Halloween + October

Happy Halloween!!

It certainly did creep up on us, didn't it? I did my celebrating over the weekend and took things easy tonight. Saturday night my bff and I got all decked out in our costumes for a night on the town. My mom and I had been working on my costume all week and even at the last minute were still adding final touches, but it came out so much better than I expected! For those of you who can't tell/live under a rock, I was Ursula, from The Little Mermaid : ) I bought a strapless black dress and then my mom sewed the tentacles to be worn underneath. As for the accessories, I made the jewelry with craft clay and my mom sewed the stuffed eel.

 ursula!

just a couple of witches : )

We hit up a couple bars in midtown, but ultimately it ended up being a slightly disappointing night. I think I try to convince myself sometimes that I like going out, but in the end it's usually just not that much fun for me. Around midnight, my bff and I looked at each other and both were like, man, how much better would it be if we were back home on the couch in our sweats? Haha! I'm still glad we went out and I got to wear my awesome costume. I'll definitely be saving it for future occasions!

Tonight I went for a nice run and then just stayed in and handed out candy and watched some scary movies. Pretty perfect if you ask me. Did you dress up this year? Do anything fun?

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 October

Total: 81.3 miles

swim - 3,200 yards

bike - 16 miles

run - 63.8 miles

I've said this every time but man, where did the month go!? Seriously, after Chicago the weeks seemed to fly by and then here we are at Halloween! It wasn't a big month training-wise, but there were some highlights. I ran my second Urban Cow Half Marathon at the beginning of the month as a final long training run and ran with the same pace group I set a PR with last year - except this year it was an easy pace! It was nice to see how far I've come in the past year and the slightly new course was great!

The following weekend my mom and I headed to Chicago. I had an absolute blast exploring the city, but I didn't end up having the race I'd planned and hoped for. For the most part I've made my peace with it, and I'm still really glad I got to experience a marathon like Chicago. I know I still have a sub-4 marathon in me, and when I finally do get it, it will be that much sweeter : )

 the Bean! my favorite.

 view from the top of Sears Tower!

floating on the Skydeck
 

The rest of the month was honestly a bit of a flop with workouts, but that was kind of the plan. 2011 thus far has been a busy year with racing, and I've jumped from one training cycle directly to the next. With my most intense training cycle on the horizon for Ironman, I wanted to just take the rest of October to do whatever I felt like. Sleep in. Be lazy. Get my sweat on in other ways besides running. And so I did just that. I did a little hot yoga, had a reunion with my Jillian DVD and got my ass kicked, hit the pool a couple times, went on a killer bike ride for the first time in months, and even ran a handful of times. I know I needed the break, but after a few weeks I found myself missing a routine. So now with marathon no. 10 on the calendar it's time to get back to work!