Weekly Training Report-- End of summer runner fun

There's so much I've been wanting to report I keep forgetting about- so I'll try to get a little caught up here. A few weeks ago I got the one item most distance runners swear they can't live without.....a Garmin. If you are not familiar with Garmin training systems- they are basically similar to a GPS system you'd find in your car, except it goes on your wrist. It tracks your time, pace, distance, calories burned, heart rate, calculates your route back home if you get lost, tells you what ingredients to put in your post run smoothie....okay, well maybe not that last one, but the rest is true. I got a GREAT deal on one at Best Buy. It's not the newest model, and what I don't like most about it is the size as it is pretty big, but it didn't really take long to get used to. And I've been loving running with it. It's great not being confined to routes with distance markers. It's also teaching me a lot about how my body feels at different paces, and teaching me to stay on more of a consistent pace as I have a tendency to be pretty erratic with pacing across longer mile runs.

Speaking of runs....I did several this week. :) Weekly runs still going as planned. I'm still steadily increasing the pace of my 2 mile morning runs and feeling good. Evening runs were all on my own this week as it was again to hot for me to run in the sun with the group. Saturday was a nice treat though as we finally had noticably cooler weather for our 9 mile group run. The route involved a LOT of long, gradual inclines-- which I actually found I enjoyed, although is definitely more taxing on your legs and breathing.

Saturday evening was the end of summer DRC picnic, which was all about eating, relaxing and having fun with some of my favorite people!

Hari (Oklahoma Mile 1 sponsor), Danielle (Oklahoma Mile 25 sponsor) and myself (Oklahoma mile runner). :)

Just a few of the Team Sprinkles officers-- Tamara, Pat, myself and Danielle
Chatting it up with 2 of my favorite people- Max and Denise (Oklahoma Mile Sponsors)
And what's a picnic without Sprinkles cupcakes? (Special thanks to Sprinkles for donating 7 DOZEN cupcakes to the picnic this year).
Max and Denise rode their surrey to the picnic, and were nice enough to let Danielle and I take it for a test drive--- after a few instructions of course:
Crazy driver:

Max giving us a little "boost" uphill. (You wouldn't BELIEVE the leg workout driving this thing is!... and after a 9 mile run!, well, Danielle actually ran twice that much... (Chicago marathon countdown- 7 weeks!)

Our "prepare for crash" pose. Notice the cop car behind us-- clearly our driving abilities were suspicious from the very beginning. Fortunately we were not formally stopped, as I'm still waiting for my Texas Driver's license to arrive in the mail. :)And the biggest news of the week is that Texas Mile #1 has been adopted by Jolee Swann! That's two miles adopted out in the last 2 weeks which is fantastic!! I'll post the spotlights for both new sponsors shortly. :)

Training schedule this week: (Note that since school started again, the schedule has been switched up just a little).

Monday- 2 miles/3 miles

Tuesday- 2 miles/5 miles

Wednesday- 2 miles/REST

Thursday- 2 miles/3 miles

Friday- 2 miles/REST

Saturday- 10 miles

Sunday- REST