Reading and Eating
Well, this last week was an odd one. I prepared a ton of food and only managed to take TWO photos. And I started a book that I loved, but couldn’t find any time to read. It was like an alarm went off every time my butt touched the couch- it was a signal for cats to start throwing up, the oven to beep, and my daughter to have the pressing need to discuss her next hair color. But I persevered, and finally finished Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. This book was described as a “dark Harry Potter” or “the anti-Harry Potter you didn’t know you wanted.” In my opinion, the two books shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence. There was nothing Harry Potter-ish about this book. One of the Amazon reviewers described it as “surreal and confusing” and that sums it up well. The main character is a teenage girl, Sasha, who is “selected” to attend a special school. The students are forced to study intricate and incomprehensible material, which eventually leads to scary and dream-like transformations. When I say I “loved” this book, I mean I was completely engrossed in it every time I managed to read. Several times I got honked at in the car line at my daughter’s school- I would take out the book while waiting and the story was so compelling, I would be reading and reading, not noticing that traffic had started to move. Parts of it were so odd, it was hard to come back to real life. My family would be talking to me and I would stare at them… what? Something about laundry? It was so easy for me to be immersed in Sasha’s world at the “Institute of Special Technologies.” HOWEVER. I think this is the first time I’ve ever liked a book this much, yet have no desire to read the sequel. Somehow it feels like one book was enough, and I don’t want to continue on with the story. I think I want to read a regular book, where regular things happen to regular people. About all that food… my son arrived home from college, along with his roommate. His roommate stayed with us for five days and in preparation for the visit, I stocked the fridge! I made a REALLY good pasta salad, this one from Nora Cooks. It was a big hit, and provided lunch, snacks, and a side dish for dinner one night. I also made a big batch of pinto beans, using a Chipotle copycat recipe. I actually can’t remember which one I used- they’re all very similar. I also made a Chipotle copycat recipe for rice, and again, this Chipotle copycat recipe for tofu sofritas. And we had guac and salsa. This all provided dinner one night, and was a handy thing to have in the fridge for lunches. One night I made the Thai Yellow Mango Curry from Minimalist Baker. This recipe is so good! For some strange reason, every time I make this I make naan (recipe also from Minimalist Baker) which mixes Thai and Indian. Oh well, it’s fusion! Another night the boys made an Asian meal, which I took this stunningly bad photo of: And another night, we ate out at our favorite Thai place- this may have been an overload of Asian food, but we found out the restaurant is closing soon and felt that we just had to go. I completely forgot to take a photo, which seems like not just a blogging fail but a life fail as well. When will we ever- our family plus my son’s friend- be back at that restaurant together? Never. I really wish I had remembered a picture. The day after our friend left, we had so many odds and ends of leftovers, I announced that we were going to use everything up for dinner that night. As much as I loved having the fridge full of food, it was also oddly satisfying to eat everything and have it (relatively) empty again. And now it’s back to normal. I have a library hold to pick up tomorrow (a normal mystery) and once again I have no idea what we’re having for dinner. SIGH! Has anyone read Vita Nostra? – I’m interested to hear what other people think!
Weekly Rundown- Happy Chaos
Well, it was quite a week! The craziness of May was ramped up a notch with the arrival of my son and his college roommate. My son always comes home in a swirl of chaos, and this time it was doubled. The boys slept till noon one day; another day got up at 5 am to go to the beach and see the sunrise; went to the gym; had friends over for a jam session; made a trip to the Asian market and cooked dinner one night… it’s been like a big party, except the rest of us still had to go to work/school. But of course, workouts did occur! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown- let’s just see how it all played out. Sunday This was the day of my 5K time trial. It was… pretty much as I expected. My pace felt hard but was slow, compared to the old days. But that’s okay- you have to start somewhere. One thing I was reminded of was that for a race like a 5K you have to train your mind as well as your body. It’s hard to hold that pace for the last mile, and I let myself slow down. When I was done, I felt that OF COURSE I could have held the pace- but I just have to train my mind to accept being uncomfortable like that again. When I got home I did some lower body strength- things that I don’t need to go to the gym for, like Bulgarian split squats and calf raises. My Sunday waffles tasted REALLY good after all that! Monday I did this Caroline Girvan 4×4 abs workout. It’s four different exercises repeated four times. Other than that it was a day off. Tuesday I started the day with a 4 mile run… and then did Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. This is the one that starts off suspiciously easy, but by the end has you questioning your life choices. Wednesday Gym day! It was mostly a leg day- squats, deadlifts, calf raises- with bench press thrown in as well. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get back to the gym this week, so I wanted to do a little upper body. I figured out a way to do deadlifts with the regular bar (as opposed to the hex bar- I was tired of that) by putting the bar on a low rack to start with (that way I don’t have to bend down so low to get it off the floor.) When I told my son about it he said “Doesn’t your gym have the big ten pound plates?” What? Is there such a thing? I’m sure the gym has all sorts of things I don’t know about, so I’ll have to find out. Thursday Well, my legs were trashed from the gym so it was obviously the perfect day for speed work! Ha ha, actually I just didn’t know how else to fit it in. In the future I won’t do it after leg day, but since this was my first real speed workout in… a year?… I was starting easy anyway. After a warmup, I did 4×400 at, ahem, “5k pace” but in reality I could NOT find that pace. I was doing the repeats on a stretch of road that I know is a quarter mile, but half the time I couldn’t see my watch because of the glaring sunlight, and my body had no idea what the pace was supposed to feel like. That’s okay- it was a start. I’m hoping to get to an actual track over the summer. Friday 3 mile run at a snail’s pace, and boy was this one hard. My legs were sore from the gym AND speed work- but that’s okay. I took it very slow! Afterwards I did the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout again (will this ever get easier?) Saturday I had planned to at least do some core, but the swirl of chaos engulfed me and it turned into a day off. That’s fine because… Sunday On tap for today- a trail run. I have high hopes for this run! My legs should feel fresh for a change, and I’m going to get out EARLY, before it gets too hot. The plan is 6-8 miles, followed by my “at-home leg day” again. Moving forward… I really want to get to the gym twice a week for leg day. There are FOUR MORE DAYS of school for my daughter, and then ten glorious weeks where I’ll have my early mornings to myself to do WHATEVER I WANT. I could go to the gym every day if I wanted to! (I don’t.) I’m really psyched about this upcoming freedom- I think it’s going to be a great summer. Will your schedule be changing at all for summer? Do you like having houseguests? – Usually I find it stressful, but my son’s roommate is the perfect guest and I’m enjoying it!
Courage Before Confidence
This week I listened to this James Altucher podcast with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. It was a fascinating conversation, and one of the things that stuck with me is their description of the “Four C’s”- Commitment, Courage, Capability, and Confidence. In order to start a new project, we can’t rely on confidence. As a matter of fact, if the project is big enough or new enough, we won’t have confidence at all. The important thing is to commit to it; have the courage to begin; slowly gain capability; which will eventually lead to confidence. I would actually put courage first, because sometimes it takes courage to even commit to a new venture. Whether it’s signing up for a race, starting a blog, finding a new job, deciding to start a family (eek! Who feels confident about raising kids before they have them?) or any number of adventures, courage is the first requirement. Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important the knowledge.” Yes, and courage is more important than confidence. I still haven’t decided on a race (although I got some great advice in the comments on that post!) As a matter of fact I’ve added another possibility to the mix, Death at Dupuis. It’s a “last person standing” format. “All runners will be running a 4.166667 mile loop to be started at 8:00 am. The race restarts at the top of the hour every hour until only one runner can complete the loop on time, or everyone quits.” The race is held in a natural area about an hour from me, that I’ve never been to. I checked last year’s results, and the winner ran 133 miles. But there were a lot of people who ran a 50K or shorter- so it would be perfectly fine to show up and do as much as you can. I’m intrigued! I know that I just have to choose a race and sign up. Once I sign up, all the lingering doubts (“I don’t know if I can run 50 miles! Can I run a 50K all on sand? Will I really be able to get to a race four hours away?”) will fade away. Whichever race I choose will become a reality, and I’ll figure out how to make it work. But right now, I’m still dithering. Have you ever started a project fueled by courage, before your confidence kicked in?- I think if I waited until I felt confident, I would never start anything at all.
Weekly Rundown- Heavy Leg Edition
Oof. I felt like I was running through molasses this week. I can’t seem to get used to strength training again, but I’m not giving up! I’ll slog through these runs until it all feels normal (that will happen… right???) Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown! Let’s just see how it all went. Sunday Back to the gym! You may recall that I went last week to do lower body for the first time in three weeks, and it completely trashed my legs. But I was undeterred, and returned for more lower body. I did Bulgarian split squats, deadlifts with the hex bar and calf raises. I have the theory- based on no evidence whatsoever- that the calf raises will help my plantar fasciitis. We’ll see! Monday My legs were sore, but not as sore as last time. I did a 4 mile run, followed by some planks. I definitely did better with my core this week. Tuesday Another gym day! This time I did squats (again with the bar only), calf raises, bench press and lat pulldowns. Good workout. Wednesday I know what my life has been missing- trail running! I went back to the trail for the first time since my race, and ran 6 miles. I was glad to get back out there, but this was a HARD run. My legs felt trashed once again (what is it with these squats???) and it was so hot. I thought I would be okay since it was only 6 miles, but I missed my ice hat! Thursday I did this Caroline Girvan abs and core workout. Oof. At night, we went to my daughter’s band concert… which was the final middle school concert. Ever. I can actually remember my son’s very first middle school band concert. Between my son and daughter, we attended six years of concerts at that school, and this was the end. I know it’s time to move on, but I was sad. Friday 4 mile run, and now what? My right hip was so, so stiff. I couldn’t figure out why, until I remembered sitting on a hard plastic chair in the middle school cafeteria the night before for almost two hours. Hmmm. Maybe I’m not so sad to be done with middle school, after all- the high school has nice, comfy auditorium seats. I did crunches on the stability ball in the kitchen while making breakfast… a little core is better than nothing, right? Saturday I did Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout.. It’s just 12 minutes, and all variations on deadbugs. When it starts you think “Oh, this isn’t so bad” but by the end you’re singing a different tune. Never underestimate C.G.! Other than that, it was a day off. Sunday Happy Mother’s Day! Remember how I was going to run a Mother’s Day 5K? Yeah, not happening. My legs just don’t seem to want to move fast these days, which makes it hard to imagine running a race. My husband has also been struggling with his running (although his issue is just finding the time to do it) and he said he didn’t want to go to the race because he would be a laughingstock. Ha ha, I think that’s a BIT of an exaggeration- but under the circumstances we just weren’t motivated to get up excruciatingly early to slog through a 5K. BUT! I am going to run a 5K time trial today (after sleeping to a more reasonable hour.) It’s going to be…. interesting and humbling. But you have to start somewhere! I’ll take this time and use it to set the paces for my upcoming speed work. Are you doing anything special for Mother’s Day? Any big events for you this month? – We have middle school graduation coming up soon!