707 shoutout, on motivation

This is completely wine-geeky. Yet awesomely hilarious. "If you have a small wiener, drink Grüner Veltliner!" Seriously. Genius.

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In other news, I'm officially in marathon mode. It took awhile, but I'm finally running regularly again -- and enjoying it. And my last long run wasn't half bad -- 16 miles on Sunday at a 10:09 average pace. Yes, I realize this is ridiculously slow compared to all those speedsters out there (clearly, I'm nowhere near qualifying for Boston at this point in time), but considering I averaged an 11-minute-plus pace in my last three marathons, 10:09 is kind of a miracle.

So what helped me get motivated?

• Running with friends. Not only does this make you accountable (no flaking!), but when you're running with friends, you tend to run better because you don't want to look like a big, lazy (and in my case this past weekend, slightly hungover) wimp. Also, the conversation makes the miles go by faster.
• A training plan. I realize I've been anti-plan so far this year -- just kind of made things up as I went along for Vineman and didn't train at all for Water to Wine (huge mistake). For New York, I felt I had to create a real plan. Yes, it's malleable, and the weekday workouts tend to change due to work and other commitments. But I've scheduled all of my weekend long runs with target mileage, and I've noted where and when I want to start increasing intensity. It's not a strict plan, but it's a pretty good set of guidelines.
• Fall weather. Yes, the days are getting shorter. But I absolutely love the cool mornings. Fifty degrees, overcast and slightly misty? Perfect running weather in my book. 
• Reading about running. This is extremely dorky, but going through the copies of Runner's World I've let pile up in the bedroom has helped. (Also, why spend the money to subscribe to Runner's World if you're not actually going to run?) Plus I picked up Chrissie Wellington's book from the library, and I'm on the waitlist for Scott Jurek's.
• Cross-training. After taking two weeks off from the pool, I went back to masters swim on Tuesday. It was brutal. (Um, kickboard for 10 minutes straight at the end of class? My legs were burning!) But I love mixing up my workouts -- keeps things interesting, helps me avoid injury and makes me feel like I do other things besides just run all the time.

Got any other tips for motivation? Share them in the comments! (There, does that make me sound like a "real" blogger? Ha!)

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And one final exciting update: I'm getting a new bike. It's a Cervélo S5, and it's currently on backorder (largely due to the fact that no bike store ever has my size, which is pretty much midget-size). The new baby should be here in a few weeks. I'll be sure to post some proud mommy photos when she arrives.