Blinnk and you missed it.

There's is always a joke in Minnesota that we have one of the shortest Autumn's. Lulled in to a false sense of security, the temperature drops slowly, like the slow rickety climg to the top of the roller-coaster, only to creep of the top and suddenly shock you in to winter. During our one week of leaves changing and temperatures at the autumn range - the range where you are no longer prefusely sweating, but instead, just right. What I call "Grandma Joan" temperature. 75 degrees fahrenheit, plus or minus zero degree - I managed to enjoy some very enjoyable runs. 

I had a fantastic morning run around Canada's capital city. The day was genarlly wet and miserable. The type of weather the Americans call a "movie day". The type that the English call "standard April day". However, the morning was fantastic autumn running weather, as you can see from the pictures. I was fortunate enough to take in all the sights of the city, matched with the fantastic colours of the season.    

Then the weekend arrived and autumn was complete. Arriving back in to Minneapolis, I found myself completely inapproriately dressed. Fortunately, my wamrly clad wife was on hand to scrape me up at the airport. I quickly descended to the basement to dig out my long running leggings and vest. Morning runs were going to be a frosty affair, with your breath the first sign that you were awake. 

The second sign it was truly changing, was the first sweaty and humid basement ride. Back to the monotony of staring at a movie, trying to forget that you sre inside riding a bike, literally on the road to nowhere. However, the season shall be improved by the accompaniment of other in my tiny basement living room, along with good ole Trainerroad. My saving software, that guides me through this sweaty indoor season, with new workouts and the ability to ride with others now. My wife will be thrilled at the prospect of multiple sweaty riders in the basement, grunting away as they attempt to reach the targets. What more can a girl wish for??

The final nail in Summer's coffin was the first indoor swim. Back to the pool I went. Meeting Napoleon and then unceremoniously getting the boot from the pool by the old peoples aqua class. However, not before I got to experiment with my gadgets. The TomTom watch was excellent, with the accompanying  music in my underwater MP3 player doing just the trick. It drowns out the ranting strike talk from frenchie. jk.

This evening, hopefully Traverse City will provide an apprioate late autumn run. The type where you find yourself just that little bit underdressed and shiver through your first few miles, trying to run faster to warm up before the end of the run. Traverse is a great city to run through, the biting wind off the lake reminding you that you are indeed in northern Michigan!

Good luck to us all! 

Swings and roundabouts

Swings and roundabouts

It's been a busy few weeks. Not busy like a bee trying to pollenate as many sprouting flowers as possible. Busy like a jumbled children's play pen, full of plastic balls with no end in sight. Every time one thing is completed, another is behind the next door to replace it.

That said, this is typically the time of year that I try to complete everything I missed last summer. My wife has taken over the busy schedule with school and work, whilst training has backed off considerably. A backing off on the energy output similar to a tree's leaves turning a shade of yellow, bowing out for the winter. A part of the beautiful and colourful Minnesota autumn that I enjoy the most. Short, picturesque runs through the parkways and around the calm, cooling water of the lakes. In particular, one of my favourite events of the year, Twin Cities Marathon weekend. Sunday comprises of the marathon and 10 mile races. This year was the turn of the 10 mile, having completed the colour filled marathon last year. As is the norm, a gentle run was unlikely to be the result, with Napoleon also competing. As is also the norm, he snuck ahead of me to finish an agressive 1hr 15min 10 mile, with me closing in a mere 3 minutes behind the Frenchman. Although, thanks to our never ending competitive spirit, my pace was upped considerably and my PR was matched at the end of the day. My proudest moment of the weekend, however, came with my wife finishing off the 10miles, with very little training, in a mere 1hr40mins. Not stopping once along the way, A great achievement!

The coming winter months will bring the passing of the leaves to the street gutter and the first snow of winter. Better fuel up the snow blower! What shall also begin will be the sweaty basement rides and chilly runs through and around the snow filled lakes. Something that should help with distracting me from the frost developing on my eye brows will be my new gadgets. I do like a good gagdet! The first addition of the autumn was my new TomTom Multisport watch. So far it's still in it's infancy, but the first impressions are really positive. My poor old Garmin 405 was showing the signs of age, clocking my HR at 252 at speeds of 200mph. A sign that my Hammer nutrition as working really well or a change was needed, and Tomtom stepped in with the best and most intriguing deal. Next up, are the Jabra bluetooth sport headset, currently awaiting me when I land in MSP in 3 hours. Looking forward to taking them out for a test run tonight. Hopefully I can persuade Mrs P to come along for the casual trot under the falling leaves.

In addition to all this fun and relaxing, we hope to add cross country skies and snow shoes to our list of goodies. Minnesota has a fantastic culture of winter sports and it would be a fantastic cross training experience if could get everything together before the first big storm of the year. Looking forward to changing the landscape a little with skiing and my other cross training in Rowsculpt. Same class I had taken part in during last year's off season, hoping to strengthen up the old body before next year's iron season begins and I start staring down the barrel at Boulder.

Good luck to us all