Trade Offs

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Total Movement Mileage: 800.4 (running: 622.2; walking: 33.4; biking: 144.8) Money Found For Food Bank: $69.18

2,015 in 2015 Change Hounds progress: Nancy: 800.4 Aaron: 521.1 (b: 460.1; w: 61)  Elly: 199.7 Total: 1521.2

Even though I'm a day behind in saying it, HAPPY OCTOBER!!

October is my all-time favorite month!! It's the introduction of my favorite weather (cool), it brings out robust colors, and it's the beginning of what I like to call Holiday Season! The Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas trifecta is simply fantastic! Then, I get to throw my birthday in there, and, well, what more could I ask for?

So, here we are on the second day of October where I am pretty much conceding that I can't keep a normal schedule right now (hence, days where I'm a no-show here). The trade-off of how I'm spending my time is more than worth it, but I had to get to the point where I accepted I can't do it all in order to do what I'm doing well. Acceptance of most things is half the battle! For instance, this morning, I had to accept that I did not want to run, and that, if I did, the first half mile or so would be slow and ugly. Of course, that's how most mornings are, so I'm used to that one!

I dressed up the run with a really cute pup, though! Elly was super-excited to join me! And, on a 44-degree morning (feels like 39 with the wind chill), this is really her kind of weather! She was so stoked that the first half mile was not, in fact, ugly; we really poured it on! Colder weather will do that. Colder weather also inspires faster movement so as to keep the ungloved fingers from freezing, just sayin'.

Elly was not especially pleased with my lack of respect for the cold when I asked her to take a seat on the concrete, though:

"I'm just not going to do it, mommy.
I won't."

I didn't try to force the issue. It was enough to get her to even remotely look my direction because she was ready to roll!

We hit four miles harder than usual which is also why we didn't go five. I considered it, but Elly's not been out running for about a week (if my mushy brain recalls). I was good to cut it; she was just the most reasonable excuse I had at the time!

I was a bit bummed to see that that one more mile would have pushed Elly's mileage over the 200-mile point, but we'll do that another day. It wouldn't have been worth totally wearing her out. My overall miles went over 800 miles today (wheeeeee!) and check out the Food Bank stash: As of today, it's almost $70!!!

That was a worthwhile run for so many reasons!! This is my favorite reason, though:

I'm taking the weekend off from the run because that's how the ol' schedule is rounding out! Enjoy starting off October! I'll check in as we kick off the week!