Week 50 wrap-up and albino squirrels

I spent the weekend in Minneapolis visiting some friends--stayed with Cara Friday night and Sondra and Steve Saturday night. I went up primarily to spend some time with them and to attend a benefit being held for Cara's brother Robbie, who lost his leg in very very ugly accident this summer. The benefit was really cool--some of his high school friends did a fantastic job organizing it--and it was great to see Robbie (he looks great and seems to be doing well under the circumstances) and Cara's family, most of whom I haven't seen for a couple of years. Plus, it was a perfect excuse for me to make the trek up north and hang out with Cara and Sondra (and Steve, too). Cara has been fighting a bulging disc in her back among other things, but she continues to amaze me with her strength, fortitude, and amazing outlook on life. As for Sondra and Steve...they are about the best-matched couple I've ever met, and it's always a treat to spend time with them. Anytime I visit either Cara or Sondra, it seems I come back to my little slice of reality more grounded and more settled than when I left...they both have that effect on me, and for that and many other reasons, I'm thankful for their friendship.

Saturday morning, I took off from Cara's and went for my 11-miler in a park reserve near her home (she helped scope out route options for me ahead of my arrival, for which I'm grateful). On my way to the running path, I walked by an albino squirrel--I've never seen an albino anything before, and I have to say it was a little freaky. It was pretty much all white with little red beady eyes...I sort of expected it to have fangs and lunge at me, but it just hung upside down on the tree trunk and ate a nut that it had. Cara is the naturalist for her school district and has always been the resident nature/animal/all things creepy-crawly expert in our group of friends, so I called her to let her know about the squirrel--apparently there are a couple in the neighborhood that she has also seen on occasion. Weird...but kind of cool in a B-grade horror movie kind of way.

The run itself was very pretty--the park reserve was extremely well kept, and many of the plants (apparently some sumac, according to Cara) were starting to turn colors. I had a tough time keeping my heartrate down, though--I think subconsciously I didn't want to slow down enough to drop my heartrate as I wanted to get back and hang out with Cara some more, plus I hadn't really slept well last week. Those factors notwithstanding, though, it was a nice run. This was the first time, though, that I really regretted having to go do a training run--I much rather would have spent the 2 hours hanging out with Cara. I have a feeling that isn't the last time that will happen...

Continuing to expand on why I love fall, the drive home today was beautiful--the trees are about 50% turned in the northern part of Wisconsin along I-94, and it was a gorgeous explosion of color for most of the drive between Minneapolis and Madison. Down in the Chicagoland area, though, it seems as though we'll be stuck with some pretty dismal color this fall...bummer, but at least I've seen some good stuff today.

My training this week was largely running again--that'll be a recurring theme through Disney. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things are going--the long, slow runs really seem to be helping with my endurance and stamina, and even on the pace runs, I can tell a marked improvement. I set a PR this week on my 6-mile pace run--ended up with an average pace of 8:04/mile, which is way faster than what I've done in the past. So, I'm definitely going to continue the long, slow runs and work to control my heartrate below 140 bpm--that seems to be the magic number for me in my training. Here's the wrap-up...

Run: 4:40:41, 29.43 miles
Bike: 0:35:00 (on trainer)
Swim: 0:43:00, 1650 m
Strength: 1:05:00

I'm headed to Medford, WI for work this week and then to Ames this weekend for a football game--lots of time in a car, and it'll be tough to squeeze in my mileage...but I'll do it, for sure. One more week until my trip to Colorado with Vardo...hiking in the day, IM training planning at night...can't wait!!

Bring on week 49...