The weather was so absolutely perfect for a running weekend! Makes me so happy when I have the time to run like I want to PLUS the weather co-operates.

Friday morning I ran circles around my apartment complex until I got to 4 miles. That was kinda boring and uneventful. I’m so crazy, at about a mile I was like, hey – I totally forgot to bring my mp3 player. I almost always wear it if I’m running alone, unless of course it’s battery is dead.

Saturday - Chuck, my Mom & myself went to the Children’s Home trail. It was amazingly gorgeous out there. The sun was bright, the wind was blowing, oh it was so pretty. We ran 4 miles out there. The whole thing went by so fast, due to looking at the pretty scenery and making sure we didn’t trip over roots and such.

Here’s the cool part. Sunday we ran 8 miles. The last time I ran 8 miles was back in March of last year. Go me. It was also Chuck’s longest run ever, Go him! We did it in about a 10 min / mile pace (1:19:01). Me, Mom & Chuck met up at Jenny & G’s, Dennis came to run & his wife came to walk. They took two trucks out and parked one, drove one back. So we could run out and not have to run the big bad hills 2 times (There are 3 back to back hills at about 2 - 3 miles out, the last one is steep and about .5 mi long.) Yikes. Dennis smoked us on the run, G did pretty good too. My mom & Jenny ended up about 30 seconds ahead of me & Chuck. I didn’t bring my mp3 and Chuck did. So, I ended up running the whole 8 with no music and no convo. It wasn’t so bad though, there was plenty for my mind to think about. Felt great out there. The sky was clear and bright. Perfect morning for running. I even ended up with a sunburn on my forehead! Oh and I learned something about my pre- run fueling. I usually eat ½ a bagel with pnut butter & fruit spread with a ½ a banana. Sun morning I decided to eat the whole bagel… bad idea. I burped bagel and pnut butter the whole time and felt way too full. Plus I think I ate too close to the run. Live & learn.

I’m just so excited to be at the point of my training that I planned to be at. We have 5 more weeks until our goal race – Gate River Run 15K. So we are ok now on the miles. I like to run that one for fun, don’t worry so much about my time. I enjoy that race so much. I think I’ll try to run the Cherry Blossom 15K faster than I did last year (1:24 somethin’).

Today is cross training day, teaching spin tonight. That should be easy I guess.