A Clean Slate, And A New Leaf

When Laura was out of town last weekend, I was bitten by the project bug, so Bennett and I took on the garage.  Friday night after she went to bed, I moved most of the junk outside. I threw a lot of it away, too.  It looked like a crappy yard sale, but I was willing to suffer the scorn of my neighbors in return for an insanely clean garage.  Throughout Saturday,  I did more cleaning, removing, sweeping (or as Bennett calls it, "brooming with Daddy"), and organizing.  During Bennett's afternoon nap, I hosed down the garage completely.  Pa and Joje watched Bennett for a bit in the evening so I could run to Lowe's to pick up a couple more supplies.  That night, I spent many hours diligently rearranging the contents of the garage onto new storage shelves, and of course, painting the floor!

When I was finished, it was glorious!  Showroom quality, I tell you. Would have had no qualms about eating off the floor it was so clean and beautiful.  Almost a shame to drive on it now.  I also painted the parking blocks red just for a touch of color.

By the time Laura got back home, I was exhausted.  Mommy took over and got to spend a little quality time with Bennett before her bedtime.  I never sat and watched any baseball or football games all weekend, but I feel pretty good about what I got accomplished. 

To take stock of September, it was a little disappointing from a data standpoint - but it was injury related. Only 12 runs, and a less-than-planned 114mi.  :(

Still, many positives: a couple 20 milers on the trails felt relatively easy - as in, I could move around the next day without feeling like I was hit by a truck - , the injury is behind me because I managed it well (both the ankle, and the very sore shins seem to be under control), the rest has me completely recharged and ready to go, and September did have a few awesome runs with new friends where headlamps were required.  Running well before the sun comes up adds a whole new dimension to the trail.  It seems to make a place I've been 100 times before, feel new again.  Now it is time to let go of September and move on.

I can finally turn over a new leaf today - so to speak.  Does anybody else feel good about starting a new month? Sure, I theoretically could "start fresh" with any given day or week, but there's something beautiful about an entire month as a clean slate, espeically as it relates to my training log.  It is stark white, ready to be written, step by step, run by run.  it could be HUGELY SUCCESSFUL, or an epic FAIL... but that's the fun part.  The adventure.

I signed up for a 20k trail race on October 11th that I'm excited about, but I'll probably utilize it as a training day to some extent, with some solid mileage both before and after the race.  After that, there are only 2 more significant training weekend which will physiologically benefit my performance at the 50k on November 7th. That's almost as exciting as the fact that I scored these trail running shoes for $38 at the Alpine Shop. :)