October, the most beautiful month of the year!

After struggling through the first few weeks back it the heat, the weather has finally changed. It's stunningly beautiful in the mornings, not forcing us to run at dark thirty am. The evenings are starting to cool, and our AC is finally not killing itself to keep the house cool. Yup, it's fall here in AZ, honestly one of the most beautiful times & places to be....

The first weekend in October we had the honor of heading to Sonoma to celebrate the wedding of our friends Ric & Sara. We could not be more happy for this couple. I can honestly say this was one of the most beautiful, elegant weddings I have ever been to. The setting was gorgeous, the details simple and perfect. And, of course the weekend of wine tasting could not have been better...

Our AZ family with the Happy couple

The happiness was so obvious, you couldn't help but get goosebumps during the ceremony




Natalie & Jeff...

Our own little "rehearsal dinner" night

and rehearsal day....

Shane & I had some time on our own to do tastings. Every visit we always have a favorite place we find, this trip it was Robledo Family Winery. The wines were incredible, the story amazing & inspiring. If you are in the area, it's a don't miss...
It truly was a fabulous, perfect weekend - complete with a visit with my old college friend Kelly. She works for Trinchero Family Wineries in the Sutter Home Facility. We headed over to St. Helena for a visit & she treated us with a tour of the facility & then lunch to catch up. So fun seeing good friends after such a long time!
After our return it was back to the daily grind. Work has picked up after a pretty slow summer & training is returning. I've had my two big "test" long runs to see if my IT band could hold up for the full marathon. Yesterday was my 2:40 run & it went GREAT! 17.3miles with a lot of climbing! I'm thankful my leg is holding up, and really thankful the weather has been so great!
This week is a recovery week (running) so we're going to try & build up some bike mileage & see if doing the dual 109mile el tour 3 weeks before the marathon is worth it. I know I CAN do it, I am just not sure how much effect it will have on my marathon performance and if it's worth it..... I think I'll know after this week!
Happy Fall!

Comments

Elli Davis said…
Beautiful pictures! I bet you are really happy the hot days are over. I don't think I could survive in such hot weather like in Arizona. I am barely surviving in the summer here in Toronto...haha. I guess I'm just a winter loving person. Anyways, you should check out my article on how to keep your home cool. Maybe you'll find it useful for next summer. Thanks for your post,

take care, Elli
October 13, 2009 at 6:05 AM
momo said…
such a great time. i'm so glad you wanted to go to a wedding in sonoma and that it could happen so that i could go too!
October 13, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IMCDA #7 -- The Sunset Year

Image
It's been two months since Ironman CDA. The last Ironman CDA. It was a late registration for me.  After a couple stressful and busy years, I wasn't sure if I wanted to tackle another long event or take the year off. But, as per usual, as the training progressed so did my desire to race. About a week after I finally pulled the trigger and registered, the rumors started going around about it being the last year for the event in my favorite town. Denial at it's best, I didn't believe it. They still had another year on the contract so surely they would honor that.... Turns out, choosing to race this year is something I'll forever be thankful for. Being able to run down the finish line on Sherman for the last time is truly a blessing. There are a lot of things that made this year so special. I had 3 athletes racing that day, my BFFs in town cheering all day with Shane and what I felt like was a million people rooting for me. Earlier in the year I set a goal of gettin
Read more

Kona 23'

Image
It's been a while! I started this blog/journal to document training adventures for my first Ironman in 2007. It was a fun adventure and *back then* blogging was the social media of today. It connected me with so many special people that I met and continue to keep in contact with (albeit, not enough). Life got busy, training was more of a lifestyle then a new adventure and sharing my daily with the world became just, well irrelevant. While so much has changed since my last post, there is still a lot of the same. My love for swimming, biking and running, dogs and wine is still there, but my desire to keep pushing and find new boundaries has definitely faded. Over 20 years in this endurance world I've found more in myself then I ever dreamed possible. I've met the most amazing people and traveled to beautiful places.  In 2021 after several years of pandemic chaos, I brought myself back to top end fitness and lined up for my 14th Ironman and 8th IMCDA. I had a solid day, 6th in
Read more

Coeur d'Alene Scenic Challenge

Relays are FUN. Seriously... no stress, just show up & do your part! I've done one relay before, in Mexico - I totally forgot how much fun they can be. The CDA triathlon is something I found on line a LONG time ago. I don't even know why I was looking at races in this area, because we had not started our plans to come here for the summer yet. Anyhow - I looked it up for this summer, and if happened to fall the week after Troika, what was supposed to be our 'A' race.... Had I only known..... So, still not wanting to give up on the race, I put out an "Ad" on Facebook looking for someone to join Shane & I for a team. My only thing - I was going to swim. After swimming in 2 different, not so pretty lakes this summer I wanted to swim in CDA. Not to mention I had had about enough with my sub par swim times lately..... Sure enough my Facebook post worked and within 24hours of posting we had a runner. How cool is this. A girl that I have not seen f
Read more