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Today I went for my weekly "long run", although usually I run those on a weekend. It was just 30 degrees F and somewhat windy, so I wore long underwear and my long trekking pants. I also carried my hydration pack with 2.5L of Accelerade, which I was trying for the first time. My legs feel pretty good so maybe that stuff works, but it sure tastes nasty!
I set out from home and headed for Seidman Park, since Amanda was going to meet me there so that she could try some of the orienteering course that I had run on Sunday. It was an 11.4 mile run out to the park. The first four miles I felt awfully slow, but then I found my groove and ran a nice, steady ten minute pace all the way until mile 10, where I called Amanda for her cue to suit up and drive out to meet me. After I got off the phone my legs felt rather tired (I walked while talking) and it didn't help that the last 1.5 miles were all uphill! But I finished in 2:16, not too bad for a cold, windy day.
Amanda showed up about five minutes later and we each ate a stick of string cheese while I changed into my hiking shoes and put on a coat. When I ran the o-course (orienteering course) two days earlier, orange and white flags marked each point. Those markers were only there for the GRAAR event, however, so there would be no flags today. The plan was for Amanda to carry the map and compass and do ALL of the navigation while I tagged and along and merely verified that she had found the correct location where the flags used to be. Amanda loves to navigate with the compass and keep it simple - follow the bearing. She was walking pretty fast and my 11.4-mile-old legs were struggling to keep up. Sure enough Amanda hit every CP right on except for one, where she missed by only 50 feet. She was quick to point out that she nailed CP2, which my team had struggled to find earlier!
After an hour we had found the first five CPs and were getting hungry, so we nav'ed back to the parking lot and headed out for lunch at Noodles & Co. Mmmmm!!! I had leftovers so I can eat that when Amanda eats her leftover chinese food from dinner last night near Kalamazoo with friends.
You know you're a dog person when you splurge on an item of home decor just because it matches your dogs' beds! That's what Amanda and I did today. We spotted a comforter while shopping and even though we didn't need a new bed cover, and certainly not one for $90, we let sentiment get the better of us. :) 
Haven approves of the spontaneous purchase.
Beacon begs for me to throw another snowball.
Today was the first snowfall of the year! It was pretty late in arriving this year since usually we've had some snow around here before the end of October. There's never been a "first snowfall" in which I haven't thrown at least one snowball. It must be a tradition.
This year Haven and Beacon were the recipients of said tradition. We turned on the backyard floodlights and threw snowballs for them to chase, a game that they absolutely love! Albeit for different reasons: Haven loves the *chase* aspect and prefers that I zing the snowballs along the ground so she can run them down like a rabbit; Beacon, on the other hand, loves the "kill" aspect and simply wants to catch the snowball in midair or pounce on it if it's on the ground.
After about 20 minutes of "chase" and "kill" the dogs were completely worn out. Now they're sleeping soundly between Amanda and I in the computer room.
Beacon (L) and Haven (R) are all tuckered out.
Mmmmm.... salty snacks.
The weather is amazingly windy with gusts over 50 mph today! It made for an interesting run. I ran from home to Whitneyville and then Amanda met me part way on the return home, good for 17 miles total. Around the 7 mile point I was running due west past some open farm fields to my south and was just blasted by a steady 30 mph wind for a mile. The powerful weather made for some nice scenery out in the countryside.
The photo is when Amanda picked me up. You can hardly see the Salomon hydration pack I'm wearing with my water... or rather, ice. I put too many ice cubes in the reservoir and it didn't melt fast enough, causing me to run out of water around mile 10! Hence the Pringles can... I had to stop at a gas station (mile 13) and buy some salty food and refill my reservoir in the bathroom to stave off some cramping in my quads. All told it was an enjoyable 3.5-hour run and I didn't feel terribly worn out when I was done.