Training and Life Updates
Some of you have been asking about my upcoming race- I’ve been training for the Forgotten Florida 50 mile race, and I can say that I feel completely ready to run it on February 3rd! Unfortunately, that’s not when the race is. That was the original date of the race, but a couple months ago we were informed that it was changed to February 17th. At that time, my long runs were going great. I felt invincible! I didn’t tweak my schedule at all to accommodate the change- I just figured it would give me time for one more long run. Well… I no longer feel invincible. After my long run on Sunday, something was telling me that I’m done training. That “something” could be my achy right hip and low back, or my two heels that hurt when I get out of bed every morning. Whatever it is, I don’t think I have another big, long run in me before this race. That’s fine- I’ve done numerous runs over 20 miles, and back-to-back long runs totaling 36 miles. I don’t need another long run- but the problem is, if Sunday was my last long run then I’ll have a four week taper before the race. That’s… a long taper. I’m thinking I’ll do another semi-long run? That’s probably what will happen- but I haven’t decided yet. In some ways, life is mirroring training (or is it the other way around???). I feel burned out and tired. January is always a hard month for me. I normally get sad when Christmas is over, but this year the festivities didn’t end with Christmas. My daughter went to Rome, we had New Year’s (when I did my back-to-back long runs, which was such a fun adventure) and then we went to Tampa. It was nonstop fun, until we returned from Tampa and my son went back to school the next day. It felt like the official end to all the holiday and post-holiday fun, and it’s always so hard to say goodbye to him. It was like Christmas was ending all over again, and I’ve been feeling “blah” ever since. I know- we all have hardships! I’ve been through worse Januarys. When I lived up north, I could hardly get out of bed in the winter (which is, once again, why I now live in Florida.) It just takes time. I’ll feel better soon (I always do) and I do have a race to start planning for! (Did you notice in the top picture, the town where the race starts is “Christmas, Florida? It’s the perfect race for me!) Thanks for listening to me whine. How is your January going???
Weekly Rundown- Winter, Florida-Style
Hello from cloudy Florida! Wait… what? We have had the gloomiest month here, and you should hear people complain! It’s pretty funny (do you people know what’s going on in the rest of the country???). But, lots of people (like me) moved here to escape SAD. I thought we lived in the Sunshine State! Did I move to Seattle without realizing it? Well, we will live through this hardship. Meanwhile, thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here’s how the week played out. Monday Ugh. My son went back to school today. It’s always so hard to say goodbye, AND he had to leave for the airport at 4:30 am. My husband drove him, but I got up to see them off. Then I went back to bed and slept until 7:30- which meant I had to run after work. Note to self- I don’t like that schedule. I’d much rather just get up early and run first thing! Tuesday Strength day at home- runners touch, squats, Knees Over Toes exercises, and dead bugs. Wednesday After I dropped my daughter at school, I ran 5 miles on a grassy trail in the park. Still trying to get in as many miles on the grass as possible. Thursday Leg day at the gym! I pushed and pulled the sled, then did squats, dead bugs, Knees Over Toes exercises, abs, and low back. My low back has been cranky lately! Friday 4 mile run, early. It was still dark, and made even darker by the fact that it was, once again, overcast all day. Post-run core work- plank and dead bugs. Saturday What is this strange light coming from the sky? Oh yes- it’s the SUN! It was a beautiful January Florida day… 70 degrees and sunny. It was a day off from exercise. I worked in the morning, my daughter had a concert in the afternoon, and we got together with friends for dinner. AND, I got all ready for the next day’s adventure, which is… Sunday On tap for the day- 26 mile long run. Then, waffles and lots of football! The forecast is showing 47 degrees in the morning and… once again, cloudy. Brr! I’ll have to pull out my “cold weather gear” (aka hat, gloves, and arm warmers. To go with my shorts and tank top.) It’s the penultimate long run before my race- how exciting! Are you watching football today? Who are you rooting for? – KC and Detroit… but I was also rooting for Green Bay and Houston, soooo….
Reading and Eating
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! I’ve been eating plenty, but reading was slow for several weeks. Luckily all that changed with my “Christmas Book Flood.” I got five books for Christmas, and someone gave me an Amazon gift card which I used to buy three MORE books. I usually get my books from the library, so it was really fun to receive eight brand-new books in the mail (and most of these are books that aren’t available at my library anyway.) Let’s start off with Dover: Birchwood Pie recommended this series, and she described them as Agatha Christie-type mysteries, with the addition of humor. I knew I would love them! I got Dover One for Christmas, and got the second and third books with my gift card. These are fun mysteries, exactly as she described. Apparently Birchwood should just assign me a reading list from now on, because I took her advice and ordered this as well, with the last of my gift card balance: Birchwood says Nevil Shute is one of her favorite authors, and I can see why. I absolutely love his writing style. I would describe it as sparse and factual, but also extremely compelling. A Town Like Alice is about a young English woman’s experiences during World War II in Malaysia, and after the war in Australia. I want to read more by Nevil Shute, but my library doesn’t carry his books and most of them aren’t available on Amazon, at least not in the print version. I’m going to look into some online used bookstores. This brings me to a conversation I had recently with one of my clients, an older, slightly eccentric woman. She said she reads over 100 books a year and PURCHASES EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, mostly from Amazon. After she reads them she gives them away- either to friends (she’ll send boxes of books to out-of-town friends) or to Goodwill. I can’t even imagine how much money she spends on books. We both agreed that we only like to read physical books, as opposed to using an e-reader, or listening to audiobooks. She said she gets a lot of pleasure from holding a book, turning the pages, and then marking her place with a special bookmark. Yes, I get it!!! A Town Like Alice was the book I read in Tampa, and I bought this bookmark as a souvenir from Ybor City: Here’s another book from my book flood that I’m currently reading, and look at the bookmark I’m using: It’s an old library card- Engie sent me a bunch of them, and I love using them as bookmarks. Let’s move on to eating! You might recall I got an air fryer for Christmas. Here was our first air-fried tofu! I marinated it and then put it in the air fryer- I let it go a little too long because the tofu cubes were almost croutons, but live and learn. We still enjoyed it. Instead of celebrating on New Year’s Eve, we made a special “Orange Bowl” dinner on December 30th (unfortunately we were rooting for FSU- it’s been a disappointing end to the football season all around.) Our meal was good though- more marinated tofu, buffalo cauliflower, and vegan pigs in blankets. Yum! For my daughter’s belated birthday dinner (she was in Rome on her actual birthday) we went to a vegan restaurant called Planta, for their all-you-can-eat sushi night! Boy, they probably regretted letting us in the door. My son actually fasted all day to get ready for this event. Their vegan sushi is so delicious. They use things like hearts of palm and watermelon (!) to make their rolls. Here’s just a few of them: This was a really fun dinner- we ordered one of every roll, and then ordered more of the ones we liked the most. All the food at Planta is delicious, but it’s pricey. We save it for special occasions (and try to go on all-you-can-eat “Maki Mondays.”) What have you been reading lately? Do you like using special bookmarks? What else should I make in my air fryer? Header photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
The Great Tampa Getaway
Last week our family spent three days in Tampa. This trip had many layers! My daughter was playing in the All-State concert band, which was part of the FMEA (Florida Music Education Association) convention. In addition to middle school and high school bands, orchestras, and jazz bands, there are all sorts of seminars for band directors. My husband is a band director, so he attends the convention every year for professional development. This meant my daughter spent her days rehearsing, and my husband attended seminars. My son did his own thing (including seeing a friend from high school who attends USF) and I was pretty much on my own. It turns out that this is the perfect “family vacation” for us, with just the right amount of togetherness (and apart-ness.) It all started Wednesday- as soon as my daughter got home from school, we loaded the car and took off. As you can see, my son is always enthusiastic. Tampa is a four hour drive from Boca Raton, but of course we had to stop for dinner. My son had several New Year’s resolutions this year: journal daily, meditate, and… eat more Taco Bell. I haven’t eaten Taco Bell in YEARS. Back in the day it was considered a vegan mecca, because there weren’t a lot of fast food places that had vegan options. I got away from it eventually because it’s not exactly a health food. But I didn’t want to thwart my son’s resolutions, so it was Taco Bell for dinner! We got to Tampa and checked into our hotel. My husband’s school pays for his hotel room, and this year we were lucky enough to get a room at the hotel downtown where my daughter’s band was rehearsing! This was a huge plus, because she had her own key and could go downstairs to her rehearsal and back to the room, being fairly independent. The downside- they couldn’t give us a room with two beds. We had one bed, a pullout couch, and a rollaway bed. We made it work! Thursday morning I helped my daughter get registered, and she had some free time as people got checked in. But after lunch she started her rehearsal, and I was off for an adventure. Tampa has a free streetcar, and I was able to walk from our hotel to the stop, and rode it to the end of the line in Ybor City. Ybor City is a historic district, founded in the 1880s by Cuban immigrants who worked in factories, hand rolling cigars. I found this website to be an extremely helpful guide, and while I didn’t drink a beer or smoke a cigar (as she did), I took her advice on many of the must-see attractions. The Ybor City museum, where I watched a short film on the history of the city: And I admired the wild chickens that roamed freely- descendants of the chickens the original immigrants kept in their backyards. I walked up and down 7th Avenue, which is lined with historic buildings, boutiques, cigar shops, and cafes. I had lunch at a vegan sandwich shop! I had a “chick’n salad” sandwich, which was actually made with chickpeas, and it was very delicious. You can see my book in this photo- one of the things I loved about this day was taking out my book and reading whenever I felt like it- while waiting for the streetcar, or eating lunch. So fun. I love exploring by myself! One last stop after lunch was Jose Marti Park, which- I didn’t exactly understand this- is owned by the Cuban government. I happened to get there at the same time as a tour group, and their leader was telling them (us) that as we stepped into the park, we were stepping into Cuba. Okay, cool! After that it was time for me to take the streetcar back to downtown Tampa. Such a fun little adventure! Yet another layer of this trip is that we have very close friends who live in Tampa. We met them when our sons were in preschool together, and have been friends ever since. They moved to Philadelphia (so sad) and then to Tampa (hooray!) so now we get to see them more regularly. We ate dinner at their house Thursday night. After all that excitement, Friday might seem kind of dull… but there was one special event! In the morning, after my run on the Riverwalk, I relaxed in the hotel room, drinking tea and reading (a true luxury for me) and then in the afternoon… I MET UP WITH STEPHANY from Stephany Writes!!!!! We met at a Starbucks and spent a couple hours chatting away about the Dolphins (sob), cats, living in Florida, books, and we also decided that we have QUESTIONS for some of you bloggers! Ha ha… we were trying to figure out how some of you manage to read so many books, with all the other things going on in your busy lives. So fun to meet up in real life! Friday night we went to the middle school and high school jazz band concert, which is always an All-State highlight. The high school jazz band especially is SO GOOD. This is the band my daughter auditioned for on guitar- but it’s virtually impossible to get in as a freshman. I think she was inspired hearing them play, and is already planning to audition again next year. Saturday was our last day, sigh! I didn’t want it to end. In the morning my daughter had rehearsal, and (after running my 3K race) we met up with our friends again. They brought lunch to our hotel, and then we walked on the Riverwalk. We dropped my daughter off at the Convention Center, where her concert would be… and continued to walk and talk with our friends until it was time to part. We heard my daughter’s concert- her band was excellent- and then sadly it was time to