Reading and Eating
Yes, I’m back with more books and eats. My streak of great books continues.! I just finished these two: The Anthony Horowitz is a “Hawthorne” mystery, and it’s a good one! Since there are no new murders to solve and Anthony’s publishers are pushing for a new book, he writes about an old case of Hawthorne’s. As usual, the mystery is clever, as is the way he combines the old case with his present day sleuthing into Hawthorne’s mysterious past. Next up- Orson Scott Card has done it again. HOW can he write a book that is the same story as Ender’s Game, but told from a different point of view- and still make it an extremely compelling story??? The Shadow Series is the story of Bean, and there are five more books. NO! I refuse to be sucked in AGAIN! I’m not reading the rest of the series… at least not right now. I do have some questions, but every time I ask my son he smiles smugly and says “You’ll just have to read the rest of them.” (Stop that! Stop that right now!) Seriously… I have a stack of books from the library that need to be read. I’ll read the next “Shadow” book later in the summer. Eating… has been pretty simple. While my husband and son were gone, I made some pretty basic things for my daughter, including lots of leftovers, and my meals consisted of things like brown rice, tempeh, roasted vegetables, sweet potatoes, chickpeas… I really felt like I needed a reset after my race. I also made this recipe for pumpkin pancakes from Running on Real Food. I know… I had a little “Pumpkin Palooza in June.” The recipe is gluten free- using chickpea flour- and I made it sugar free as well. They were good! I can’t wait for pumpkin season to officially begin (only three short months away!) Lastly, I made this blueberry cake from Nora Cooks. It was really easy, and the family ate it with vegan ice cream (I enjoyed it vicariously.) That’s it! I can’t wait to dive into some mysteries, including an Agatha Christie re-read. What are you reading now? What are you eating these days?
So… What’s Next?
First of all- a huge thank you to Engie for sending me the best card ever, with this Anne Frank quote on it. Yes, there are some exciting days ahead of us still! What, exactly, might those days be made of? Glad you asked. My race is over, and… what’s next? To begin with, there are some skills I would like to improve on. Darlene left a comment on my race recap saying “You’re really good at ultras.” I definitely appreciate it, but I’m not sure it’s entirely true. Am I “good” at running ultras? Well, there are a couple things I am good at. I think my mental game is pretty strong. I have a belief that I can run long distances. I’m not afraid to be uncomfortable, and I’m good at continuing to move forward even when it gets hard (barring, or course, injury… ahem.) All those things are important! But, ironically, I’m not that good at running on trails. At least, not some of the technical trails I’ve encountered in races. And I’m not good at running hills. Technical trails and hills are something we just don’t have in my area. But if I try a little harder, I CAN work at these things. There are some man-made hills near me. Instead of just throwing up my hands and saying “there are no hills!” I could seek out an area that has a hill, and run up and down it multiple times. Then, if I’m willing to drive an hour, I can get to a trail that’s a little more technical than the ones right near me. Adding two hours of driving onto the time of a run isn’t THAT appealing, but I could do it every once in a while. Maybe I could schedule it once a month, and arrange for a “hilly” run once a week. So that’s one goal- get better at hills and technical trails. I also want to focus on strength and speed this summer. Although, that’s the same thing I said last summer and I don’t think I’m any stronger or faster. Hmm. More details to come, but I need to come up with a better plan for lifting weights and speed work. So the summer will be all about strength, speed, with some hills and technical trail work thrown in. What about RACES? Well, Forgotten Florida is again on my list. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll do that, or a different 50 mile race, but I definitely want to tackle the 50 mile distance again. Forgotten Florida is February 1st, so I would want to do another race between now and then. There are several 50Ks I have my eye on, two in October and one in November. Right now I’m waiting for my daughter’s band schedule to be released for the next school year- I want to look at that before I make any commitments to be away for a weekend. Since I have several possible races to choose from, I don’t feel like I need to sign up for anything right this second. And… yes. This means I WILL be doing long runs in the heat of summer (our hot weather goes at least to the end of October.) But that’s okay! I’ll take the next couple of months to focus on shorter distances (and strength and speed) and by then I’ll be missing my long runs- I know myself well. Do you have anything you’re excited about this summer?