the leaves are falling everywhere...THAT MEANS IT'S FALL!

it's a song on Yo Gabba Gabba, I'm not yelling at you I promise.

"It is fall, it is fall...the leaves are falling everywhere...THAT MEANS IT'S FALL!"

I can't get it out of my head, and if you are a lucky parent who watches Noggin (err I mean, Nick Jr.) it's probably stuck in yours now. You are welcome.

Today feels like FALL! Well, for us in South Carolina at least. 50 degrees, sunny, and a crisp breeze. AHHHH! And you know what that means? I can run mid afternoon and not suffer heat stroke! This gives a whole new life to my long runs, seriously. I can run , midday, not worry about inconveniencing anyone (kids and Rich) or be crunched for time.

And it also means...winter running clothes!!! Today's lineup, capri tights and long sleeve tech tees.

Yes, Northern friends, in 50 degrees. That's cold to us, OK? (don't worry I didn't break out the gloves and ear warmers...it needs to be about 45 for that!)

I am feeling a thousand times better than I did earlier this weekend from that stomach virus, so I was able to put in a perfect 10 miles. Only one 30 second walk break, at mile 4.5 , for a gel (more on this in a second), and other than that...nothing but running.

This is huge for me. I have become mentally reliant on the walk breaks, even though I knew I was capable of being stronger than that. The mind is a powerful thing though, and more often than not brought me down.

But I have found my current "happy pace" for distance, and it appears to be a 9:20/mile. I read somewhere the other day (no idea if it was a blog, an article, twitter, whatever) that most runners hit their career "peak" ten years after they start running. I didn't start seriously running (you know, more than just that occasional "i think i should lose 5 lbs this week" kinda thing) until Rowen was born, then took another year off for Kain, and am back at it again. So I consider myself somewhere around 2 years into running. Somehow this reasoning has made it "OK" in my crazy competitive-with-myself mind to slow down. Because by slowing down, I'm building my endurance. And that feels GOOD.

Anyway, lets talk the Gel. After last weekends marathon fiasco, I'm scared of GU again. A few weeks back I won a box of Chocolate Agave #9 gel from Running and Living 's blog. Here's the deal with this stuff, the ingredient list is: Organic Agave, Breakfast cocoa processed with alkali (it's vegan if that matters to anyone) And that's it. (GU's ingredients is a lot longer and harder to pronounce) #9 is a low Glycemic product (index 46), and they claim it will not give you the sugar high and low of other products. The Nutrition facts are significantly different than a GU (less calories, more fat, less carbohydrates, more sugar) but at this point, all that matters to me is : will you do your job and not cause me to run for the porta-potty?

I took one, at mile 4.5 today, and here's what I thought: It tastes like chocolate syrup. Seriously, just like it. Which sounds great and all, but it's really not when you are running. Kind of an odd feeling, like you were running along and someone shoved a chocolate brownie sundae in your mouth. That said, I didn't have the normal energy rush I get with a GU, or any of the other gels I've tried. Instead, I just felt...good. Which I guess is the point, right? And no stomach issues, although at this point I'm not trusting anything under 15 miles. Oh, and also...no nuun today. I know, I know, but everyone is a suspect at this point, even the beloved nuun.

So #9, I'm giving you another shot, next weekend, somewhere around 16-18 miles before taper #2 begins (already!).

Hope you all had a great weekend! Can't wait to read some race reports!