Christmastime is here!

Now that it's November 1st, it's ok to talk about Christmas stuff right? First we have to take a look back at October

Swim: 10,700 yards, 5 practices
Bike: 18 miles, 2 rides
Run: 99.2 miles, 9 runs, 2 marathons
Strength: twice
Yoga: 12 times

That's a mortal amount of swimming, unlike the Ironman 20k per month or swim marathon 50k per month. It feels like I need to do more. Not the 6 times a week like I was swimming, but some extra time in the water would be nice. Did some easy spinning on the bike this month to facilitate recovery from the marathons, that always helps the legs feel better. And if I had known, I would have thrown an extra 0.8 miles onto a run somewhere. It's ok to round up, right?

So far this year I have logged 725.4 miles. Hitting that 1500 mile goal for the year is not looking good, but I missed a few months in the spring so I'm ok with it. I mention the miles to show how many miles I'm going to log in these last 2 months. it's kind of insane.

I have written up a training plan for the Umstead 100. I am already following that training plan. I have not missed a run from that training plan yet. The mileage ramps up pretty quick, but after doing 2 full marathons in October I feel like my base is high enough to handle it. First week was only 30 miles, then this week is 41. For my plan, I'm running easy tuesday, wednesday, and thursday runs that are usually the same mileage (6 from week 1, 7 this upcoming week), and if I wanted to get crafty with it, I could vary the route to throw some hills in one day, or do intervals one day, etc. The key to the plan is doing long runs on back to back days every saturday and sunday. Week 1 they were both only 6 miles because it was a recovery from the WC-50 marathon. This weekend I did 10 miles both days, next weekend it goes to 12. November, December, January, February, and March are all the months that I have left to get ready for the 100. The key is to get in some 200+ mile months and build up to some 70 or more mile weeks.

This weekend was fun. KC came over saturday morning and we ran 10 miles together to the capital and back in 1:37, which ended up being a pretty fast pace for her. It's not an easy route, so I'm impressed with her progress so far getting into this marathon training plan. Then Kelley got some arepa's for lunch. Today's 10 miler was on the treadmill at the gym since it was raining outside, and by myself. That wasn't nearly as much fun.

I'm just going through it one workout at a time. Take each day as it comes, and strive to put as many miles on the legs as I can get. There's still 2 more marathons to come this year, and the 50 miler in San Diego in January.

A couple of other noteworthy things happened in October. Some deserve a post of their own, like Halloween.

We all went to see "Into The Woods" traveling broadway play at the big theatre downtown. Really fun night!

Evil Genius actually petting Nana's dog

And for national cat day, here's Ella with our big fella Blossom

Overall it was a pretty amazing month, and I have really high expectations for most Octobers. It is my favorite month of the year, the leaves are starting to change, and the summer heat is gone. Baseball is in the Playoffs (watching Game 5 of the World Series now, Lets Go Mets!) college football is hitting its stride, hockey and basketball are back. Happy days and holidays are all that lie ahead!