'Tis the Enjoying Season!

Today has been chock full of getting-ready-for-Halloween goodness. In fact, this is the kickoff to my very favorite time of year!! You can't beat the October-November-December trifecta in my book, so this was a great way to spend the day!

It was full of this:

This will make more sense on Halloween ... for now, know
that craft time is awesome time!!

And, this:

Not only are the Crewers hard at work, but they have two
supervisors ready to help!

TBR (To Be Revealed)

And, this:

Mmm ... pumpkin seeds ... Aaron found an idea on the Web
to sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon, so one of the
batches has that. Report tomorrow.

This time of year more than any other aligns the perspective I have on my life -- not just because it's winding down the year, but because Fall and Winter are truly that wonderful to me! (Um, besides, my birthday is in there, too! Yahoo!!)

So, with the house a-buzz with holiday goodness, I came to a sneezy-easy decision about my running goal for the rest of the year: Just Run.

Truth be told, it's good for me to have a goal, and, given how far I've come in the past four years, I like to have one that pushes me just a little. As it turns out, I will complete 100 miles more this year than I did last year on my current track, and that's a heck of an accomplishment in my book. The arbitrary "shoot for 800 miles" doesn't really mean anything, so, I'm going to let it go and be done with it.

And, you know what? As soon as I realized it was okay to just drop it, I felt free. I am now free to go out and just do what I want to do and enjoy it. I remain committed to my schedule, and I do have a minimum each week carrying me through the end of the year. But, from there, it's all about what I want. That is a great feeling!!

I think I get caught up in the, "What else can I do" feeling that envelopes me post-Half. It's happened after each of them where I somehow feel like dropping down in miles isn't something I "should" do. But, I've also proven at least twice that trying to maintain that training schedule in my life is not only looney, but, it also doesn't work. I've hit the wall 100% of the time I've tried. So, how 'bout I learn something from that and start with what I know works ... and, enjoy!!

Specific training can go to the wayside until late January/early February (I haven't yet mapped that out for April's Half ... nor do I yet have to !). In the meantime, 'tis the season to enjoy!! Elly and I will be at it together tomorrow. She's very excited about it!

By the way, if you can tell me what this has to do with running ...

... you get a prize! (Okay, that's a total lie; I have no prize. Unless you call being fantastically brilliant a prize, then you will earn the braggin' rights!) We'll see you from the road to start off the week tomorrow!