Weekly Rundown- IT’S TIME!
Hey, guess what- it’s pumpkin time! September 1st is the official start of Pumpkin Palooza, a festival celebrated by… well, very few. But those of us who celebrate, do it very enthusiastically. Light your pumpkin-scented candle and let’s get into the Weekly Rundown! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. Monday I started the week with an upper body workout from Sally McRae’s app, and followed that with Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. After work I went to my sports chiropractor for the second treatment on my calf. He did some scraping, and ART. He suggested waiting a couple days to let the soreness from the treatment subside, then run on Thursday. Okay! Tuesday 45 minute pool run! I think this might have been my least favorite pool run ever. It rained, and also with about 20 minutes to go my flotation belt broke. I finished the workout awkwardly holding the belt under my arms. Later in the day I did my hip stability exercises. Wednesday Gym day! I did 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, then did a hard leg day, plus bench press and abs. I was definitely feeling down before this workout but felt MUCH better afterwards. Thursday Running day, finally! I walked one mile and ran two. No pain in my calf, but that doesn’t mean anything. I usually have no pain the first run back. But I’ll take a pain-free run any day! Friday Full body strength- hip stability, upper body (Sally McRae app) and core (Caroline Girvan.) After work I had another ART treatment on my calf. It was painful but productive! He suggested that, for now, I run every third day- okay, fine. Any running is better than no running. Saturday Off- except that, at my daughter’s request, I got out our pull up bar and did some dead hangs. Funny how hard those are now! Am I going to once again start doing dead hangs and negatives, pretending that I’m working my way up to an actual pull up? We’ll see. At night, WOO HOO! The first Baylor game! We have an exciting new quarterback, and won 45-3. Perfect way to start the season! Sunday On tap for today- well, it’s the third day so I get to RUN!!! After that, the first pumpkin waffles of the season, and taking out my fall decor. Don’t try to rain on my parade by telling me it’s too early- school has started, football is in full swing, and it’s September. Pumpkin time! I’m still working on my blog issue- please scroll waaaay down to leave a comment (I don’t know why this happened, grr!) Do you follow college football? Too early for fall, or are you ready? Top photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash
Confessions and Runfessions
Well, it’s been quite a week! I’m having a teensy snafu with this website- please bear with me! You can still leave a comment, you just have to scroll waaaay down, past all my recent posts written out in their entirety (WHY DID IT DO THAT???) I’m working on it. As always on the last Friday of the month, I’m linking up with Marcia for Runfessions! First, a CONfession. I’ve been a little down lately, and when I discovered the issue with my blog, I confess that my first thought was, “What is going to happen NEXT? Is my house going to burn down?” Then I thought about what it would be like if that actually happened. Let’s imagine that everyone- humans and animals- got out safely, but our house burned to the ground. Wow, that would really suck!!! I pictured us living in a hotel, buying all new clothes, desperately trying to replace our phones, laptops, and other necessities while trying to deal with the insurance company… maybe my current life isn’t so bad, after all. Next up, a runfession. I haven’t been running much lately, but my husband has! Last weekend he ran the “Iguana Man 10K”. He had a great time, placed second in his age group, and made some new friends. I’ll runfess that I had some FOMO… until I saw the race shirt. Who chose that COLOR??? Is there such a thing as “neon chartreuse?” I think that’s what this is. And why is the iguana wearing a sombrero??? My husband actually likes wearing race t-shirts, like he’ll wear them around casually or to run out to the store. I’ve challenged him to wear this one in public, but so far he’s only worn it in the house. It’s hard to have a lot of runfessions when you’re hardly running, so I’ll leave it at that! I did run once this week, and tomorrow will have my third ART treatment. I’m working hard to fix my calf and my blog. Wish me luck! Advice needed: if you have a blog, how do you back it up? Do you like wearing race t-shirts? Have you ever gotten an especially ugly one? Top photo by Jeremy Lapak on Unsplash
My Mind Needs to Run
I’ve been running consistently- barring time off for injuries- since high school. I’m always surprised when people parise my “motivation”- the truth is, I need it for my mental health. Even with running, sometimes I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water. As you can imagine, recently my mood has gotten darker and darker. That nagging, sarcastic, negative inner voice is slowly taking over. For example! Recently Kae shared a quote: “Even if you don’t have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you don’t want.” – Bob Dylan’s father I love that! I decided to list all the things I don’t have that I don’t want- #1. Cancer (“or, at least not that you KNOW of…”). ARRRG! Be quiet, negative inner voice. Now instead of being grateful that I don’t have cancer, I’m thinking that I really do have it but just haven’t found out yet. See what I’m up against? Now let’s try making a list of good things: College football is starting! The first Baylor game is this Saturday! It’s almost time for Pumpkin Palooza (you remember that, right???) I got a text from my son saying that his year is off to a great start (happy kids=happy parents.) The problem is, if just “thinking happy thoughts” made people happy, no one would ever be depressed. If only it were that simple! Oh well. Tomorrow is my day off, which I need badly. I’ll go to the gym and try to work up some endorphins. Then I’m going to Barnes and Noble to browse, and sit in the cafe with a tea and my notebook. In the words of Cassandra Mortmain, “Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.” Have you thought about the things you DON’T have that you don’t want? Does making a list of things you’re grateful for make you happier? Top photo by Hendrik Morkel on Unsplash
Reading
Ooh! I finished Fall of Giants and started the second book in the series, Winter of the World. This one starts in 1933, with the Nazis coming to power in Germany. To be honest, I hated it so much I almost stopped reading. There are some things that are horrifying and yet still kind of fun to read about- Hitler is not one of them. The first few chapters made me feel sick and infuriated- but I told myself to stop being a wimp and read on. Sure enough, before long the storyline switched to America and I’ve been reading that part happily. I know we’ll get back to the Nazis, and I’m steeling myself. And I know the book overall will be great- I just have to stop being so sensitive. Sheesh. From a historical perspective, Germany in the 1930s is fascinating (remember how I couldn’t stop talking about WWI when I read the first book? I’m having the same problem now with WWII.) The German people in the early 1930s didn’t have the perspective that we do now. The Nazis were just another fringe political party- most people didn’t love them, but they didn’t fear them as much as they feared the communists. Also, the 1920s were a pretty terrible decade for Germany. It wasn’t completely unreasonable to think that democracy just wasn’t working. Hitler gave a lot of people hope with his “Make Germany Great Again” speeches (huh! That reminds me of something, but I can’t think what…) Hitler and his thugs did seem a little dangerous, but I can imagine people thinking “How bad could it really be?” (VERY BAD! Assassinate him! Flee the country! Don’t let this happen!!!) Ahem. You can see how I have a hard time reading it, but I know I’ll love the book overall. Before I started Winter of the World, I read this book: This is the first book I’ve read all year that I did NOT like. I’ve been on a Japanese murder mystery kick, and the other ones I read were pretty good. They tend to be very light on character development, but strong on ingenious solutions. This book had NO interesting characters, and the ending, instead of being ingenious, was preposterous. Plus, there were important plot points that were unavailable to the reader until the end. That’s not fair! Who made this book a “classic”, anyway??? What awards did it win? I think I’m through with this genre. Lastly… I read Allison’s guest post on Engie’s blog. Allison shared a list of her favorite horror books. Horror is one genre I’ve never been interested in, but Allison has convinced me! I’m going to pick a couple from her list and try them. Sophie Hannah’s The Orphan Choir seems like a good place to start. Do you ever read horror? Is there a subject that just just can’t stand to read about?