Weekly Rundown- A Low-Drama Week
Oh, hello! I’m linking up as always with Kim and Deborah for this Weekly Rundown. It was a good week, but nothing exciting. Since I ramped up the distance of my longest run the last three weeks, this week was a cutback with no long run. But there were still workouts, and lots of dark, blurry running photos! Let’s get into it… Monday I started the week with a 3 mile run. Seriously. I CANNOT WAIT to turn the clocks back!!! One more week! I followed this run with the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout. Tuesday Since I wasn’t doing a long run on Wednesday, I went to the gym for leg day (might as well get it over with! Wait- do I have a bad attitude?) I started with hip stability exercises, then moved on to squats, deadlifts, and of course abs, as always. Wednesday 5 mile run on the cross country trail. It was nice to start and end a run in the daylight for a change! I spent the rest of the day doing errands, including… Thursday Strength workout at home. I did my hip stability exercises, this MadFit standing core workout, and… skater squats. Last week Susanne posted a video of them, so I tried it. I could do them! I didn’t look, ahem, exactly like the guy in the video, but I could come pretty close. Friday Oof. 3 mile run, and everything was great except that my headlamp (which I wear around my chest) died in the middle of it. Look how dark it was! (I took this photo under a lone street lamp.) I could barely see where my feet were landing, and it wasn’t good. I returned home intact and did the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout. Saturday Headlamp has been charged! A 4 mile run before work, and I worked on my cadence. I have a metronome app on my phone, and I can comfortably run at 58. Three steps for every beat of the metronome=174 steps per minute. Ideally it should be closer to 180. The faster your legs turn over, the less time you have to make extraneous movements that slow you down and lead to injuries. I’ll keep working on it! Later on I watched Baylor win! We’re looking good, and still have a chance to salvage our season. I also watched a little of the World Series, but… meh. I was rooting for the Mets. Sunday On tap for today, my favorite Sunday activities: sleeping in, waffles (possibly) and football! Sundays always start off so gloriously, but then end with laundry, cleaning, and an early bedtime. Sigh. How was your week? Do you like turning the clocks back? Have you voted yet?
Friday Coffee Date- I Voted!
Oh, hi there! Thanks for joining me. I’m hoping you’re reading this with a delicious hot beverage in your holiday mug. If we were having coffee (tea) together I would tell you that… I voted! I went on Wednesday, my day off, and it was quick and easy. After all the drama around this election, it was a relief to go and mark my ballot. Although- am I the only one who does this?- I’m always paranoid that I’m going to vote for the wrong person. It’s completely ridiculous- I’m not going to accidentally vote for Trump! But I kept checking my ballot over and over again. (Of course, I do live in Florida! But the ballots are different than they were in the 2000 debacle. No more hanging chads.) The other excitement of the day is- I fixed my blog! Well. I fixed the current glaring issue. The sidebar no longer shows recent posts in their entirety. And I created a “Favorites” category, so in case you’re new here and are thinking “What’s all this about a sprained ankle and DNFing a race?” you can find that race recap there. Unfortunately “Favorites” only shows up on the home page. I want it to be on the individual blog post page, and I’m baffled as to why it’s NOT there. Part of me wants to keep working on it, and get my blog all spiffy in time for NaBloPoMo! The other part of me thinks I should quit while I’m ahead, and not take the risk of deleting the entire thing right before November 1st. We’ll see. So- NaBloPoMo! It’s one week away! Every year, San does an incredible job of organizing our part of it. Her page describes what it is, but simply, NaBloPoMo is “National Blog Posting Month”- participants post 30 posts for each day of the month. It’s SO FUN! I encourage everyone to give it a try. I first met San through a fitness blogging community, but through NaBloPoMo I met all the other incredible bloggers who are now my BBFs (Best Blogging Friends.) In case you need inspiration, Engie has posted a list of NaBloPoMo Blog Post Ideas. If you want to participate, San has a sign up page. Of course you don’t have to officially sign up, but this way you’ll be on the list of participants, so others can find you (and you can find them!) Speaking of BBF’s, the Cool Bloggers Postcard Club is going strong! Elisabeth sent me a postcard from Portugal! Angie and Anne sent me a postcard on their day of crafting, and Lindsay sent the “darn it” postcard to cheer me up last week, when I mentioned I was feeling down. My husband is baffled- “You got ANOTHER postcard???” but I’m loving it. So fun. When are you going to vote? Do you have the weird paranoia that you’ll vote for the wrong person? Who’s planning to do NaBloPoMo?
Reading and Eating
This week, I started the first book of a sci fi trilogy my son really wanted me to read: He warned me that it was a little difficult to get into, but I like it! I’m only about halfway through, but here’s the description: “Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space in an attempt to make contact with aliens- and they succeed. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Now, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.” I’ll admit the book is a little complex. There’s a lot of physics involved, but I don’t worry about understanding every last detail. I figure, anything that’s really beyond my scope of understanding isn’t crucial to the story. This book seems to be very popular in the genre, so it has to be written for people like me, and not just scientific geniuses. I should finish it this week and then I’ll have to move onto something else- my son is bringing me the second and third books when he comes home for Thanksgiving. Eating-wise, I had a waffle fail. I made Nora’s pumpkin waffles, but left out the sugar and tried to sub out the regular flour with part almond flour and part oat flour. They stuck horribly to the waffle maker (I think the almond flour made them too fragile) and I had to scrape them off. They looked horrible but tasted pretty good! On Sunday afternoon, my daughter actually asked to go to Marshall’s WITH ME. This was a big breakthrough for us, although she did say “I hope I don’t see anyone I know.” Ahem. I really think I know how to behave if she were to run into someone from school. For example: “Oh, so THIS is Josh!!! I’ve heard SO MUCH about you!”= INCORRECT. Fading quietly into the background=CORRECT. Fortunately we didn’t have to worry about it. No one from school was spotted, and she got several new shirts that she was really happy with. Afterwards we went to a coffee shop where I was amused by this sign: My daughter got an iced “Caramel Apple Butter Chai Latte,” which frankly sounds disgusting, and I upgraded my usual Earl Grey tea to a London Fog- Earl Grey with milk (almond milk for me) and vanilla. Yum! Lastly, we had a fun Sunday night dinner. I made this Vegan 7 Layer Dip from Nora Cooks. It was delicious, semi-nutritious, and very festive. What are you reading? Do you like the fancy fall-flavored chai drinks? Top photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash
IT’S HERE!!!
Did you know we’re having an election? Hahahahahahaha… okay, seriously. We’re having an election!! Early voting in our county started TODAY! The top photo is the coloring book I won in Suzanne’s giveaway. At my request, she sent the coloring book to my sister. I think most people who read this blog share my political views (but if not, we can still be friends!) so I’m not afraid of offending anyone when I say that I’m voting for Kamala Harris because a) she’s not Trump (I mean….obviously), and b) she’s a WOMAN. Eight years ago, I brought my daughter along with me when I voted. I was so, so sure that Hillary Clinton would win (sob) and I wanted my daughter to see me mark my ballot. I told her we’ve never had a woman president before. Her astonished response was, “We HAVEN’T? Why NOT???” Great question. I’m tired of this BS. I know Harris isn’t perfect, but I want to see a woman president! If she doesn’t win this election, I blame it on the deep-seated misogyny and racism in our country. I hope we can overcome it. My daughter is too young to vote (she’s 15) but this is my son’s first time voting in a presidential election! He’s away at college, but he requested a mail-in ballot from Florida, and has already sent it in. I’m excited for him. The thought that this is his first election, with many more ahead of him in his lifetime, helps me remember that even if things don’t go our way this time, there will be other elections. We’ll vote again in four years (er. Hopefully…) One more thing. Is it my imagination, or is this election less vicious than the last one? I mean, I know people still feel passionately on both sides. But it just seems like we’re all less prone to going around shouting angrily at each other. Four years ago, we had to ban all political talk in our break room at work. I remember our boss saying “Hopefully next time we can have a kinder, more gentle election.” Is that actually happening? OR, is this the calm before the storm? Are people quieter because they’re wary? Are people afraid of what Trump will do if he wins, and also afraid of what he’ll do if he doesn’t win? All I know is, I’ve been dreading his election for four years, but now that it’s here, it hasn’t been so bad. Of course, I may have to revise that thought on November 6th. When are you voting? – I’ll be voting on Wednesday! Have you noticed that people are quieter this time around? Do you think it’s because we’re too exhausted to fight, or that we’re scared?