Thank you God for a cool morning!!!!

This morning was a God-send for certain! It is absolutely amazing the difference temperature/humidity makes when it comes to training. Matt's schedule at the hospital this month has left him no choice but to train EARLY in the morning since he has to be at work so early. I woke up with him one morning last week at 4:00 am........not my choice for a wake-up call ;) He amazes me at being able to wake up and put in the miles that early, get to work on time at the hospital, see all of his patients, still help with the chores around the house, and usually come home in a good mood everyday. I'm not so sure I could handle the accumulation of early mornings quite like he does...........the grumpiness in me usually comes out when my sleep starts lacking ;)

I had a particulary interesting run last week I would like to share. Let's just say it didn't go as planned, to say the least. I started very early to run 14 miles. I didn't check the weather, but Matt said he had checked Accuweather the night before and no chance of rain until later in the morning. He got up super early again and I just wanted an extra hour. All went well to start the run, besides the fact that I feel like I have exercise-induced asthma the first few miles due to the humidity we had last week! I started running with my Blackberry a few months ago---I just plug in my headphones, start up Pandora, and go. This gives me a wide variety of songs so I don't have to listen to the repetitious ones on my Ipod. I saw a few friends along the Reservoir, all was well, good run, life is good.......................until the bottom dropped out. I don't just mean a little rain, people. It was FLOODING!!!!!!! I don't usually get embarrased when I am running in the rain, but that day I was. I was praying that cars could even see me, as the rain was pouring so hard I could barely see. My shoes felt like they weighed 10 pounds and did I mention I still had 8 mile before I finished the run??! At first, I said, "what the heck? A little rain might cool things off a bit." I kinda grinned about it and just took it in stride. After the 2nd mile of pouring rain, I really wasn't lovin' life ;) I was trying to hide my Blackberry so it wouldn't get wet---tried the sports bra........uh.....no. Tried to put it in the mini-pocket in my running shorts-negative-too small. Hmmm........Oh well. Nothing was going to work. I was just praying it might still work when I got back to my car. I finally got back to my car and was relieved to have the run over. I reached in my pocket to get my key out and whatta ya know? Yep, NO key. Fabulous!!!! I have a Blackberry that is no longer working and now I can't get into my car. This day is not looking so good ;)

I went into the gas station and asked the clerk if I could please use her phone. She said, "Baby, u a lil wet, ain't ya?" ha!! Understatement. I called Matt and he had to get through his rounds and come unlock me with the spare key. I ended up having to buy a new Blackberrry and still haven't found my key. Oh well, what doesn't kill ya right?!!!!

In other news, we are still watching the live feed for Ironman Canada so we can pull the trigger. Once it hits 100 spots available, we are signing up ! I am feeling stronger every week on my long runs and tempo runs. I ran 15 miles this morning at an average 7:45 pace. The last 5 miles were all at a 7:20-7:30 pace, so I can feel my running legs improving. I did speedwork on Monday- 1/2 mile repeats, so my legs were still tired from this and from the 21 miler on Saturday. I was very happy to hold that pace today considering yesterday's speed work and my heavy mileage lately......I think the cool weather motivated me and I was so happy to be able to breathe!!!!!! Matt is clearly ready to be back on his new bike more and I am getting the itch to bike and swim more too. We are still aiming for 2-3 times per week of swimming, although the volume is way down from triathlon training. I am ready for a vacation in New York!!!!!!!! We are trying to book things a little more before we are too late.

Below are some photos of the house we will be staying at next August with some of the IM Canada crew from our tri team. It looks SWEET! Check out the view from the deck!!!!!