My favorite season of the year is autumn. I love the chilly mornings and sunny afternoons. It's generally drier than spring when the freeze-thaw puddles make running difficult. Charlie, the running dog, loves cross country season until track season which he loves just as much ❤️. D had his first race Monday. He was 14th in the race and his team was 2nd. D had a large group of fans. Besides my husband and I, D's fans included his sister, her friend, Grandma, Grandpa and Charlie. We all enjoyed the meet. I am finally starting to feel like my own running is getting back on track. Perhaps watching the CC kids was inspirational. I'm looking forward to attempting a 10 mile run this weekend followed by watching my son B's first CC meet of his senior season. In fact, we will be at meets for either one of the boys most of the next 10 Saturdays. One of the meets will also include my niece, L. Expect family photos on the blog that week! Between lovely running weather and watching exciting races, fall just can't be beat. Happy running! Missee
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My regular running schedule is to run six days per week and walk on Sundays. When I woke up this morning, I was in the mood to run! Since I already put in my six runs for the week, I will consider it a bonus run. I did not have a milage goal in mind, I thought I would just see how I felt. I ended up with a seven mile run and a cool down walk while enjoying an audio book. Here is what I am listening to now... Tomorrow is the first day of school in our district. As a teacher, I was back at staff inservice days last week. The students return to school tomorrow. Like many parents, I will be taking a back to school photo of my kids. While looking through an old photo album, I came across a back to school photo of Missee and me. I am pretty sure that Missee was in first grade and I was in kindergarten. I recall being really proud of that school bag. It was sewn by my mom and I think my dad may have even helped with the super cool initials. It was constructed out of think, orange corduroy. What a bag! It was awesome!
Happy Running! -Stephanie Do you remember getting something for new for school that you were really excited about? New outfit, school supply, book bag, etc? Please click "Comments" and share. My Garmin 235 gives me all sorts of information whether I am running or not. I can see my heart rate, sleep quality and even steps. The step count includes running, too. I tend to average around 13,000 steps per day and only rarely dip below 10,000. Experts seem to agree that adults should aim for a minimum of 10,000 (approximately 5 miles) per day for good health. Last Saturday, I had run 7 miles in the morning...my longest continuous run in months. By nightfall, I had racked up over 24,000 steps. Doing what??? Dancing up a storm at a Kid Rock concert! My husband is a big fan, so we've seen Kid Rock perform three different times. This was a smaller venue at Grand Casino Hinkley, and all seats were good ones. We took our daughter along and loved the performance. Sometimes watching my husband watch the concert is equally entertaining. Runners who listen to music while running may find some good pump-up songs on Kid Rock albums. There are also a lot of songs with a solid count of F-bombs. I have seen research that cussing during exercise can improve performance, so maybe a few blue words via earbuds is ok as long as you aren't singing along out loud. Careful for little ears that repeat everything they hear!
This afternoon, my son asked if I wanted to run with him. Yes! Of course! He is too young for the cross country team. He just wanted to run. I get it! I am glad that both of my children like to run and will still run with Mom sometimes. :) Sharing a hobby with my children is a lot of fun. After our run, we had a cool down walk and some time to visit. We discussed the ending of summer vacation. (School starts here very soon.) Although he and I have had some fabulous summer running together, he is ready to give up the constant sun block applying and I am looking forward to switching my hat for a headband. Ready or not... fall is on its way!
Happy Running! -Stephanie I'm not a gardener myself, not even much into tending flower beds. In all fairness, Mom did not start doing a lot of gardening until we were all out of college. I've still got time! The school where I work has a fabulous garden where our Ag students grow all sorts of delicious vegetables to serve at school. We've got pickles, zucchini, peppers, celery and broccoli already frozen for later in the winter. There was an event at school this week that required some tomatoes from the garden, so I went out harvesting. Don't you love my Paul Bunyan school lunch shirt?!? Paul is an old family friend! This morning I took Charlie for a walk. We found a garden treat right on the bike path. I believe this is the first time I've ever encountered corn on the bike path. Makes me wonder how it got there...
Even if you don't garden, there are many ways to enjoy fresh vegetables at this time of year. One way would be to let it be known in your workplace that you love veggies but don't have a garden. Expect more zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers than you'd know what to do with! Many communities have farmer's markets and lots of grocery stores buy from local farmers when they can. Fresh produce is is an ideal way to support your running efforts with proper fuel. It's way easier to learn to like vegetables when they are fresh and tastiest. See if you can add one fresh local food to a meal this week. Happy running! Missee My children and I went school shopping yesterday. Since we live in a rural area, we traveled two hours to visit a larger mall. This mall is also only a ten minute drive from where Missee lives. We met up with Missee at her favorite nail salon for a quick manicure (for the moms) and then to Cold Stone Creamery for a snack. This was the first visit to a Cold Stone Creamery for my children and I. Sometimes Cold Stone Creamery prepackaged ice cream is available in the concession stand at sporting events. The kids knew that ice cream is delicioius. Being able to choose the ice cream and topping was even better. We were glad that Missee was able to join us for a cool treat! I decided to get a bottle of Diet Coke instead. This was an act of will power that was greatly rewarded. Look at what I pulled out of the case... After Diet Coke started putting names on their bottles, I have been looking (and wishing) to find my name. It finally happened! :) Small joys...
Happy Running! -Stephanie It's a good thing to want to excel. Of course, anything can be taken to extreme, but being mediocre is just that--mediocre, and perhaps a little boring. When I named my post, I was thinking of an old Brooks advertisement in Runner's World years ago. It was an ad for their newest reflective gear. The ad pictured a male runner with the words: "He was a standout in high school. He was a standout in college. Now he's a standout in traffic." That is a great idea--be outstanding in traffic! Being a running ninja is a great way to give drivers a heart attack and also give yourself way too many close calls...you hope. Of course, anything can be taken to extreme: No need to be lit up like a Christmas tree to run safely in low light. There are a lot of good products available now that will allow runners to be visible in traffic without being recruited as a road construction flagger. Road ID is having a great sale right now. I'm thinking of getting one or more of these sale T-shirts for myself and maybe even some gifts...never too early to think of Christmas gifts and to be thankful you are not a Griswold. If you think you may be on my gift list and see a favorite, feel free to say which one is your favorite in the Comment section... Wishing you an outstanding rest of your week with plenty of safe running. Missee
Our extended family met yesterday to celebrate our grandmother's 90th birthday. What a wonderful reason to gather and to celebrate! We were all asked to wear blue and tan in order to coordinate for a group photo. Even without a plan, Missee and I often show up to events color coordinated. We once arrived at a family wedding wearing blue floral dresses and blue nail polish on our toes. Sisters... Since we were together and dressed up, we thought we should take a photo for the blog. We started our blog in January of this year. After discussing our ideas for a running blog for more than a year, Missee decided that 2017 was a good time to give a blog a try. I agreed.
In seven months of blogging, I have found that blogging has made some positive changes in my life. 1. I actually take pictures. When everyone is snapping pictures at an event, I had been that one person without a phone out. Pictures are a fun way to document day to day life. Thanks, blog! 2. Missee & I communicate even more. It's a great reason to talk to my sister! 3. Blogging has improved some of my technology skills. (It's a work in progress.) I've learned about how to link websites, create an online survey, and do a little photo editing. We have enjoyed our first seven months of blogging! Thanks for reading! Happy Running! -Stephanie I have been on a super long recovery plan after a hamstring injury this spring. This week, I was excited to do 5 miles continuous and kicked that up to 6 miles today! Five miles feels like really running compared to the run/walk intervals of the early summer. There is a good sweaty feeling from a more sustained effort. My pace is still a little slow, but progressing. I took Stephanie's advice from an earlier post and kicked up my motivation by drawing up a training plan to get myself back to the 10-12 mile long run I enjoy and a little speed work for variety. I'm already looking forward to returning to 6.5 miles every Wednesday with my friend!!! Last week, Mom and I joined about 800 other school nutrition professionals for a conference. The annual conference always provides us with some good information, updates on regulation changes and motivation for the upcoming school year. This year, I'm planning to have my school participate in the Great Apple Crunch. Everyone participating is supposed to bite into a MN grown apple at the same time all over the state. Mom's school did it last year and the photos were precious. Here we are at our conference practicing our crunch. It was a delicious 🍎. I hope you are finding ways to get excited about back to school and perfect fall weather...my favorite time of year for running. Missee
The songs from the musical Oklahoma are some of my favorites. When I stepped outside this morning for my run, I couldn't help thinking (and singing to myself) "Oh What a Beautiful Morning!" The crisp morning air reminded me that autumn and the start of another school year is just around the corner.
With the changing of seasons, I'm looking forward to cross country meets, running in long sleeved t-shirts, and eating apple crisp. For now, we will savor the remaining days of summer vacation. Happy Running! -Stephanie Care to Comment? *What is your favorite musical? |
AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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