No Treats, Some Tricks

Treats
I vicariously enjoyed Halloween trick or treating through many of your FB pages and blogs yesterday because last night, for the first time in 14 years, I did NOT go trick or treating, nor did I stay at home and eat my body-weight in M&Ms as I distributed other less desirable candy.

Instead Turbo, Walter, and I went to an SDSU Aztec football game. We met up with Betty and her daughter there. Also, BBJ was in attendance as was Teresa.

To be honest, and I know it's the next thing to absolute HERESY to admit this, but Halloween is really not my favorite holiday. I'm not much into dressing up (I figure I don't need a costume to look rediculous, I've always got the Zenza compression socks for that). And while I do like the candy, lord knows I don't need it.

When the kids were little, I did enjoy the whole dressing THEM up part, but DramaGirl, at 14, makes her own Halloween plans now, and until Wednesday, Turbo was still up in the air with his plans, so I was THRILLED when I suggested on Thursday that we go to the Aztec football game instead of trick-or-treating and both Walter and Turbo agreed.

Walter's enthusiastic response to go to a football game over trick or treating didn't really surprise me, but I was somewhat surprised by Turbo's quick agreement (which was aided by the opportunity to invite a friend or two). Although when I thought some more about it, I realized that Turbo was never much into the whole trick-or-treating thing anyway. Even when he was younger, he'd get tired of it after about four houses and start complaining about wanting to go home. Getting him into a costume was a nightmare (there were a few years when he was 3 or 4 when he absolutely REFUSED to wear a costume, and we'd take him door to door in his Batman pajamas.)

Not that, like mama, he doesn't like the candy, but I think he figured out when he was young that we had plenty of candy at home and he could enjoy that without the effort of walking the neighborhood.

That's my boy...

The game was lightly attended...very lightly, maybe about a couple thousand people in the crowd (in a stadium that seats, oh, about 60,000), so we had plenty of room to relax and the boys had plenty of room to run around.

Which was, apparently a problem, for the stadium security, who must have been having a VERY SLOW night due to the lack of drunk college students to round up, and decided that four 11 year old boys, throwing a football around on the concourse were "out of control" and came back to yell at a few of us parents about it.

Seriously? Out of control? You oughta come back tomorrow for the Raiders/Chargers game if you want to see "out of control" (((rolls eyes))).

Whatever...

Turbo (Jason) and friend at the game...see how scary and out of control they are? For some reason he decided to wear a costume to the GAME? I think we was looking for some Face Time on the Jumbotron.

The other good thing about going to a college football game on Halloween night is that there are, of course, random people wearing funny Halloween costumes.

This guy in a green body suit ran laps around the stadium all night. Betty insisted we take a picture for the blog. Is he supposed to BE somebody?

Good times.

Other Weekend Treats - The Saturday Morning Bike Ride

I have absolutely no clever transition, but I did want to write a couple of notes about yesterday morning's bike ride with Betty and Mik.

Mik and I...really sweaty for a cool morning (once we got into the sun, it was MUCH warmer)

• It is officially fall in SoCal now, which means the mornings are, well, they're brisk. So we are going to have to think about fall/winter bikeriding gear. I'm thinking that full gloves are a must.
• In order to ride more than 25 miles, we're going to have to stick to north/south routes. We rode again alongside Route 56, from Torrey Pines to Penasquitos and back, and it was less than 25 miles.
• I think I'm getting better at understanding what gear I should be in and when. I actually moved onto the highest (lowest?) gear when I was going downhill and kept pedaling, which made me feel more stable on the bike even though I was going fast and downhill, which is when I usually just want to hit the breaks. I'm still working on the uphill part.
• Nothing is more motivating when going up a steep hill than being in clipless pedals and knowing that you're not going fast enough to clip out and remain upright...so you stand up on the pedals and keep going (or at least that's what I did yesterday).
• Stats - Distance: 24.14 miles; Average speed: 12.9 mph; Time: 1:52

• I never take enough pictures on these rides, especially on the pretty parts.

I have no idea why I took this picture...yes, it's the bike path which runs alongside the freeway...BORING!

No Tricks or Treats - Running this Week

GAH! Not so much. The foot pain seems to continue to eminate from the top of my foot, near the 4th or 5th metatarsal. I don't THINK it's a stress fracture because I can walk fine and even wear heels, although a stress fracture is certainly a possibility, but I try not to think about that. I tried to run on Wednesday morning and stopped almost immediately because it hurt, so I did squats and lunges instead. On Friday, I ran for about 25 minutes, then stopped because it was starting to hurt again.

Good thing- the pool is down to 60 degrees, so I have my after running "ice bath" ready.

All that being said, I consider being able to run for 25 minutes a good sign that it's not a fracture, but is a strain of some sort. I'll stay off of it today and tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be OK to go to the SDTC workout on Tuesday, which is back at an all weather track this week (at the HS where I used to teach, which is in East County and is QUITE convenient).

I still have every intention of running the Shelter Island 5K this coming Sunday. I mean, how can I NOT turn up for a race that ends with a champagne brunch.

In truth, however, I have nowhere near the mileage to run a 1/2 marathon in December, so it may work out that I just get a nice weekend in Vegas w/Walter. Not a bad thing.

Last Treat
Tomorrow is Walter's Birthday, so I've gotta go finish up some B-day plans that I've started but not finished. Happy Birthday Honey!