursday 11/10/11 - Cathy B and I went to the Coast Guard base to run with Teja again. It was cold and super windy!! Made the run harder but it was great! Took our phones and took pics at the bottom and top of Texas Hill.

Awesome coffee and snacks afterwards. After school that day, Jazper went home with a friend so I could take Sevannah to the orthodontist. After her appointment we met up with them for a playdate at Ragle Ranch Park. During the playdate, Jazper lost his 2nd tooth! It was a busy afternoon.

Friday 11/11/11 - Veteran's Day. The kids didn't have school so we got to sleep in and hang out at home until it was time for me to get ready to go to work. At work that afternoon I did some upper body strength training with a blue band (heavy resistance). It felt really good.

Saturday 11/12/11 - Taught Outdoor Family Fitness class. It was Full Body Day so I got to demonstrate a lot. Afterwards, I attempted to conquer the mountain of laundry that had accumulated during the week and ran a bunch of errands for Sevannah's class. As the "Class Purchaser" I get a list of items from the teachers from time to time that they need for the class and then need to get those items for them. We hit Whole Foods for a couple items, Beverly's for a few others. By the end of the day I was ready for bed and a little nervous about attempting our first 20 miler the next morning!


There you have - two weeks worth of life and training, albeit, a month late, but at least I finally got it done. The plan it to have the last weeks of training done by the end of the week so I can move on to sharing Race Day and the recovery week(s) after the race. Thank you so much for your support and patience! I do love being able to share my experience with all of you.

Uncharted Territory - Week 7 of Marathon Training

Oh boy, here goes nothing! With Week 7, I'm moving into distances on our long, slow days that I have never ran before. It's a scary and intimidating thought; trying to wrap my brain around the idea of 16 or more miles all at the same time!

Sunday 10/23/11

16 miles - our task for the day. We had a big group of people wanting to run today, all different distances, so we figured out a loop that we could do that would work for everyone. It was a 7 mile loop, which was perfect because it gave everyone the distance they needed. Some people ran it once, others ran it twice, and a few ran it twice and added on. Cathy B and I ran it twice and added on to get our full 16 miles. This was also the first long run in my new shoes, so I was hopeful that the balls of my feet wouldn't hurt as much or cramp as much by the end of the run.

Having a loop was great because it allowed for us to fill up our waters, restock on gels/blocks/etc... and lose layers. The weather was perfect! It was a little chilly when we started but 7 miles later as we started the 2nd loop we were all plenty warm. Being able to loop around also made it convenient for people to join us or take off when they were done with their mileage.

The whole run was good. The last two miles were a little hard and I could feel the miles; ready to be done. My right foot cramped a little bit but no where near as bad as on the 14 mile run and it was more localized. I could feel that it was my sciatic nerve (I have sciatica that bothers me from time to time). My left foot was a lot less sore, so the cushioning in my new shoes is working!!!

When we were done, we stretched and then grabbed coffee and ate the yummy muffins I had made. We chatted and laughed, as we always do, when we hang out and enjoy the company of friends at the end of our runs.

Stats for the run: 16.0 miles in 2:55:13; average moving pace 10:57. My heart rate was right in the middle of the range. This all made me beyond excited because our pace was faster than what the training schedule had me doing for the day (11:18 minute/mile).

After the run, I went home, talked to James, then took an ice bath. Jazper, this time really wanted to get in with me so I let him put his feet in. He thought it was great! He looked at me and said, "This is easy momma!" I had to laugh. He had no idea how cold it would be to be sitting in it form the waist down.

A nice hot shower after the ice bath and plenty of resting time during the remainder of the afternoon had me feeling tired but good. 16 miles wasn't so bad - it was actually okay.

Monday 10/24/11

Morning after 16 miles - I was worried about how I would feel. On that first step out of bed in the morning, I felt my calves. They were a little tight. But a walk to the kitchen to get breakfast started and lunches made loosened them up. Other than the calves, nothing was sore, I was just tired. Not bone-dead tired; just tired like I wanted to curl up on the couch and read a book. But alas, I had things to do and get done before I went to work.

After driving carpool, I went home and caught up on some emails and paperwork, and had a session with a client. After my client left it was time to make lunch and get ready to go to work. With Mondays being a "rest day" I normally do not run, but will still do some light strength training on occasion. Since I was still feeling tired from Sunday's 16 miles, I did not do any strength training with my groups at work today. I truly took a rest day.

Tuesday 10/25/11

Recovery run day - though Cathy B and I always have a hard time running slow. My schedule said 5 miles, and Cathy's said 2 - 5 miles. We both were feeling good so we decided to go for 5 miles. We did a loop from my house that ended up being just over 5 miles. It was a good run, but we both felt it by the end; not in a bad way, just that we were ready to be done because we were tired. Our total was 5.15 miles at an average pace of 10:09 (about a minute per mile faster than we should have been.... oops!) My heart rate showed it too. It was a little over the limit for the day.

After changing clothes I headed off for the rest of my morning/day: acupuncture, handwork helper in Sevannah's class; drive the Kindergarten carpool; lunch with Jazper; piano lesson with Jazper; pick up the 2nd graders and drive them home. It was my normal "busy Tuesday".

Wednesday 10/26/11

My morning to drive carpool so I ran by myself after drop off. It was a really nice run today. I hadn't had a chance to find a spare set of ear buds yet so I did something I never do,play music from my phone. I don't like doing this because then anyone around me would be subjected to listen to whatever I had playing, but I really wanted to listen to my music this morning since I was on my own. Overall, the run was a little fast according to what the training schedule said I should have been at for pace, but my heart rate was within the range I should be on for my slower runs. I did 5.25 miles at an average pace of 10:33 (should have ran at a pace of 11:16).

After my run I headed home and did some chores and paperwork until it was time to go get a manicure and spa pedicure. It felt so good to have my feet pampered! Plus, I had Toni give me hot pink toes with white polka dots which made me smile! Once my polish was dry I headed home and prepped lunch while I waited for Jazper to get dropped off by carpool. He and I sat down and enjoyed lunch together before I had to leave for work. Work consisted of teaching two stretching classes today. It felt really good to lead them through the stretches, working out some residual kinks left my the longer run on Sunday.

Thursday 10/27/11

Last week, Cathy, Teja and I made plans for Cathy & I to head down to the United States Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma to run together. Teja's husband is in the Coast Guard and she invited us down to run with her since she is there every morning dropping her kids off at school. Once we parked, we went into the gym and looked at the various running routes. Both Cathy and I had about 6 miles to do so we picked the longest route they had 6.2 miles. The two guys behind the counter that morning in the gym told us there was a hill - we didn't think anything of it.

We headed out and it was a gorgeous morning. A little chilly, but clear. Cathy and I marveled at how beautiful the base was as we ran on the path at the outer perimeter. We stopped and checked the map a few times to make sure we were headed in the right direction. At one of these stops we were approaching a very, very steep hill. Sure enough, according to the map, we had to run up that hill! And man, oh man, was it steep! But the view from the top was breath taking. We all wished that one of us had packed our cell phone so we could take a picture, so we decided we would have to do this run again.

Once we were done with the run, we sat in the Two Rock Coffee Shop on the base and enjoyed the best coffee! We chatted until we had to get going with the rest of our days. It was such an amazing morning! It was also the first time Teja had ran that far. Cathy and I were both so excited for her. It's great to be able to help others learn that they are capable of more than what they think.

Once back in town I had only enough time to regroup and prep for a busy afternoon before it was time to pick the kids up from school. Once I had the kids, we headed down to Santa Rosa Ave to have a quick lunch/snack and go to Costco. We breezed through Costco as quickly as we could because I had to pick up a friend's daughter from school. My friend had to work that afternoon and needed childcare. So with the car loaded down with Costco, we went and picked up Adie, and then went home. The kids played while I unpacked from Costco and cleaned the kitchen. Adie really wanted to stay for dinner, so after okaying it with her mom (we both agreed she could only stay if she got her homework done!) I settled into making dinner and helping her with her homework. As the three kids ate dinner, I searched online for a new muffin recipe. I found one that sounded good, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.

After Adie headed home with her mom, I made dinner for James & I and made the muffins. The muffins came out okay. I'll have to tweak the recipe some more the next time I make it. I made it "healthy" style like my Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee muffins - using agave in place of sugar, grated zucchini in place of oil/butter and whole wheat pastry flour in place of white flour.

After the kids were in bed, I took a quick shower and went to bed. It had been a long, busy day.

Friday 10/28/11

I dropped the kids off to carpool this morning and then headed to a local Starbucks to work done on this blog. I worked until I had to see a client. After my client, I had to quickly get home to prepare for the afternoon. I had the kids' bikes to load into the car for their afternoon at Grandma Peggy's and lunches to make.

At work that afternoon, I had a request to do Upper Body Work, partner style, and there was an odd number of participants, so I had to partner up with someone. It felt good to get some great strength training done.

Saturday 10/29/11

Being that it's Halloween weekend, today was our Halloween Class for Outdoor Family Fitness. Every strength training station is Halloween "themed". It's always a super fun class. Here are some pictures:

That afternoon, the kids and I carved their pumpkins. I got to do all the hard work - scraping out the insides - and the kids carved their pumpkins. I had to help Jazper a little with his, but Sevannah did all her own work. I carved a few too.

We cleaned up from the pumpkin carving, had dinner and put on our Halloween costumes. We had tickets to Sprites Night at Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm (where the kids use to go to school). The kids had a blast seeing the different skits and people who they miss. It was a long evening, and all three of us were super tired, but it was a lot of fun.


So there you have it - Week 7 of my training. It was a long hard week, but encouraging, making it for the whole 16 miles, which is something I have never done before. And it's scary at the same time knowing that higher mileage weeks are coming.

Marathon Training Week 6 - A Peak Week

So it's Friday of Week 7 and I am just now getting around to sitting down to tell you all about Week 6. It's been a long two weeks, filled with extra activities and obligations for Halloween. Not to mention that Week 6 was a "peak training week"!

Here's how the week went...

Sunday 10/16/11

One of the ladies that is in our Sunday group, Cathy W, is running the Healdsburg Half Marathon on October 29 and she wanted to be familiar with the course. So at 5:00 am, the alarm went off, and I got up to get ready for the morning. I picked up Cathy B and we drove up to Warm Springs Recreation Area at the base of Lake Sonoma (the finish area for the Healdsburg Half Marathon). Cathy W and Jennifer met us there and we all climbed into one car and drove back down to Francis Ford Coppola Winery, where the race would be starting. This is where we started our 14 miles. As we made our way over the first few miles, we happily chatted and caught up on how all our weeks had been. The hills along these first few miles were not as big as Cathy B and Jennifer remembered them being so this was great news to Cathy W.

Soon we arrived onto Dry Creek, where it got exciting for a mile or so. It just so happened to be the day of the Wine Country Marathon and Half Marathon. It wasn't long before we saw the first men of the half marathon passing us in the opposite direction. Not too far behind them were the top two or three women. It was a lot of fun to cheer them on and witness how well they were doing with only about 3 miles left in their race. This was also the place we had to deviate from the Healdsburg Half Marathon's course because it goes along West Dry Creek and that was were the Wine Country Race was too. To avoid the racers, we stayed on Dry Creek, all the way out to Warm Springs Recreation Area.

As we approached the finish area, Cathy W & Jennifer finished their 13 miles, while Cathy B & I continued on to get our 14 miles. Little did we know that as we passed the parking lot we would have to head up a rather steep hill to get our total distance! Coming back down for our last half mile was nice, and we finished feeling good. Cathy B & I have done 14 miles once before so this was still a distance that we could wrap our minds around and feel okay with. My training schedule had me at a 11:20 pace and we were faster than that. Our stats for the day: 14.0 miles, 11:12 average moving pace, 2:36:53 total moving time; and my heart rate was right in the middle of the range I should have been in.

After some stretching, non-fat chocolate milk and a change of clothes, Cathy B & I drove Cathy W back to her car and then went into Healdsburg to get coffee and take it to our friend Leslie, who was announcing finishers as they crossed the finish line at the Wine Country Marathon. We hadn't planned on staying; we were just going to say hi to Leslie and give her, her coffee; but we ended up staying to see the last marathoner finish the race around 6:15 (six hours, fifteen minutes)! It was so inspirational to be there and see everyone finishing the race. There were children waiting for their mom or dad and when they saw them they ran out and joined them on the final stretch, running the finish with their parent. It was so sweet, it made me cry! I know... sappy... but it's true. These people had trained hard and their families were there to support them all the way to end!

Cathy B & I hanging out at the announcers tent.

Leslie in her super cool, personalized announcers chair.


Monday 10/17/11

Rest Day - technically - but at work in the afternoon I did some strength training. I did some partner work with tubing focusing on core and upper body. My partner and I used a medium weight band and it felt good! After work I came home to dinner being all cooked thanks to one of my best friends, Amy. It was so great to just be able to help her serve up dinner, sit down and enjoy it. Plus, it helped make the evening shorter for all since everyone was tired.

Tuesday 10/18/11

Tuesdays are typically my busiest day of the week. I get the kids to carpool, run, go to acupuncture, help in Sevannah's classroom, drive the kindergarten carpool when they get out, have lunch with Jazper, take Jazper to piano, then drive the "big girl" carpool when the grades get out at 2:45pm. I like my Tuesdays, but they are exhausting.

Today's training schedule had us doing 2- 5 miles at a nice slow pace since it's suppose to be a recovery run from Sunday's long distance. As always, Cathy B and I ran too fast. We did 4.15 miles at a 9:38 average moving pace; and my average heart rate was one beat over the range I was suppose to be in. But we both felt good and it was a great start to the day, not to mention a beautiful morning!

After driving all the carpools, I sat at the computer and did some research. Well, tried to do some research! After Sunday's 14 miles the balls of my feet were really sore, so I wanted to research some shoes to see if I could find some that had more cushion in them. Our refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen is also having an issue so I was also looking into the cost of a new one. Lesson re-learned for the day.... One should not do research on important things when you are exhausted and would rather be asleep! All I succeeded in doing was getting frustrated because I couldn't make sense of anything. Oh well.... it'll still be there another day.

Wednesday 10/19/11

Got up feeling tired, and it took me a bit to wake up. I ran my first run of the day right after driving the carpool and dropping the kids at school. The training schedule for the day had 8 miles total and Cathy B and Jennifer wanted to run in the afternoon so I split the total distance into two runs. The morning run I only needed to do about 4 miles so I decided to stick as close to the kids' school as I could and try to make a loop. I did it, but I will never run that route again! Too much traffic; almost got hit by a car in a crosswalk on Bodega Ave and it was hillier than I wanted to do for the day. Other than that it was a great run! I ran at a little faster pace than I should have but my heart rate was right in the middle of my range. Stats for the run: 4.1 miles, average pace 9:47.

After my run, I parked myself at a Starbucks and worked on last week's blog post, updated a few things online and then got to chat with one of my best friends, Colleen. I hadn't seen her in a while so it was really nice to just be able to sit and talk to her. When it was time for both of us to leave, I headed home and got ready for work.

Right after work, I headed straight to the evening run location to meet Cathy B and Jennifer. Jennifer needed to do a 60 minute run with 3 x 5 minute speed intervals with 1 minute recovery between them. We ran out for 32 minutes then turned around and headed back, adding in the intervals. Once back to our meeting location we found a space in the back parking lot where we could "safely" do sprints in the dark. We did 6 x 15 second sprints. By the time we were done we had 6.19 miles. It was a lot of fun, but I was good and tired.

Thursday 10/20/11

After getting the kids to carpool I headed over to Cathy B's house for a Tempo Run. We were suppose to do 1 mile warm up, 3 miles @ 9:41 according to my schedule (Cathy's schedule said 9:17) and then 1 mile cool down. We decided that we should try to increase the speed each of the 3 miles so that we were getting progressively faster. We succeeded! Check out these paces: Mile 2 - 9:26, Mile 3 - 9:19, Mile 4 - 8:55... HOT DAMN! For the last mile, our cool down mile, we walked to the stop light would would have to wait at to cross a street and then jogged back to her house. It was a hard run after all the hill/speed work I did yesterday, and I was feeling it. We stretched a lot in Cathy's garage when we were done.

I left Cathy's and headed to Fleet Feet to see if I could find new shoes with more cushion in the forefoot so that my feet would be happier after the longer runs. After all, we were going to be tackling 16 miles on Sunday! I was successful in finding a new pair of shoes.....

I plan on taking them for their first run tomorrow morning.

After finding shoes, I picked the kids up from school. They have been asking to decorate the house for Halloween for about a week so I surprised them when were got home from school by telling them we were going to decorate the house instead of having restie time. Here's the results....

Their favorite part is the bright green "sticky web". They think having it all over the front window and the garage is the funniest thing ever! We were all tired when we were done but the kids were so happy - it was worth skipping nap time!

Friday 10/21/11

5:45am and I was heading out the door to drive over to Cathy B's house to meet her, Cathy W & Jennifer for a chilly 6:00 am run. My new shoes were all ready for their first run....

The shoes felt good and the run felt a little hard because I was really tired. I hadn't slept well that night so I wasn't in "top form", but I made it. It was a nice, short 3.75 mile run even if it was hilly. I think we all have a love/hate relationship with the hill on Hidden Valley Rd.

After getting the kids off to carpool, I went home to try to take care of few things, and nothing worked. So, still in my jammies, I headed out to meet two friends, Natalie & Clementina, for breakfast. We hadn't done this in a long time so it was fun and relaxing to sit around and talk with them. After breakfast I went home and tried again to get things to work, and I was still unsuccessful. Leaving it for another day, I got ready for work, picked the kids up from school, dropped them off at Grandma Peggy's and headed to work. At work, I had the request to work on Core Exercises, so we did a bunch of different planks.

Saturday 10/22/11

After teaching Outdoor Family Fitness class, I got the kids and I ready to go to the Pumpkin Patch with my parents, brother & sister-in-law and my nephew & nieces. We met at my parents and drove down to Tolay Lake Regional Park. The kids had a ton of fun looking at all the exhibits, doing the crafts and of course, getting pumpkins.

Sevannah and her pumpkin.

Four of the five Cousins looking for their pumpkins.

Jazper and his pumpkin.

It was a long, hot afternoon/early evening. We didn't get home until 6:15 pm. I needed to get the kids fed and in bed so that I could prepare my things for the next morning. We were going to be doing 16 miles, which will be a first for me!

So after just over 37 miles for the week, I'm signing off on another week of training and keeping my fingers crossed that I survive tomorrow's 16 miler.... Uncharted Territory!