January Runfessions
It’s the last Friday of January (AND THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT- let’s move quickly on to February) which means I’m joining Marcia for Runfessions! My runfession starts with a clothing issue. I’ve been wearing the same few items of clothing for years now. At this point I have one skirt and one nice top, which I wear for every single “dressy” occasion, from my son’s high school graduation, to concerts, to wedding receptions. If I don’t do something drastic, I’ll end up wearing the same thing for my son’s college graduation in May… so I took myself shopping. I don’t even know how to shop anymore. Everything looks either too old or too young for me, and I always end up in the workout section or the pajamas (these are clothes I can understand!) But on this particular day I took the plunge and picked a few items to try on. In a dressing room, with a three-way mirror. Wow, that was depressing. I’d rather not go into details, but I was reminded of Nicole’s excellent post on embracing our changing bodies, while simultaneously grieving for the clothes we have to say goodbye to because they no longer fit. How does this relate to running? I’m getting there… I’ve been saying for a while that I want to run a 50 mile race in 2025. I’ve had my eye on one in April, but for some reason kept putting off registering. I don’t know if it was laziness (think how hard I’ll have to train!) or fear (maybe 50 miles is too hard for me?) or just a general feeling of post-holiday “blah,” but I runfess that I just couldn’t commit to the race. After my discouraging shopping expedition, I came home and REGISTERED FOR THE RACE. Not because I think training for a 50 mile race will transform my body in any way- I’ve given up on that notion long ago- but because I want to take the focus off how my body looks, and put it on what my body can do, where it belongs. You guys! I’m running a 50 mile race, the Skunk Ape Endurance Run on April 26th. Now that I’ve registered, I’m getting excited! Do you have any big, exciting events coming up this year? Do you like shopping for clothes? (I still have nothing to wear…)
Reading and Eating
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these! I’m just now getting back on a good reading schedule, and dinners have been… well, you’ll see shortly. I also have a bonus movie review! First up- I finished this: Huh. I think… I didn’t really like it? The premise is, an aspiring writer sees the chance to steal another writer’s manuscript, and publishes it as her own. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get behind this, exactly. I kept wanting to root for the main character, but then she would do something else just slightly too icky for me. It was interesting that I wanted to like her, but couldn’t quite bring myself to. As a matter of fact, the whole book was interesting. Diversity, racism, the evils of social media were some of the topics explored. I enjoyed parts of it, but overall I didn’t have a good feeling while reading this book. A while ago I read Babel by this same author, and I enjoyed that more- but I probably won’t read any more books by R.F. Kuang. Now I’ve started… I love it!!! I want to launch into a whole discussion about it, but I’ll save it for book club. Dinners. Oh God. I’m really hitting the wall here. Several nights last week were so busy that I ended up eating a peanut butter sandwich in the car for dinner, and I wish I could just do that every night instead of having to cook. But, Sunday I rallied and made chili! I doubled this recipe from Nora Cooks. We ate it during the Chiefs/Bills game. Then I announced that we’re eating chili for dinner every night this week unless someone else wants to cook. Things are starting to get dark around our house- so dark that I think my husband might actually cook dinner tomorrow. But let’s bring things back up. I saw a movie!!! I rarely go to movies, but it was my husband’s birthday and he wanted to see A Complete Unknown, which is the story of Bob Dylan. I LOVED IT! The acting was incredible. Timothee Chalamet played Bob Dylan and did all his own singing (side note- whoa. Total dreamboat.) The other actors were amazing as well. So much music, and it all takes place in the 1960’s, which is a decade that fascinates me and somehow keeps coming up in my reading (Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and Ken Follett’s The Century Trilogy.) It was interesting seeing Dylan’s rise to fame, and then the conflict between an artist wanting to evolve and the fans who resist that. I grew up in the 1970s and we still listened to Bob Dylan, and I used to play his songs on my guitar. I haven’t listened to him in a long time, but I’ve pulled up a Bob Dylan playlist on Spotify, and “The Times They Are A-Changin’” has been going through my mind all day. Have you see A Complete Unknown? Did you like Yellowface? Top photo by Blaz Photo on Unsplash
How We Cope (and F.I.G!)
I got a lot of comments on my “Dumpster Fire” coffee date post last week. Lots of sympathy for my mini-emergencies and also, oh yes, there’s… the political situation? I’ll bet that’s what people thought I was referring to when they saw the dumpster fire mug. Well, I’ll be honest. I didn’t watch, read, or listen to ANY NEWS last week. Over the weekend, I did ask my husband for a very brief summary, but that was all. After the election, one of my friends told me her policy going forward: her husband has been informed that if they have to gather their possessions and flee, then he can tell her what’s going on. Anything short of that, and she doesn’t want to know. I’ve pretty much adopted that policy for myself. I KNOW things aren’t going well. I know the news is going to be saddening, infuriating, and ridiculous. I just can’t deal with that kind of cortisol spike on a daily basis. To be honest, the things I’ve heard are nothing short of what I expected, so why subject myself to it over and over again? I know there are flaws in this plan. The people who persistently and secretly resisted the Nazis played a large role in bringing down that regime (hey, I’m no ignoramus- I read Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy!) I just don’t know what to do right now. I have the feeling that we have to watch this play out sickeningly until the midterm elections, and then hope to make a change (?). Anyway. We still have each other! We have the Cool Bloggers Book Club coming up, and now we have Elisabeth’s F.I.G. Collective! If you haven’t already read about it, check it out- we’re all going to write down something positive for each day in February. She even has an amazing printable! I love the feeling that yes, these are hard times, but we’re all in it together. We can get through this. I’m going to start off right now, even though it’s not February yet. This morning on the way to school it was slightly chilly- 59 degrees and very humid. I decided to turn on the heat in the car, and the warm air felt luxurious. It wasn’t like we needed the heat on- we don’t live up north where it’s 10 degrees and the heat is a matter of survival. We were just slightly chilly, and because we didn’t truly need the heat, it felt like a luxury. It was a small moment of joy. Are you joining the F.I.G. Collective? Do you have a bonus FIG before the month starts? Top photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
Weekly Rundown- All About the Weather…
Okay- we didn’t get nine inches of snow like some areas of northern Florida, but we did have cold, gloomy weather- VERY unusual for us (we actually turned our heat on, for the first time in years.) But workouts obviously happened. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here we go… Sunday Continuing with the Caroline Girvan Advent Series,, I did the full body workout with dumbbells. I definitely should have been doing these workouts in December when I was “too busy” to get to the gym- 20 minutes is much better than nothing. Monday Get ready for some dreary photos! A chilly 4 mile run to start the week. After the run I did Caroline’s deadbug workout– this workout made several appearances this week (it’s still my favorite.) Tuesday Knowing that I had a long run coming up the next day, I picked the upper body circuit workout from the Advent series. And… Now would be the perfect time to apologize, on behalf of the state of Florida, to anyone who came down this week for a vacation. We’re so sorry! This never happens- it’s usually beautiful in January! Yes, I do have someone specific in mind. At night I met up with CARI! Cari was a good sport about the weather, and we had fun chatting over chips and guacamole. Cari, next time you come down we’ll have plenty of sunshine for you! Wednesday Long run! I was actually cold for a lot of this run, but it all depended on which way the wind was blowing. I was a little underdressed, but completed 15 miles feeling good. Oh, and before the run I did the CG deadbug workout as a warmup. That worked MUCH better than my terrible idea last week of doing a glute-focused warmup. Thursday Okay. Still cold and dreary. By “cold” I mean in the 50s, but when it’s damp and drizzly, that feels very chilly. But my legs felt pretty good. I ran 3 miles… …and once again did the deadbug workout. Friday Oof. There’s been a disturbing trend in my Fridays, where I have to do a crap ton of driving. THIS time, my daughter was doing an honor band festival at the University of Miami. UM is an hour away IF THERE’S NO TRAFFIC, and there’s always traffic. I had to drive there and back twice, and I don’t think I’ve ever driven that much without actually getting anywhere. Seven hours in the car just to end up back at home. Because I knew I would be sitting in the car for half the day, I started the day with the “Lots of Lunges” workout from the Advent series. This workout was… entirely made up of lunges. If you hate lunges, definitely skip this one. Saturday BRRR! (Stop snickering, you northerners!) This is COLD for us. I bundled up for a 4 mile run. Yes, it was cold, but the sun FINALLY came out- hooray! And- as the day went on it warmed up to almost 70 degrees. This is more like it! After work, I… drove to Miami, arrrrrg! It was the final concert, which I enjoyed, but I could go the rest of my life without driving down to Miami again. Sunday On tap for today- sleeping as late as possible. Waffles. Putting the house back together. FOOTBALL!!! All my teams have been defeated, so I’m just hoping to see some close, exciting games. And I like Patrick Mahomes, so go KC, I guess. Top photo by Vita Leonis on Unsplash How was your week? Did you get hit with any crazy weather? – Now I remember why I moved to Florida- 40s is too cold for my thin blood!