Bring on November! I think.

My twin boys informed me last night they were not going trick-or-treating.  What????  No more bags of candy sprawled out on my living room floor, no more picking out my favorites and hiding what I found, no more 3 week constant sugar high?  

I think I've hit a sort of a post-Halloween-partum depression!  .  

We've entered a new era in the runwithjill household, one which doesn't include costumes and sugar.  Sadness!

Here's a little picture I took from a couple pictures from years ago (sorry, way too lazy to fire up the scanner) when my kiddos were little.  I think the boys were almost 15-months and Abbey was almost 6. 

Clearly, I'm dorky enough to dress my kids all in theme-based costumes.  

So no dressing up for the boys this year ... but Abbey did go as Lauren Bacall (huh?) to work today; a terrible picture and for some reason I can't edit it but here she is...

So another Halloween has come to a close, I don't have any kids' candy to steal for the next 3 weeks, fall break is over and we're now back to the rat race called life.  Cross country and marching band are over now so that will help calm things down.  I did, however, get a part time job over the holidays, which starts tomorrow.  I take back the calm statement.

Anyhoo...what else is going on....

Saturday was the state cross country meet and the final meet for the season, at least for me.  Ryan did not make it to the state meet....I could vent about that but I'm being a big girl and letting it go.  I worked at the meet as a course marshall, and Ryan ran around doing whatever with the rest of the kids from track not running who were doing whatever.  Glowing, aren't we?

Saucony stepped up to the plate and we scored some pretty cool florescent jackets - sweeeeet!  It was so cold when we started, I think I had my winter coat in that green bag I was carrying, along with hand warmers, toe warmers and fleece gloves.  But as the day progressed it got warmer and I actually ended up with a sunburn on the ole face (I was out there for about 7 hours...cheering....and standing....and yelling at people to get off the course.  One jerk coach wouldn't move off the course and two girls were right behind him still running - so rude!).  I'm not sure what's up with my hair, definitely not one of my finest hair days so just look past that.  Actually, it looks like this the vast majority of the time.  Moving on.... our kiddos didn't do as well as they should have; we had one boy who should have placed in the top 3-4 but finished 19th I think.  And may others just not running up to their potential.  Just goes to show, even the best have bad days.

Wednesday's snow left lots of MUD!
That's our top runner there in the red with green and white stripes

Start line of the Boys 5A race.  About 40 teams, 300 runners!  Crazy!

Sunday, I had one of the crappiest runs I've had in a long time.  Woohoo!  An attempted 20 miler turned into a great 10 miles, followed by 5.5 acceptable miles, followed by 4.5 miles crawling-back-to-my-car-praying-I-didn't-expire-right-there-on-the-path.  I'm not sure what's going on, but my legs ACHE!  I am not sure how to even explain it other than they simply ache. Mostly my quads.  I have no idea if this is a sign of how ill-conditioned I am or something else going on but never have I ever experienced this painful ache before.  In my past life, I always had endurance on my side and though admittedly not fast, I always thought I could run forever.  Not so much now.  I'm also having some feet issues where they are just burning....and then there's this constant (and I mean CONSTANT) GI problems where....sorry to be blunt....I just have to stop and take a dump.  Every.  Single.  Run.  Even the 10K on my treadmill the other day.  Beth, call me, let's go for a run!  Things to think about and work on, for sure.  Nevertheless, I'm counting the whole damn 20 as mileage since I actually covered the distance.  I don't really care what y'all do, I'm counting them.

I "ran" the 20 on the Cherry Creek bike path which I can pretty much take from my house all the way downtown to the big REI store (I didn't go that far though, that would have been about 41 miles round trip and my legs had enough issues with 20!).  But, I took my camera along for the run this time to share.  Just a few days ago this path was so pretty with all the gorgeous fall trees hitting their peak colors, then the snow came last week and wham....all the leaves are mostly brown now.  

Let's Run!  Must be those stretched out legs that are making them ache, huh?

Start of my run....front range as my backdrop, Mt. Evans (14, 240' ) is the tall one peak.

Oh Conoco gas station how you have saved my life more than 400 times.
This is a mandatory water/bathroom stop along this course.

The gorgeous, old, LARGE, homes around the Denver Country Club
I'd like this house, please!

Hum....I just magically happened to appear right in front of my daughter's apartment :)  

Cheesman Park

Close-up of Mt. Evans from the above pavilion.

And that was that, my first 20-miler in about 2 years done and it couldn't have gone worse than it did.  But it's done!  I have a few more in this cycle so we'll just hope the next one ... or 3...go better!

Week 10:
Run: 60.1 mi 
Weights: 50:00 mins
*I did have a pretty awesome 10K treadmill run this week....clocked a 49:54.  I admit, I was moving my legs like something they haven't had to do in years during that last half mile to land under 50 minutes.  I know, sad, but that's how Jill rolls.  I also had a semi-decent 9 mile MP run.  Except that it was 15 seconds slower than what I'd like my MP to be...but that's just a minor detail!  The fact that my pace was about 20 seconds faster than the norm the past 10 weeks was an accomplishment.


October's Numbers:
Run: 208.85 mi (this is a whopping .5 miles over last month.  Considering I had a taper week and a sick week of only 33 miles each, I'll take it.   Admittedly, I crammed in 3 miles today just so I could get over last month's numbers.  Pathetic, huh?  Oh Yeah!!)
Swim: 4.29 mi
Elliptical: 3.0 mi
Weights: 4:15


November Goals:
- Investigate the achy legs, burning feet, and the GI issues.
- Focus on some speedwork now that the mileage is built.
- Hills, and more hills.
- More, more, more weight training.
- Dial in on the diet (is this sounding like a broken record yet?).  I have made some great strides the past couple weeks in the planning ahead department instead of scrambling at 6pm like was the norm most nights.
- More swimming .. and maybe a bit more biking than a big fat zero would be good.  Not sure how but whatever, I'll squish it in.


Finally, for all those interested, the Leadville 100-miler registration opens up today at 10am mountain standard time.  Kate?  You're always up for a good challenge!!  :).  Johann, this is perfect for you!!  Happy Trails?  GZ?  Oh wait, you have a bone to pick with Pikes Peak that weekend.  Anyone else?

I was just reminded of the holiday blogger gift exchange from last year that I hosted....should I do so again this year?  Yes?

Well, that's all I got for this week.  Until next time....

Run strong, my friends!