November Reading Recap

So many books. So little time.

Obviously running took a backseat to reading this month. I logged a total of 35 miles this month in my running shoes and when you remember that 13 of them were during the Tyranena Half Barrel (a race I’ve yet to write a race report for), that’s not a very impressive number.

Tells you I’ve obviously been doing something other than running.

Well. I’m pretty sure you can say I spent most of the time I should have been running curled up in my recliner with my nose in a book. Because man. It was a good month reading-wise.

I finished seven books. Granted, some of them were kind of short – two came in at less than 200 pages each – but still. That was 2,121 pages worth of words that I read. It’s been a LONG time since I polished off that many books in a single month. I can remember hitting six earlier this year, but anything more than that would require too much work. And I don’t have that kind of ambition tonight. 

So the seven books. That brings my yearly total to 42 books and 14,655 pages. Considering my yearly goal is 40 books, it’s safe to say I accomplished that when I finished Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Love and Loss on Nov. 19. Compare it to last year when I’d finished 30 books and 11,018 pages by the end of November.

So what’d I read during November? Take a look:

Passion by Lauren Kate

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Matthew Logelin

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Matched by Ally Condie

So you see, it was a nice mix. Not all young adult titles this month. :)

 

I did finally get my one classic in for the year. Can you guess which one? A friend recommended One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I wanted a somewhat quick read and know that sometimes classics are anything BUT quick reads (Hmmm, can we say Les Miserables?). But at 178 pages, Ivan (yes, after reading about his entire day I'm on a first name basis with Ivan) was just what I was looking for. It wasn’t bad.

A title that I could have done without? That would be book No. 40 for the year  - Two Kisses for Maddy. This is based on a blogger, who created this blog for his newborn daughter after his wife died less than 48 hours after giving birth. The book was born from the blog and honestly? It wasn’t what I was expecting. Kind of that poor me attitude and way more vulgarity than was necessary. Would I recommend it? Probably not.

What I would recommend was Gone Girl. Oh my gosh. I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this from the library for months. I’d heard a lot of good things and the recommendations didn’t disappoint. I flew through this thing in like three days. I seriously couldn’t put it down. Twists. Turns. Unexpected stuff. So. Good.

So what’s up for December? Well the library has continued with typical library behavior. Going for long periods of time without giving me any of my holds and then all of a sudden I had like six of them come in in a span of two or three days. So I’ve got a pile to get through by mid-December. I finished a couple already and have a few more waiting, so at this point I haven’t run out of reading material for the year!

Festival Foods Turkey Trot race report

I had plans start my Thanksgiving by heading out for a run with a turkey sitting on my head.

Yes. You read that right. A turkey. On my head.

But that all changed this morning when I heard the howling wind outside the window.

No. No. Don't worry, I still ran the Festival Foods 5-mile Turkey Trot. I just did it without the turkey on my head. Let's just say the turkey wasn't the best head gear when it comes to aerodynamics.

Other than the 20-25 mile wind gusts, it was a perfect morning for a turkey trot. Sunny. Temps in the low 50s. Perfect weather. Just that darn wind.

Oh well. I lined up with the almost 2,500 other runners who were heading out on the 5-mile route and after the national anthem we were off. I've done this race before, but this year it was at a new location, one that had me running through the neighborhood I grew up in.

The first three miles went smoothly. Nothing major. I was just out enjoying a run, and maintaining a decent pace. The last two miles were a bit tough. Probably because I haven't run anything longer than 3 miles since Tyranena almost a month ago.

But I kept running. I threw in a short little walk right after passing the 3 mile marker. I started running again, hit the downhill and the a nice little flat section right along the river.

It should be noted that I saw a lot of people who started out the turkey trot wearing the turkey hats. But either they got to warm or got sick of the turkey head flopping around, because I saw so many of those hats either tied around their waist or their neck. Anywhere but on their heads.

And then right after passing the 4 mile marker, I saw it.

The uphill.

Ugh. I knew it was coming. I just didn't remember this hill being quite so steep. Seriously. Like straight up.

And knowing my IT band still doesn't like hills, if I was smart, I would have slowed up and walked the hill. But I'm stubborn. I pushed ahead and ran. Well, if you could call the shuffle I did up that hill running. But I ran. And then promptly took a 30 second walk break once I hit the top.

I'm pretty sure I deserved it.

I finished up the less three-quarters of a mile, crossed the finish line in 54:56  and collected my free personal sized pumpkin pie. It wasn't my fastest turkey trot, but it was a nice run this morning.

And made feel slightly less guilty about taking that second piece of desert after a Thanksgiving feast today.

Three Things Thursday: Tyranena Edition

1. Want to hear something funny? I'm running the Tyranena Beer Run half marathon this weekend. Why's that funny you ask? Well, since my stellar performance at Fox Cities on Sept. 23, I've run a grand total of 33 miles. Yup. You read that right. I believe if you look back at my training log, you'll find one 10.3 miles run and a handful of 3- and 4-milers. Needless to say I haven't had much of a desire to run this month. So, I'll go into the run Saturday woefully undertrained. I fully expect to be slow, I'll probably end up walking some (the cranky IT band isn't going to like those hills) and there's a chance I might just set a PW for the year. But I'm OK with that because....

2. I never signed up for this race to be fast. I signed up because of all the people who will be there! My Ragnar Chicago team will be there for a mini-reunion, a ton of the Milwaukee/Madison running peeps I know will be there along with my running partner in crime Peggy and our good friend Myriah. So if I have to run 13.1 miles in order to hang out and drink beer with these folks? It's totally worth it. Needless to say I'm super excited.

3. What's not so exciting? Looking at the forecast.

Huh. Rain. Temps in the low 40s. I shouldn't be surprised. After all, it seems like every race I've run this year (with the exception of Fox Cities and the Madison Mini) has come with not so ideal weather conditions. The saving grace? We all know weathermen aren't exactly the most reliable folks. Heck, when I looked at the weather forecast Wednesday afternoon, the rain chance was higher. So there's hope yet that the rain drops will disappear or just be random, light sprinkles.

Bonus Thing: Since it is a race, I really should have some goals. But I admit, I feel a little odd putting goals out there since I honestly don't care that much about the number on the clock when I cross the finish line. But I'll throw some out there.

A Goal: 2:25. This might be do-able. Who knows.

B Goal: 2:30. I think I should be able to do this, even with some planned walking.

C Goal: Just have a great time, running and spending time with friends.

October reading recap

Well, just a few more hours and October is done. And since I'm barely a quarter of the way through the book I'm currently reading, I'm pretty sure it's OK for me to report my monthly reading totals.

I read three books in October for a total of 1,336 pages. That brings the totals to 35 books and 12,534 pages through the first ten months of the year. Compared that to the stats through the end of October 2011 when I had finished 27 books and 10,048 pages. Nice little increase.

Big picture: I've got to read five more books in the next two months if I'm going to hit my 40-book goal. And for giggles? Since I began tracking what I read in 2006, the highest number of books I've read in a year has been 45 in 2006 and 2008. Hmm. Maybe I can break that. I guess it depends on what I choose to tackle and how much time I devote to curling up with a book. Might be fun to try though.

So what'd I read in October?

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Torment by Lauren Kate
Reflected in You by Sylvia Day

Hmmm. Young adult fiction involving angels and devils and a second installment of a Fifty Shades of Grey-type series. But in my honest opinion, this series is much better than the Fifty Shades books. As for what's next? Well I've got a small stack started that came in for me at the library. And at some point I really need to pick out that one "classic" that I told myself I'd read this year. Any suggestions? Preferably nothing too massive or that requires way too much concentration in order to understand what's going on. Or maybe I'll just skip it this year. After all, Les Miserables did check in at 1,260 pages. That should count for two years, right?

Freaky 5K Race Report

Not going to lie. I didn’t want to run this. I’m blaming it on the funk I’ve been going through the past few weeks. I just don’t want to run. But that’s another post for another time.

So the 5K. I didn’t want to run. But I got myself out of bed early Saturday morning. And boy, it would have been nice to stay in bed since it was cold outside. Like 27 degrees and sunny. Thankfully there was no wind.

I left the house too early, which meant I had almost an hour to stand around at the park waiting for the race to begin. In other words, almost an hour to freeze. But finally it was race time.

This course is fairly flat. Except for the first mile. Where there’s a nice downhill right out of the starting line. Which would be great, except this race draws a ton of little kids. And as hard as you try to place yourself within the starting masses, you still end up having to weave or come to an abrupt halt in order to avoid running over the little boy dressed as Spiderman on that downhill. Thankfully, this year that didn’t happen to me. I had a pretty clear path all the way down the downhill.  And of course, what goes down must go up. And that uphill was nasty. But I ran it.

And that, my friends, is when my IT band started to get angry. I’m not sure if it was the cold or if it was the hills, but it wasn’t happy. So I backed off, slowed down and didn’t hate myself for taking those two short walk breaks (once at the top of the hill, once through the water station). And with every step I was wishing I was done.

I ended up finishing in 32:25. Not my fastest 5K, not my slowest. Given the cranky IT band, my lack of running mojo lately and the fact that for a while somewhere between miles 1 and 2 I couldn’t feel my foot due to the cold, I’ll take it.

You'll notice a lack of photos in this race report. They exist. They really do. I just didn't grab them off my Mom's camera, so I'll add them later.

The best kind of vacation: The one with no plans

Before I give you a photo heavy post of what I did during a week off of work, I want to take a moment and send off my thoughts and prayers to all those on the East Coast whose lives are being impacted by the monster storm called Sandy.

As I sit here and the news of what's going on on the East Coast floods in, I'm almost dumbfounded. Never did I think I'd hear of NYC going dark, the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange under three feet of water or see a picture of a shark - yes a shark - swimming in front of a home's front porch in Brigatine, NJ. (Update: I admit, 12 hours after the storm was at its worst, I now know some of these things didn't happen - the NYSE didn't flood and that pic of the NJ shark? Suspect. But we can all agree this was a crazy storm that caused a ton of damage and some of the images and stories coming out where downright surreal.)

Once again, thoughts and prayers go out to you guys. And I hope you all stay safe.

Now. On to that week of vacation.

The Capitol at night.

My week started with a road trip to Madison, where I met up with my roommate from college. We met up Friday night and caught up over dinner at The Old Fashioned, this really great restaurant on the Capitol Square. Then it was time to head back to our hotel and get ready for Saturday.

Camp Randall. I love spending my Saturdays here.

It was time to head to Camp Randall to watch the Badgers! It was the Border Battle weekend, when Wisconsin and Minnesota battle it out on the gridiron for Paul Bunyan's axe. That axe is making a bit of a home in Madison, and guess, what, after the Badgers beat the Gophers 38-13, it's staying in Madison.

A couple of Badgers

It was great to be able to catch up with my old roommate and of course get the chance to watch the Badgers. But sadly, I wasn't able to stick around Madison for long after the game because I had to get back home to catch the second half of my cousin's wedding.

Hay ride through the woods

There was a trip to the apple orchard on Sunday where I indulged in a caramel apple with sprinkles and a hay ride followed by a drive around Lake Winnebago. It's been a long time since I took that drive and it was worth it.

The rest of the week off? There was a dentist appointment (no cavities!), a trip to sell some books I'll never read again at the used book store, some reading and I watched the entire fifth season of Gossip Girl (what, the library only let me have the DVDs for five days). Oh, I also ran a Halloween-themed 5K on Saturday (race report to come soon) and almost died watching the Badgers lose to Michigan State that afternoon. A death that was almost quickened due to hearing the Badger basketball team lost its projected starting point guard due to a torn ACL.

The rest of the time? I did a whole lot of nothing. And let me tell you, it was glorious.

Unfortunately it all came to an end today. Going back to work kind stunk. Sigh. When's my next day off?

St. Joe's 5K Race Report

Hanging with Dad before the race.

Two weeks after this race, I still chuckle a little bit that the race theme was waddling ducks and the T-shirt featured ducks in swim trunks.

This race was wet. But it could have been much worse. It was the weekend where all it did was rain. And not just a light rain. More like a constant downpour. I think we ended up getting almost 5 inches of rain.

But lucky for the runners who lined up for the St. Joe’s 5K on Oct. 13, the rain took a brief break. It was still sprinkling, but nothing like what the walkers had to contend with a half hour after I crossed the finish line.

The race is a Portsmouth start, so no mass start, and the course is an out-and-back. A short jaunt through the city streets, across the Trestle Trail (which is an old railroad bridge that spans the river) and back. 

The first half of the race? I felt good. Keeping a nice steady pace. I passed my Dad (who started about 2:30 in front of me) about 3 blocks before the bridge and told him I’d see him on the way back. I hit the turn around and headed back across the bridge. When I took that first step on the bridge? BAM! The wind hit me. Not a light wind. A fairly stiff wind. And there was no escaping it since I was running on a bridge across a river. And don’t forget wet since it was still sprinkling.

I threw in two short walk breaks during the second half of the race (battling the wind was hard) and finished in 31 minutes and a few seconds. Decent given my lack of running lately. 

 This was supposed to be me finishing, but somehow I ran right out of the frame before Mom could snap the photo.

Thankfully the rain stayed away for the Saturday 5K. The rest of the weekend? Not so much. My planned 13 miles with Peggy never happened as it POURED all day Sunday, never letting up. And I don’t run double digit miles in a downpour. And since I can’t handle that many miles on the treadmill? The weekend long run never happened. Oops.

Does an umbrella slow you down?

Well, nothing like waiting until the absolute last minute to blog. Oh well. At least I’m doing it, which is something I haven’t been doing lately. Another thing I haven’t been doing much lately? Running. As in I’ve run a total of three times since Fox Cities.  I haven’t had a lot of motivation, even with a final half marathon staring me in the face less than a month from now.

Yeah, good thing I’m doing that one solely for fun.

But I’ll be running this weekend. Or  maybe I should call it swimming since it’s supposed to be pouring. Some storm system is supposed to be moving into the area in a few hours and it’s going to be bringing rain with it. A lot of rain. As in the weatherman said 2 to 3 inches. And it’s supposed to be getting under way right in time for me to head out the door tomorrow morning.

See I’ve got this 5K on the calendar. The St. Joe’s 5K. It’s a race I’ve run in the past with my Dad. And even though he hasn’t been doing a lot of walking and it’s supposed to be pouring out, Dad’s a trooper and is still intending to do it.

Really? Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure my bed is going to be pretty comfy when it’s raining cats and dogs. Oh well. I’ll still get my butt out of bed. After all, at least I’ll be able to notch one more run in my log in the last, oh, three weeks, bumping my average to just over one run per week.

 Anyone else find it ironic that the theme is involves waddling ducks? More like swimming ducks.

Assuming I don’t drown, I still have to get a long run this weekend. So right now the plan is to head out for 13 with Peggy on Sunday. We thought we dodged a bullet since early forecasts were saying the rain would be gone by Sunday. Not sure why we were excited. Seriously. When was the last time a weatherman was right? Because of course now the rain is supposed to stick around a good chunk of the day Sunday as well.

Looks like I’m in for a soggy 13 miles on Sunday too. Good thing I have an older pair of shoes. I just hope they can dry out enough between runs.

Add in a baby shower and the annual Halloween party for The Rugrats and it should be a pretty fun, if waterlogged, weekend.