It's on November! We are ready for you!

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Finished October on a high note.  The kids got to have a good Halloween weekend.  My training continues to develop, in spite of weather changes, and fought off a tough eating weekend.  Handled another disappointing football weekend, still striving to get my head around these bad games.  Ready for a new routine to kick in.

Family

The boys had a 4 day weekend, and I had a 3 day one, and of course poor Kim had to work every day, no justice in this world sometimes.  The boys got to enjoy a day with Grandpa, and then days with Dad, including a trip to soccer.  It was a good change and break for them.  Emily wound up her time at Old Town, thanks to all the wonderful folks there, it was an excellent transition for her. 

The kids got lots of trick or treating chances: Manitou on Friday, Old Colorado City and then a neighborhood trip on Sunday.  Much fun was had, lots of fun costumes to see.  And now we have 3 big bags of candy sitting around the house to tempt us (must resist). 

Training

I am enjoying the change up with the neighborhood runs, there is a straightforward roughly 2 mile loop I can run, and then break it up into small chunks.  Plus that gives me the enhancement of running up and down some hills, not a rough trail run, but some hills, which is important long term for any races I want to run next year.  I can't get too used to the flat track.  My plan is to use the track on the interval days, and then run the neighborhood on long stretch run days.

Eating wise I was okay over the 3 day weekend, although still over indulged in the evenings.  As always that's the toughest time for me.  But the transition to a new diet continues.

My next added routine is stretching, I stretch before and after my runs, but I think I need to add a routine before bed as well.  Because as I ramp up the runs I am starting to feel like one of my calves just never relaxes.  So hopefully a little more stretching will help, and in general help get the blood flowing before bed. 

Football

I would never have thought that at this point that the 1 bright point amongst my teams would be the Rams.  I had more hopes and expectations for the Buffs, Rebels and Broncos than the Rams.  That is one of the reasons why I like football, it's still the best reality TV out there, with a lot of unscripted surprises every week and season.  I just need to get my head straight when watching the Broncos and acclimate myself to the idea that they are just not a good team now.

Routine

With Emily starting school today, and the coming end of the month of birthdays life should start to settle into more of a routine.  And I am already making plans for just that with the kids.  Setting up a daily routine of expected chores and home work.  Little things, like taking the dog for a walk, feeding the dog, doing home work, picking up dirty clothes etc.  And add a section for exercise routines for me and Kim.  I am a big fan of routine, and I think it helps the kids to have some of that as a a basis for their lives. We have been looking at a big magnetic white board to use as a tracker for such things.  Just so there is some level of expectations. 

Because as James gets older and starts testing his limits it is important that we have something we can point to and say 'Have you done X today? If not you cannot have a friend over, play this game etc.'  I know that yesterday when it was time it was very easy to tell James: 'You need to do your math home work, walk the dog, and pick up your room, you have 2 hours'.  He basically knows how to manage himself, you just have to lay out his responsibilities.