Perfect Fall Weekend

I didn't go on my run this weekend, BUT I loved the weekend so much it doesn't even matter.  On Saturday I woke up and my legs were so tight that I opted for 40 minutes on the elliptical with my usual intervals.  After, my nice friend and I took Maddux out to my new favorite park for a nice, relaxed walk.  It was so beautiful out and it was nice to see Mad Dog so happy.

Maddux loves Halloween just as much as I do :-)

After our walk we kicked off our "Pumpkin Day" (I named it that.  You'll see why.)  First we got supplies to carve a pumpkin.  Who knew how hard pumpkin carving could be.  Major props to my mom for always making it look so easy.

Boo!  I mostly did the one on the left. Notice the detail.

I think it turned out looking pretty good, despite the fact that we couldn't even get the tape to stick to the pumpkin.  After, we roasted up the seeds (they are addicting, but a pain in the butt to peel) and drank pumpkin beer.  A few weeks ago we made our own fall 6 pack at a local beer store so that we could try a bunch of different breweries' pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers.  I gotta say that Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale is still my favorite so far :-)

I attempted making pumpkin pasta to continue with our pumpkin theme, but it ended up being a little bland.  I think from now on I will use my pumpkin to make baked goods instead.  Can't go wrong there!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, which is fine seeing it's a day of rest and all.  I was pretty tired (must have been from all that pumpkin fun on Saturday) so I decided to take it easy and try out a workout I adapted (because her's was too hard) from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers.  Turns out, this workout was not so easy.

See those parts where it says 1 minute at 8.5 and 9?  Yeah, that didn't happen.  8 kicked my butt so much that I figured I'd leave it there.  Also, the 7.0 incline?  Not an easy way to catch your breath.  I definitely worked up a sweat with this one!  Good grief.

This week I'm hoping to get a few miles in.  It's nice not having to run, but now that the obligation is gone I find myself really wanting to get out there!  The fact that I'm only 28 miles away from my next Nike+ level is pretty good motivation, too!  My goal is to get it before November :-)

Happy Monday!