Much to be thankful for

Today is Thanksgiving Day in America and I was able to celebrate today with my son, Kevin and my father, John Miles. We had a non-traditional meal of giant steaks, large baked potatoes, and lemon meringue pie. Kevin wanted steak – and he got steak. I bought three steaks that were each about 1 1/3 lb. in weight. Between the three of us – we only finished off 1.5 of the 3 steaks. Of course, that allowed me to meet my goal of lots of leftovers for my favorite college student.

Thanksgiving is an often forgotten holiday in between the craziness of Halloween and the over spending of Christmas. I wish we could place more emphasis on it. I love getting out my Thanksgiving decorations. I love the idea of being grateful for all the many things we have been given. I think we all need to show more gratitude and have less needs and wants (including myself).

Some of the items I am grateful for today are:

• My wonderful daughter, Jennifer and her husband, Jeremy.
  
• My awesome son, Kevin.
  
• My cool grandkids, Elise and Brad – and getting to know them this last year.
  
• A great sister who is also my best friend.
  
• A father who is still healthy and strong.
  
• Lots of brothers, brother-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, mother-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
  
• A great job and some supportive co-workers.
  
• Twilight – the wonder dog.
  
• A good relationship with my ex-husband.
  
• Good friends.
  

Since this is my running blog, some running things to be grateful for are:

• Finishing my 50 mile race.
  
• Marathon running.
  
• The ultramarathon community.
  
• Running friends.
  
• Being able to have a good supply of running gear.
  
• Being able to run.
  
• A strong body.
  
• Potential.
  

There is so much more, but I will call this good for now. I am most grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, and the knowledge that they know me personally, love me, care for me, and want me to be able to do better each and every day.

Snow + Mud + Slush + Ice = Fun

Saturday morning I met Leslie Petersen at the Pipeline Trail up Millcreek Canyon for a beautiful fall run. We ran together for the first three miles and caught up on all sorts of things – especially the miracle recovery of her dog as they were taking him in to have him put to sleep. I have never been up the canyon this late in the year and was surprised at the amount of snow and ice at the start of the run. Luckily, I had on trail shoes, but didn't think to bring my winter pair with the hobnails. However, the ice wasn't too bad, so I made it through okay.

We split up after a while since Leslie wasn't planning to run much more than six and my body appeared to be recovering from donating blood a week ago and I wanted to do the entire portion of the trail.

I ran to the overlook without needing to take a drink. About 1.5 miles before the overlook it started to snail (snow + hail) and I was enjoying running in that. At the overlook I drank most of my handheld bottle full of water and decided to see if I could do the entire run without taking in my emergency Gu. I learned a lot on the 50 miler, most especially that the body can handle a lot more than we give it credit for.

It was so nice to be back on trails and enjoying nature. The views were totally different than in the summer since you could see much farther without all the leaves on the trees. What could be better than to start the day out with a 9+ mile trail run?

Notes from Get-Fit Guy’s Podcast: How To Run Faster

1. Lose weight
   
2. Increase your cadence (more steps per minute). 90 steps per minute is ideal.
   
3. Use a treadmill (also allows you to focus on proper running form)
   
4. Run hills (allows you to achieve high intensities without as much joint impact)
   
5. Plyometrics (once per week). Hopping onto raised surface, explosive jumps.
   
6. Consistency (running a minimum of every 48-72 hours)

Your Monday Laugh

Ok – so I am technologically advanced in a lot of areas. But when it comes to TV's – I rarely watch mine, so am pretty dumb there.

And – if I need another excuse – I've been stressed between work and training for ultramarathons this summer and fall.

Now for the laugh…

Background: I hardly watch TV. I've probably not turned on my TV since the last Biggest Loser finale show. So, I decided it is stupid to keep paying for DirectTV when I never use it. Sometime in September I cancelled my DirectTV subscription. The company sends you a box, you pack the receiver and remote in the box and mail it back. Ta Da! The first box they shipped to my house was stolen. I requested another box be sent to my office. Stupid company sent it to my house and I was in a rush to get the receiver mailed back, so shipped it off as soon as I could.

Since then, I have watched a couple of shows on the computer, but didn't have any antenna hooked up to the TV, so didn't bother with that. I did try to play the Wii one day with no success. And I tried to watch a movie on my DVD player when I was recovering from the 50 mile race. No luck with both of them.

My brother-in-law put up an antenna in my attic on Thursday night, so now I am trying to get the TV to work. I asked my son on Friday night to get the Wii and DVD player hooked up. A few minutes later he calls me into the bedroom.

Stupid move #1 – I am missing the Wii AVI cable. Apparently I threw that in with the stuff I shipped back to DirectTV.

Stupid move #2 – My son pointed out that I still had the DirectTV receiver on my dresser. Apparently I shipped back the DVD player instead of the DirectTV receiver.

OK – now that you have all had your laugh, I am crawling back into my technologically unsavvy hole.