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!