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The weather here is perfect right now. Low 70's in the morning, a slight breeze coming in from the ocean. It just begs a girl to go outside and play.

However, my right knee and hip still like to scream at me from time to time due to previous years of full and half marathons, added to the 14+  hours I spend on my feet at the hospital, so I'm honestly a little tired running. I'm still putting in three or so miles here and there, but it leaves me wanting to do something more. Something epic.

Something that involves more than sitting around the house in my pajama pants on my days I don't work.

Even though I really, really want to sit around the house in my pajamas on the days I don't work.

November is my motivation. This is my birthday month, the month I turn the big 3-2 and want to put in some serious miles on the days I don't have to wear scrubs and hand out medicine.

I might, might be freaking out about getting older. The more I see of 60 year olds with heart problems made worse by obesity and diabetes on my unit makes me want to stay as active as possible. I refuse to get older and use that as an excuse to be lazy.

Age is what you make of it. My almost-70 year-old neighbors run marathons.

Get outside, people!

So to celebrate, I bought myself a bike. No excuses about knees and hips - biking is a fabulous cardiovascular workout that even people with knee and hip replacements can do.

No. Excuses.

There is a really sweet bike shop down the street from our house called Orchid Island Bikes and Kayaks. Bikes and kayaks. How can you not fall in love with this place? The guys inside are a plethora of knowledge about everything cycling.

Plethora. Wow. I haven't used that word in awhile. Glad to know the English major in me is still alive and kicking.

Anyway, I think the guys saw this new-to-cycling girl coming from a mile away, because I walked out of the shop with a brand new bike that cost more than our house, plus a helmet, tire pump and a brochure of local bike trails.

And forget Huffy and Schwinn. I'm now officially in love with Trek bikes.

Thank you bike guy at Orchid Island. I'm now a believer in the power of specialty shops and not just buying something off the rack at Target.

Even though I still like buying things off the rack at Target.

I've really been missing my Missouri bike trails, especially during the fall. I remember riding some serious curves and hills on the west side of the South Creek Greenway with my dear friend Sarah, listening to Barlow Girl and Superchick to get us pumped up to rock our miles.

So I am very super-excited to discover some local paths.

This morning I set out with my favorite Camelbak and decided to try out the Jungle Trail - a packed sand trail that is 7.4 miles in one direction along Vero's barrier islands.

I'm so, so glad I did this trail.

It. Is. Amazing.

Flat as a pancake, but amazing.

Things I liked: The scenery and discovering native Florida. However, I will always have a special place in my heart for my Missouri trails that wind through the woods and over creeks and streams. But palm trees, mangroves, manatee areas and the breeze off the water is pretty sweet too.

Beautiful coastal houses didn't hurt the scenery much, either. 

Things I didn't like: The sand was mushy in some areas, which made pedaling my skinny hybrid tires a little difficult. Made for a great heart rate and calorie burn, but decreased my average mph.

Things I wish for: The lizards to stop freaking running out in front of me. Scares the bejeezus out of me every single time.

This was a fun little discovery on the path. So very cute.

All in all, a fantastic ride that I will definitely do again. And again and again. 

Total ride summary via Garmin Connect: 

Bike - Jungle Trail

Mon, Nov 5, 2012 9:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada) By runnergirl2027

Activity Type: Road Cycling | Event Type: Fitness | Course: Packed Sand

Distance:	14.50 mi
Time:	1:30:00
Avg Speed:	9.7 mph
Calories:	933 C

Fall Sport Preview - The Coach's Wife Version

So by now you all know that if M isn't coaching something, chances are he's probably dead.

Or driving me bananas lamenting the fact that he's not coaching anything and how he could be doing baseball workouts and designing plays and doing whatever it is he does with stats and working on the field in the baseball pre-season so it's perfectly perfect for the actual baseball season.

Sigh.

So I'm actually kind of happy that this new school had an opportunity for him to be involved in fall sports.

In the past, if his school didn't offer fall baseball, his fall sport of choice revolved around coaching boy's basketball at the jr. high level or assisting at the high school level.

Not this year, my friends.

This year - this beautiful fall in south Florida - he's taken on a new role.

Head high school girl's golf.

Yes. He now gets to - in his words - "Go out every day after school and get paid to play a round of golf."

Do you feel sorry for him that basketball wasn't available?

Don't you dare. The PGA Headquarters are about 15 minutes away, and apparently Tiger Woods has been spotted on one of the area courses since we've been here. Ethics-police-he's-not aside, that's pretty cool.

M's not suffering on some little rural course that was designed by gophers. He's getting some sweet pro-course exposure.

But there's one little thing that I wasn't aware of until we moved down here.

Florida gets a regular afternoon thunderstorm just about every day, usually around 3:30 pm. I've almost been able to set my watch by them. Now I'm one of those people who love thunderstorms - from my house, in my pajamas, reading a good book.

Not standing out at the Vero Beach Country Club waiting for the rain to stop so the tourney could get it's little show on the road.

Waiting for the rain to clear. We're the ones in the bright orange.

I need to re-take up golf just for the cute skirts. I can do it. I even have the second-place trophy from my junior golf tourney at the good old Sullivan Country Club to prove it. I think I could have been a 12-year-old golf prodigy in the making...until I discovered I hated all things sports and preferred the piano. 

Then I married a coach.

So stepping up to the plate and being the awesome coach's wife that I am, (sorry. I didn't mean to drip with that much sarcasm. It just kinda came rushing out.) I found myself riding along a rain-soaked course to watch these girls in action. 

I even got to drive the cart for about three feet. M does not like to relinquish control of the race car golf cart.

I can't believe he let me ride in the cart with him. Golf season is definitely more relaxed than baseball season - you know, when I can't talk to him because he's in his baseball uniform and it's not professional and he's working and has to focus. ***Enter screaming at the umpire here****

So golf turned out to be really fun. Sunshine (eventually), a gorgeous course, and five girls who were out there having fun and kicking Sebastian's butt. 

Like I mentioned...gorgeous Florida golf courses. I'm still getting used to seeing palm trees everywhere. 

Three teams competed - Vero Beach, Sebastian, and us - Lincoln Park Academy. LPA is pretty exclusive, and the parents of these students are super-involved. I was surprised to see that all the parents showed up to the tourney, rented golf carts and followed along. After being at schools where many of the parents never seem to show up, it was really great to see all the support and encouragement. 

We ended up taking second in the tourney, and Coach was ok with that. I've never seen him so laid-back and relaxed, encouraging the girls and offering tips and coaching advice when a ball was hit in the water or in the rough, telling them that as long as they were trying their best, working on their skills and having fun it was ok. 

If I didn't value my life so much, I'd gleefully remind him of that come baseball season. 

Today I love: Lunch after a great church service with great friends and the feeling of accomplishment from getting back into my running workouts this afternoon.