Reading, Eating… and Demolishing the Kitchen
Oh, hello! I have to admit there’s not much to report, reading-wise. I finished this: …and will now move on to the last book of the Ender Saga. My son is almost done with it, and he has The Shadow Saga (a related storyline to Ender) ready to go. Meanwhile, I’ve slowly been returning books to the library unread (because the library seems to want them back.) After I finish the Ender Saga, I might take a break from Orson Scott Card (temporarily) and read some of the other books I had planned on this summer! Eating-wise, I made this Vegetable Korma, and served it with naan from Trader Joe’s. And, inspired by Suzanne,, I made a stir fry with this Szechuan sauce. It was delicious, but after this meal my husband announced that he never wants to see tofu, broccoli, or rice again. I guess we do need to branch out a bit. So let’s talk about the kitchen! We’ve lived in this house twenty years, and although we did change out the appliances along the way, we still have the original cabinets and countertops. They’ve been in pretty bad shape for several years, but my husband and I were not in agreement about how to proceed, so we just lived with it. Finally, the situation became dire, my husband and I quickly got in agreement, and the new cabinets are coming next week, woohoo! Followed by countertops and then a new backsplash. My husband is determined to do the demolition himself, and he’s already started. First of all, our kitchen is tiny (sigh.) There’s not much we can do about that, but we had this weird cabinet that ran perpendicular to the oven. It did give a little more counter space, but made the kitchen even smaller, and having more than one person trying to cook at one time was enraging. The new design will just have cabinets continuing in a straight line after the oven. Meanwhile, underneath the ripped out counter was this: Someone apparently put tile over laminate flooring, and THEN someone put another layer of tile over that. Luckily, when we moved into the house there were extra tiles in the garage, and we still have them! My husband is in the process of tiling over the gaping hole in the floor. OR, we could just tear up all the tile and go with the original laminate. JUST KIDDING! It’s so hideous. Although I’m sure it looked lovely when it was new, in the 1970s. I’m not sure what meals are going to look like for the next couple of weeks…. it’s going to be challenging. We’re planning to do some meal prep this weekend, and then hopefully we’ll at least have the stove available most days to heat things up. I see some Bolay and Chipotle in our future! How long have you lived in your house? Have you done any major kitchen projects?
Some “Hella Good” Podcasts
On Sunday I ran six miles, and that last mile was hard. I didn’t get up early enough, I was running in the heat, I haven’t been doing long runs… etc. etc. There were all sorts of reasons, but I couldn’t help thinking- “How in the world am I going to run 50 miles in February if I’m struggling to get through six?” I remember having those same thoughts while training for my 50K. How am I going to run a 50K when I can’t run ten miles without getting nauseous? How am I going to run 30 miles, when 23 was this hard? But… it all worked out. One thing I did (in addition to, obviously, training for the race) was that I constantly listened to podcasts about people doing much, much harder things than running a mere 50K. And I’m still doing that! Here are a couple of my recent favorites. Hellah Sidibe was recently interviewed on Sally McRae’s podcast. In case you haven’t heard of Hellah, he currently has a SIX YEAR run streak going. Yes, he’s run every day for six years, and also during that time has done a couple other “little” things- like run across the United States, and he recently completed the Western States 100 mile race. Yep- he does those things while upholding a daily run streak. He’s also a super nice and inspirational guy- look for HELLAHGOOD on instagram. (Side note- Sally McRae is one of my favorite ultrarunners and I didn’t even know she had a podcast! It’s relatively new, and I can’t wait to binge all 24 episodes.) Speaking of Western States… you can’t mention this year’s race without talking about the GOAT, Courtney Dauwalter. She broke the women’s course record this year by 78 minutes, and then turned around three weeks later and won Hardrock (another 100 mile race), also breaking the course record. This episode of I’ll Have Another with Lindsey Hein was recorded between the two races. When asked how she was going to recover from Western States and be ready for Hardrock, Courtney’s response was something along the lines of “I have no idea!” Apparently it worked out. At the end of the interview, Lindsey asked if she had any advice for us mere mortals, and Courtney’s answer was, “Have fun, try hard things, see what’s possible…. why not?” Yes, WHY NOT??? Why not sign up for a 50 mile race? What’s the worst that could possibly happen? (Well, I guess I could die- but we take that risk just by walking out the front door every day.) Realistically, the worst thing that could happen is that I’ll fail to complete the race- and no one will really care. One last podcast of interest was Floris Gierman’s Extramilest podcast where he interviewed Chris Hauth. Chris is an endurance athlete and coach extraordinaire. I first heard him on Rich Roll’s podcast (he’s Rich’s coach and long-time friend.). He recently completed the 7X Project, which was 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. The goal of the project was to raise awareness for mental health issues among veterans. In addition to talking about the training and execution of this escapade- the logistics alone are mind-boggling- Chris talks about training in general, and how it pertains to mental health. He talks about the importance of having something to aim for, and also the importance of enjoying the process along the way. My favorite quote was, “I don’t know where I’m going, but I know how to get there.” We can’t know the outcome of our goals, but we know what it takes to get there- consistency, hard work, and a solid plan. I don’t know how my race is going to go, but I know what I have to do to get myself to the starting line. As Chris says, “Consistency and longevity are superpowers.” So many good quotes in this episode! Sometimes I can’t find anything good to listen to, and then sometimes there are so many podcasts I don’t have time for them all! I can’t wait for my workout tomorrow so I can listen to another one. Do you listen to podcasts? – I listen while I’m working out and when I’m driving. If you do like podcasts, what’s your favorite?
Weekly Rundown- Good News and Bad News
Well, there was good news and bad news this week. Or actually, there was great news and terrible news. The great news is that after taking a week off, I was able to run again, and my shin felt good. The TERRIBLE news, as I shared on Friday, is that our AC died. But it’s fixed now, we all survived, and there were plenty of workouts as usual! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here’s how it all went down… Sunday First run back after the shin incident! 4 pain-free miles, followed by Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. This was the day the AC conked out. Sadness! Misery! Of course it happened on a Sunday and our AC people couldn’t come until Monday. OF COURSE. Monday This was a great morning for the gym! The cool, air conditioned gym. Followed by breakfast at Starbucks, where they crank the AC so high I have to wear two sweatshirts, and then on to work which is, once again, air conditioned. It was leg day, so I did my usual routine of warming up on the stair climber, then squats, deadlifts, Runner’s Touch exercise., calf raises, and abs. Meanwhile my husband was waiting at home for the AC guy. He diagnosed several major and expensive problems, and promised to return the next day to fix it. THE NEXT DAY. Sigh. On an “unrelated” note, one of my coworkers told me they keep prisons very cold, because if the prisoners get too hot they get angry and aggressive. Oh really? Hmm. Tuesday After a hot and sweaty night, I was a little worried about a run today. I wondered if my core temperature was already so elevated, that running outside would be too much. But it was fine! Another 4 mile run that felt good. And, by nighttime the AC was fixed and the house was cool again. PHEW. Wednesday I really wanted to run today. Normally Wednesday is my treadmill speedwork day, but I think that’s what hurt my shin, so I decided to err on the side of caution, and instead went back to the gym for upper body. Rows, lat pulldowns, bench press, overhead press, calf raises and abs. Calves and abs are happening every time I go to the gym! Thursday Oddly, after a night in the nice, cool AC, it was on this run where the heat got to me. Was it hotter or more humid? Whatever it was, I was roasting. Maybe this was the problem: Yep, “feels like” 90 at 7 am is not okay! But I did it. Friday Leg day at the gym again! This time I tried something my son does: he sets his timer to make sure he rests long enough between sets. He said for large muscle groups, like squats and deadlifts, you should be resting three minutes. It’s amazing how long three minutes actually is! I would say in the past I was resting around 60-90 seconds, and resting longer really enabled me to work harder. I was able to do an extra set of squats, and add weight to my deadlifts. On the downside, this takes a LONG TIME. Coming to strength training from a runner’s perspective, it seems odd to be standing around doing nothing in the middle of a workout. Saturday I did my Daily Shakedown, which is a 15 minute full-body mobility routine, and Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. Other than that, it was a day off. Sunday On tap for today- a longer run. Possibly on the trail, and definitely with an icy cold bottle of water in my hydration vest. How was your week? Are you enjoying some hot summer days?
Life Updates
Oh, hello! We had quite a week here. The big news is…. our AC died. Now, if you don’t live in Florida I’m not sure you can appreciate the scope of this tragedy. Floridians take their AC very seriously. At my daughter’s band concert in Tallahassee, the conductor started by acknowledging everyone who made the camp possible, and he said “The first person I’d like to thank is the man or woman who invented air conditioning.” AC is so crucial to us, we just call it “air.” Put the air on! Turn the air down! I’m pretty sure you couldn’t live here without AC (air.) We had been noticing that our unit was struggling to keep up with the record breaking heat. But other people said the same thing, so we were a little concerned, but trying to be hopeful that all was okay. But on Sunday, we realized we were roasting, looked at the thermostat (which was set at 75) and saw that it was 87 degrees in the house. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! After several brilliant and high-tech attempts to fix it (let’s turn it off and turn it back on! Maybe it will start working again when it gets dark!) we had to face the sad facts. We opened the windows, turned on all the fans, and put in a call to our AC people. They came bright and early Monday morning, gave us the bad news- several major parts had to be replaced- and said they would be back THE NEXT DAY to fix it. Sob. I could go into all the gory details about how uncomfortable those days were, but let’s just fast forward to Tuesday night: the AC was fixed, we were several thousand dollars poorer, and the whole sad saga was over. In other news, my daughter’s septum piercing is healing up well, in spite of the fact that she keeps moving it around. The guy who did the piercing told her not to play with it, because it would take longer to heal. It’s very hard to resist though, because she says it’s like a “built-in fidget toy.” Yes, a built-in fidget toy, IN HER NOSE. Gee, I wonder why I was opposed to this. Anyway, after six weeks she’ll be able to change the jewelry, and she’s looking forward to getting spikes. ARRRRRRRRG! Lastly, my “summer of reading” seems to have evolved (devolved?) into the “summer of Orson Scott Card.” I finished Xenocide, looked at my stack of library books, thought “who am I fooling?” and picked up the next in the Ender series, Children of the Mind. I had to return Hello Beautiful to the library unread, but that’s okay- I can read it later. How’a your summer going? Is your AC working??? What are you reading now?