October in Review (and Halloween Pics)

October was a solid month of running (85 miles), a mediocre month of swimming (2 skipped swims before my 2 races), and a crappy month on the bike (48 miles outside, but another 4+ easy hours on the trainer [or an equivalent of approx 73 "miles" for just over 120 miles total]). It's surprising my run mileage is so good with 2 races in there because I usually need a lot of rest pre- and post-race, but I've been feeling good. Here's what October looked like:

Raced the TC 10 Mile on the 7th, and the 10K as part of the Minneapolis Halloween Half on the 27th.

I felt good about my running this month, so I quick looked back to previous Octobers (since tracking mileage online in 2009). Most "good" Octobers have had mileage just below this in the 70s. (Versus 85 miles this year.) It turns out 2018 was my 2nd biggest October in the last 10 years (and most likely ever). It was only beat by 2012 when colicky Henry needed lots of stroller runs: I ran 101 miles that month, including back-to-back weeks of 40 and 30 miles!! (And 35 miles of the 40 mile week was with Henry, and a 10+ mile run in the 30 mile week was with Henry.)

Then 2018 was my 2nd biggest October with 85 miles. And 3rd was 2009 with 83 miles, which included my first TWO 10 mile races. Lots of fun history in my Octobers! :)

Oh, and my biggest weekly running milage all year was in October: it was the middle week at 23.5 miles. I had 2 weeks in September leading up to the TC 10 Mile of 22+ miles, but not over 23. (And lots of weeks throughout the year of 20-21 miles.) It's odd that my biggest mileage all year would be leading up to "just" a 10K, but that week was basically my WEEK of training for the 10K: it was after a week of rest after the 10 Mile, but before backing off a bit to rest up for the 10K.

Speaking of October, here are 2 recent Instagram pics of my boys on Halloween:

Thanos and Ant Man!


I just HAD to show all of our last 8 Halloweens. #SorryNotSorry #ItsADadThing

Happy weekend!