Fall Update!

Hey, looks like it's only been a little over a month since I last published something. Not too bad. Naturally, a million things have happened since then. Life just keeps whizzing by. It's hard to keep up.

Ok, big news first... We found out where we're going.

**DRUM ROLL**

East Coast, baby.

My husband picked up command of a flying squadron at Andrews AFB. He didn't think he had a shot of getting it, and he's thrilled. We were in shock for a couple of days because of the three scenarios that were likely, this one was the least expected. We also didn't know very much about this area as opposed to TX and CA, where we thought we'd end up. Where are the good schools? Where do we live for a decent commute? Where are the good swim teams? This caused a bit of stress in those first few days after finding out (for me-hubby tends to roll with things better). However, after the counsel of TONS of friends we have out that way, it's looking more and more like we'll be living in Alexandria, VA. It apparently has good schools and Olympic-caliber swim teams, and it's a 25-minute drive to base. SOLD! We looked at several other areas, but we got enough feedback to come to the decision that Alexandria will likely be the best option for us. Anyway, we have 7 months to figure out all the details... We're outta here at the end of May! Yikes!

Hmmm. What else has been going on? On the family athletics front, the Johnson boys are back to it in the pool. And by boys, I mean the actual biggest boy, not just the biggest kid. Ha! 

Off to the pool!

Both Evan and Mike swam in the recent Yuma Heat Invitational meet. Evan came away with 3 state cuts (50 breast, 100 IM and 200 free) and 5 regional cuts. Mike came away with 2 cuts for the Nationals Masters meet in May. Woohoo! He qualified in the 50 free and fly and just barely missed the cut for the 200 free. So proud of them! They sure are fun to watch. It was also fun to see my 6', 185 pound husband stand on the starting blocks next to a kid not much bigger than Evan (it was a mixed age-group format for the meet). Hahahahaha!

Ok, so concluding with running....

It's all good! I'm healthy and chipping away very slowly at my weekly miles. I've done a sloooooooooooooooow weekly mileage increase over the last several months. I think it just has to be that way for me because I'm so injury prone. I'm off for an 18-miler later this morning, so that will close my week at 50 miles. It feels like it's taken forever to get here! 

Other "running" things in easy-to-read bullet format:

• My 5K 3 weeks ago ended up being 3.3 miles on my Garmin. UGH! I finished 2nd place female with a 22:31. That's a 6:48 pace and was pretty much my goal for the race (sub-6:50 mile), so I really was happy with it even though the course was way too long. It appears that the first woman was in the 13-15 year-old AG and ran a 19:56. DANG. Also, it was at night, and it was before the temperatures here broke. 93 degrees at the start. That makes me even happier that I could run at that pace.
• I've been doing 1-mile time trials at the track every 4 weeks. I started in August with a 6:29. That one felt like death. It was 87 degrees at 5:45 am that day. Ridiculous. September was a little cooler...6:23. My October mile was run on Tuesday. 6:10!!! What a difference it makes with *normal* fall temps. I'm optimistic that I'll see my sub-6 goal by year's end!
•  Just signed up for a half marathon in Phoenix next Sunday. Feeling fairly optimistic about snagging a new PR. Fingers crossed. 
• Yuma Territorial Marathon is now 13 weeks away. I'm feeling GREAT about where I am in my training. I was running 50 mile weeks about 6-8 weeks before Carlsbad, and I ran a 3:38 there. With 13 weeks to go, I'm at 50 mpw and will continue to eeek it up each week. My coach thinks a sub-3:30 is definitely within reach if I continue to stay healthy.

And that's all she wrote! See you after my half next weekend!