Baby it's Dark Outside!

Just in case you were wondering what the view out of my office window looks like at 5:00pm - this is it!

The time change has certainly impacted things and sometimes it feels like night before I've even left the office!! Sometimes this makes me sad, but then again, there are a whole lot worse things out there so I think I'll just suck it up until we start heading the other way. The shortest day of the year is December 21st - just in case you were wondering about that too!!

The good news is - low and behold - THERE IS A TAPER. Now, I was hoping to see my schedule this week and find a way to avoid the 5:00am wake up alarm. Alas, even Ironman taper still calls for 2-3 hours on some of the days this week.. Bummer. So, 5:00 it still is for at least a few of them!

This past weekend brought about some absolutely stunning weather for PA in November so I was almost giddy to get out on my bike on Friday afternoon!! It was like Christmas hearing the weather would sore into the sixties!!

Blue and and I headed out into the wild BLUE yonder. Ok. That's a lot of Blue.. but it was right!?? Look at that sky. I honestly didn't even mind having four scheduled hours (plus some really hard 10 min repeats) to do by myself!
Just so you don't think ALL the leaves are gone in PA, here was a beautiful scene I caught along the edge of one of my routes. If this was your lane to your house - how nice would it be to drive in at night!

On Saturday I ran with Jocelyn for part of my last long run and then cleaned like a crazy person for the rest of the day. Obviously the cleaning lady took a 2-3 month hiatus from coming over. Not sure where she is, but that women is F-I-R-E-D (ok.. on second thought, I can't fire myself!). I went strait from the summer decor to the Christmas decor because let's face it - I'm half way through November now and by the time I get back from COZ the "fall / Thanksgiving" theme will be out. So, I just saved myself a few minutes there!

This past weekend was a big one with all Half Ironman World Championships coverage from Clearwater Florida (the site of the infamous broken collarbone from last year!). I am happy to report all of my com padres from Pitt made it through unscathed and had pretty spectacular races I might add! Congrats to everyone who competed and..
If you see Jason Jacobs today - tell him Congrats on his last big race of the season who threw down a smoking 4:27 on the course!! Great job Jason (oh man... he is totally going to kill me for taking a picture of his badge when he wasn't looking!!)

Hope everyone had a great weekend.. 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!