More bizarre weather...

That's right. The weather is a bit schizophrenic right now. Yesterday it was cold and rainy and I was beginning to think about Christmas. We built a fire, made soup, and opened many bottles of wine with my cousin Billy, and friends Erin, Chris and a few others. Today dawned drizzly and gray, so we pulled on jeans and long-sleeves to head to the farmer's market. Huh? Stepped outside and it was 65 degrees! By the time we got home with our fresh veggies, it was over 70.

I quickly changed into shorts and a t-shirt (this is mid-November!!), and grabbed Nick's leash. After a warm-up walk through the neighborhood with Joe and Ally, we were off. It's November, so the HR monitor stayed home, but I tried to keep a steady comfortable pace, thinking I'd push it a bit on the backside. Nick is just an amazing running buddy. Once he settles in and gets focused, it's fabulous. Walking him is tough because he's always pulling the leash, nosing around and being a goofy little dog. But on a run, he's on a mission. We passed other dogs, and he glanced at them, but didn't even break stride.

And that was the crazy part, we passed other dogs! Being at Ironman Florida with Stuart definitely did good things for me. Yeah, sure I didn't hit my 8hr/wk workout goal since I was a bit busy volunteering and Ironsherpa-ing. But, the motivation and oomph from all the energy in the air seemed to stick. As someone whose comfy zone 2 pace has been in the 11-12min/mi range for a few too many years, I was shocked to realize we cranked out 6miles today in 1:01. Still not breaking landspeed records as compared to my friends and family, but it's a start.

More importantly, it was fun. With no iPod, no HR monitor, just me, Nick and the sunshine, it was calming to know I was doing something I wanted to do. Not because a coach was telling me to, but because you don't get many days like that in November. And, since Ironman is done, life in our house has calmed. I felt no pressure to move on to the next thing on my to-do list. I always read about people who use running as a way to daydream or even mull over issues at work or home that might need solutions. That's rarely been me. Either I'm too focused on how slow I am, or how tight my muscles are, or else if I start to think about things that are weighing me down my heart rate starts to rise as I get more stressed about them. Today, though, I realized I was actually day-dreaming! Nothing concrete, but just being in the moment watching Nick smile and thinking about what a beautiful day we were having.

I know right now I'm hanging on to fitness, rather than building it, but that's the point. Another week or two and I'll start thinking about harder and more focused off-season work. But this is the mental break I need - to do things because I want to, with no clear goal in mind other than to feel my own strength and freedom. Somewhere in the back of my head, I'm starting to nurture a few goals for next year, but there's time before I need to lay those out here and commit to them.