Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't

This morning's run in the river bottoms was absolutely peaceful!  We finally realized the reason it felt a bit different....there was NO wind!  Hello!  No wind!  It was so fun and so quiet!  We saw 2 buck and one doe enjoying the morning hillside we also saw a hawk and a little gathering of quail! 

I dropped my new Jr. Higher off to her first day of 7th grade this morning and got a bit teary!  I didn't think I was going to do that but it's kind of hard to see your kids taking each new step along the way to them leaving home.  Now that we have 2 out of the house we realize how fast this time actually goes!  This afternoon I get to take my 4th grader to meet her teacher and classmates.  She's the last one in elementary school.  I wonder if there will be a tear there too? 

Also a little tear as Camron heads back to college after being here for his surgery.  It's been very nice to have him and his girlfriend here with us.  I will miss having them around.

This morning was quite chilly!  When we got home we looked at the temp and it said 48 degrees!  It actually felt good after the first mile but the chills came when we got in the house.  It was nice to get in the warm shower!  Days like that make it hard to conserve water and keep your shower short.

Just took my daughter to the doc to find out if my suspisions of her having strep throat were correct....yup....now she not only has a sore throat but she also has a sore hind end from the shot I talked her into getting instead of going through 3 pills a day for 10 days.  She was a good sport and smiled through the whole thing.  Hopefully she will get feeling better quick and be glad she got the shot.  And hopefully the rest of us don't end up with the same thing!

I don't know how some of you run so many miles on so little sleep!  About once or twice a week I have to have a really good nap to catch up!  And on the other days I need a little cat nap too.  I guess I'm admitting to one of my really good naps this morning!  : ) 

I took yesterday as a rest day.  It feels good for my legs to take 2 rest days, but my back likes it better when I get up and get a run in to loosen things up for the day.  I noticed my back never quite feeling right yesterday. 

This morning I got to try out my new Garmin.  Tom got me a new one for my birthday.  My old one was was really flakey and not always reliable.  This one also has the HR with it so it will be fun to use that. 

Tomorrow there is a group running down Payson Canyon.  We heard of a bear sighting this past week up there....2 cubs and their momma!  It makes me a bit nervous to go.  I think I will head down and pick up some bear spray.  I'll just have to be careful with it and not mix it up with my 'hair' spray!  : )

Today Tom and I met up with about a dozen people from the SF running club to drive up Payson Canyon for a nice downhill training run.  We dropped everyone else up about 20 miles then drove down 5 to start our run.  We are trying to be a bit cautious with the steep downhill so I can try to avoid ITB issues this year. 

The moon was just under being full and lit the way beautifuly for us.  It was nice and quiet and still except for several cars going up for a hunt or something.  We were actually glad to have a few cars to help keep the bears from coming out on the road to eat us up!  Some of our friends spotted a momma and her 2 cubs in that canyon on Wednesday so we kept our eyes and ears on alert.  (Not that that would have helped much if we would have actually encountered the bears.)  But happy to say we only saw deer today.

My right knee was giving me a few warning signs here and there and started stiffening up pretty good in the last mile so I stopped running at 14.5 and walked the last half mile. 

I'm starting to feel the excitement of doing another marathon.  Only 5 more weeks.  I hope I have made some good changes to my training that will make this my most enjoyable marathon to date.  I'm looking more for enjoyable than a PR, but both would be even better.