Is spring here?

Ahhh! Temperatures have soared into the 20's out here in sunny Minnesota! Guy and I are in Rochester for the weekend with Bobby and Ally - Ally is swimming in the President's Day "A" Meet. Not doing really well - she was home two days this week with a 102+ temperature, but now she just has a really bad cold. She has swum in 3 events so far (will be 7 total), and all were slower than her qualifying times. But that's ok. We are still really proud of her just for getting here. Go Ally! We love you so much! UPDATE 5:00 p.m.... Ally just swam the 100 yard breaststroke in a Championship Qualifying PR!!!!

Anyway, this morning at dawn we headed out, intending to run 15 miles on the Douglas Trail. It was nicely packed by the snowmobilers, but it was still a lot of work: a good ankle-strengthening work-out for ultra runners, and I do say that like it's a good thing! So we hopped on and off the trail, running on the streets as well as on sidewalks in and around the old neighborhoods. It was SO nice outside that we ended up with 18 miles~! Yea!

We were especially proud of ourselves because we've been running just a fraction of the miles we used to over these last 10 months with all the changes in our lives that needed tending to. It hasn't been easy, as we've had to work our way back from SCRATCH. Like, we struggled with our first 3 and 4 mile runs on the dreadmill. But after today, our confidence is back, and WE are back, baby!

We used to be "marathon-ready," even "Ironman-ready" all year round (I did 5 Ironman triathlons and over 20 marathons in 2 1/2 years), but we completely lost all that conditioning in the strange year we look back and call "2010." It's been a long road back. So we really, really needed that confidence-building run, and today we got it.

In two weeks, Guy is heading down with some buddies to Oklahoma to do a 50K on Saturday and a trail marathon on Sunday - 57 miles in two days... sounds like old times, honey! Have fun and good luck!

Hope you all got your long runs in this beautiful weekend! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!