It’s not feeling much like fall here at all, but the sun is taking it’s sweet time to rise in the morning. The weather around here doesn’t show it but it will be fall running season soon (my favorite!)

One of the best ways to be sure of your safety is to run with other people. We have started a run club in the mornings and will run with them a couple times a week as a group. On mornings I can’t run with others I like to take the following precautions:

• One of my pieces of gear that makes me feel the most secure is my Run Angel. A Run Angel is a wearable safety alarm that is quite loud. If you set off the alarm then through your phone it will send an alert and your location to your angels (people you set up to get the alert). Wearing the Run Angel makes me feel much safer while out in the early morning hours on my own.
• This might be a given, but I always run with my phone on me. I like the idea that I can stay in touch if needed. Also it’s great for run selfies and podcasts.

• Visibility is really important so I like to wear running gear with reflective tape and a reflective vest for extra visibility, I got this one for a really good deal and it doesn’t bother me at all while running.
• A good headlamp is also key. I really love my Petzl it has worked for me for years.
• I use an app called Glympse, it sends my location real time from my phone. I send my location to my husband when I leave for a run. This is great piece of mind for him knowing he can check in on me and be sure I am still moving in the direction I should be. This just gives me extra assurance if something were to happen someone would know about it.
• My favorite one that I currently don’t follow but hope to in the future. Run with a dog! Research shoes that you are much less likely to be attacked if you have a dog with you. I would love to get a breed of dog that can run with me, unfortunately the French Bulldog just isn’t down for morning runs.

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Any tips for safety while running in the dark?

Up early this morning to get a run in before an appointment at 7 am. I have been getting up a little later while sick and hadn’t noticed the creep of the sunrise but this morning when I was getting ready to head out the door I realized I needed to grab my headlamp.

I have had my Petzl headlamp for years and it still works great.

It was a gorgeous morning for an easy 5 miles.

I love listening to podcasts while out running and it’s always fun to find new ones. Outside Online posted this list of outdoor podcasts, I haven’t heard of many of them but there looks to be some good ones on there.

After getting home from my appointment I decided we needed a treat we grabbed some doughnuts on the way to the park, something not on our bucket list but it should have been, the kids loved it.

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We spent some time playing before it got too hot and it was time to get Emmy down for a nap.

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Later we went to Cory’s work to have lunch with him and play a little. The kids had lots of energy but it felt much too hot to be outside so we went to the children’s museum.

We bought a membership to the museum back when Cannon was a baby and it has been a great place to take the kids year round. It’s great in the winter when it’s too cold to be outside and summer afternoons when it’s too hot!

We ended the day with tacos and peaches in the backyard, summer has been good to us this year.

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Do you run in the dark, stay inside or wait for the sun?

When does school start where you are?

Up and out early to run yesterday morning and was greeted with this amazing sunrise:

My last few runs have felt very difficult. I am still trying to recover from my cold and my lungs feel full of fluid. My breathing is shallow and wheezy and it never feels like I am getting enough oxygen. Anyone know ways to get over this kind of chest cold?

After the morning rush we headed to a friends house to play and splash in their backyard. It wasn’t too hot at 10 am maybe in the high 70s but I felt SO HOT in the in the sun. Full mile high sunshine is something else.

We made it home for lunch time (home made “lunchables”) and nap time.

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After naps we needed to make Costco run. I am getting good at collecting and giving out samples with one hand and pushing the cart with the other.

We love Costco for getting snacks for the kiddos. We buy these Natures Bakery Fig Bars multi pack.

They come in Blueberry, Raspberry and Fig. My favorite is the Raspberry, they are the prefect thing to eat in the morning if I am running more than an hour. They are easy to digest and always leave my stomach happy.

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Any suggestions for kicking the cold for good?

What’s your favorite pre run food?

I was hoping for longer miles this morning but Cannon shared his cold with me last week. I started to feel awful last weekend and I thought for sure I would be better by now. I do feel much better than a week ago but my lungs are still not functioning well. I decided not to cancel class this week and was attempting to teach while coughing in my students’ ears (sorry!). My students are all nurses pursuing their BSN and they encouraged me to take Mucinex and drink lots of water, they are so sweet!

They really saved my other classes, once I took their advice my symptoms were much better and I was able to get though my other classes with much less coughing.

Poor Cannon and Emerald have come down with this cold too and are also on the mend. Emmy had her well check yesterday and her doctor said her ears Looked good and lungs sounded good so hopefully they will both be feeling better soon. Emmy needed a couple shots so after her appointment we took the kiddos to a little ice cream shop.

Even though Emmy wasn’t a fan of the shots she took it like a champ and enjoyed sharing ice cream with us.

Even with the medication my runs have been suffering.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe and my lungs were full of junk, 4 miles felt like it cold have been 20. I am hoping my lungs clear up quickly and I am back running and feeling like I can breathe.

I did run across this sign:

I really appreciate that our city is putting out informational signs about snakes. I have seen so many people be afraid and try to harm snakes. While I don’t have a strong fear of snakes, I have been surprised and hot footed away from a rattle snake a time or two on the trails. I understand being afraid of snakes but hope that everyone can respect them and know that they are an important part of the natural landscape we love to run in.

I made it home without seeing any snakes but I wasn’t watching my step close enough and rolled off the side walk. I rolled my ankle and went down hard on my hands. I run on technical trails all the time and rarely fall, but apparently I can’t handle flat concrete. My ankle seems fine it just my hands that seem injured, I am fairly sure there is no real damage or fractures but we will have to see as the swelling settles down. Worse than my fall (by far) was Cory crashing his bike on the way home from work. In typical Cory fashion he got up straightened out his handle bars and rode home with blood running down his leg. We could have easily gone and picked him up but he is tough and stubborn 😉 So now we are an odd parenting duo with bandages and swelling a bruises.

After getting home and having breakfast with the family we decided the kids needed to get some energy out so we took them to a park we love in Boulder near the hospital that they were both born in.

This park has a great rock/cave structure for kids to climb on. Cannon loved climbing and exploring, he also decided it was better without shoes.

both kids had fun playing and climbing.

Arapahoe Ridge Park is worth a visit if you are in Boulder!

After getting some energy out we went home for lunch and nap time for Emmy. Cory has been feeling pretty tired (probably fighting this cold) so he ended up napping with Emerald. She is the best cuddler and the chair in her room is very comfortable to nap in.

Then it was off to Costco to grab some things for dinner. When we got home there was a little rain falling.

Emmy’s jacket is much too big because the smallest they had was 2T, she’ll grow into it =). Both kids love rain so they were running around in the driveway.

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We had Costco chicken and and Cesar Salad kit. So easy and so good.

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After dinner we played outside and enjoyed some mild weather after so many HOT days. Then it was bath/books/bedtime.

Cory and I then iced our respective wounds while watching more of Le Tour de France. Pretty great Saturday (well except for the fall) if you ask me.

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What are you doing for your Saturday Night?