Reading and Eating
This week I finished The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada. It’s considered a classic in the genre, and while I appreciated the ingenious puzzle, the writing seemed kind of clunky. Maybe something was lost in the translation? Anyway, I’m glad I read it, but I think I’ll take a break from Japanese mysteries for a while. Here’s my reading schedule for the rest of the week- finish The Whispers and the book club chapters of I Capture the Castle (if you need details for the Cool Bloggers Book Club, check out Engie’s post..) On Saturday I leave for Texas, and I only want to bring one book with me, and that’s Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants. My son and I are driving there, then I’ll be flying back, and that will be a VERY long travel day. There’s only one thing we don’t love about Baylor University- it’s not convenient to fly in and out of Waco. For the return journey I’ll take a bus to Austin, and fly from there to Ft. Lauderdale. Because of the bus schedule, I had the choice to take an earlier flight that would require a tense Uber ride from the bus station and then a frantic run through the airport; OR, a later flight that will mean spending the afternoon waiting at the airport. Er- I’ll take the second option. It will be a day of reading! A 985 page book will be perfect. Let’s move on to eating! Today will be all about food prep for the trip. We always bring breakfast and lunch for the two days in the car, but this year we’ve decided to bring dinner as well. Breakfast is always “breakfast tofu” (from the No Meat Athlete Cookbook) on bagels. Lunch will obviously be the Cool Bloggers Chickpea Salad, from Nora Cooks.. For the first day of driving, we’ll bring homemade pizza for dinner. On the second day- unless something goes horribly wrong- we’ll arrive in Waco and have access to a microwave, so I’m making the Marry Me Chickpeas, again from Nora. I guess that’s a lot of chickpeas. But that recipe looks delicious, and we love chickpeas. I’m excited for the trip, and lots of good eating and reading! Are you participating in the CBBC? Have you started the book yet?
Women
Because I knew I would be spending a LOT of time watching the Olympics this week, I picked a book that I thought would be a quick and easy read. I’m definitely reading it quickly, but it’s not as light as I thought it would be. I knew the subject matter was heavy- a ten-year-old boy falls from a three-story window and is now in the ICU- but it’s even sadder than that. The story is told from the viewpoint of four different women whose lives intersect. Each of the four women is privately struggling in a different way with her attitude toward motherhood, career, and marriage. So much sorrow hidden from the rest of the world! I know this is a work of fiction, and I certainly hope most people I meet are happier than these women- but it reminds me of the saying “Be very kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” You just don’t know what people are going through. Speaking of women… how about Simone Biles? Imagine the pressure she’s under. Everyone is watching her, especially after what happened in Tokyo. And on the first night of competition, she nailed it (in spite of hurting her CALF! I have some exercises for you, Simone!) That’s some mental toughness. It makes me think of another woman- Kamala Harris. Imagine the pressure SHE’S under! All eyes are upon her- half our country hates her, and the other half has pinned all their hopes and dreams for this election (and the future of our country?) on her. And she wants it! She obviously feels that she’s up to the challenge. Now that is a TOUGH WOMAN. Have you read The Whispers? Did you watch the first night of women’s gymnastics? Top photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash
Weekly Rundown- I’M BACK!
Well, it was quite a week! My ongoing calf issue refused to let go; I basically threw everything but the kitchen sink at it, and apparently something stuck. Let’s see how it all played out. But first- thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown! Monday Sigh. This was a rough one. I walked for a mile and then started running… and after a few minutes my calf pain returned. I completed 2 miles of running, but it didn’t feel good, which made me depressed for the rest of the day. Will this EVER go away??? Later in the day I rallied and did the four hip stability exercises from Brad Beer’s book. Tuesday I started with a hard leg day, including squats and Bulgarian split squats. Later in the day I did the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout. I also noticed that, unlike previous experiences, the calf pain I felt in my run yesterday did not continue into the next day. I was able to do heel raises, run in place, and also stretch the muscle with no pain. Hmmm… maybe there IS hope, after all??? Wednesday All right, this is it. No more messing around! I taped up my calf and went to the gym for a treadmill run. I wanted to put a lot of focus on my running form, and also be able to stop and do something different if my calf hurt. I walked for half a mile, then cautiously, hopefully started to run very slowly, making sure to pick my heels up behind me and keep my lower legs relaxed. When that didn’t hurt, I gradually increased the speed to a normal running pace, and then ran 3 miles WITHOUT PAIN. VICTORY!!! I followed this triumphant run with bench press and some abs. Later in the day I did my hip stability exercises again. Thursday I started the day with an upper body workout at home, focusing on back and biceps. Later I did one of the hip exercises. There are four of them- two are boring and tedious, one is challenging but rewarding, and the last one I hate with my entire heart and soul. This one, of course, is for the piriformis, which is the main thing my PT wanted me to work on. Of course. A couple people asked about this exercise, and I’m just going to show the photo from the book, although I’m sure Brad Beer would prefer that you buy it (sorry, Brad!) It’s hard to tell from the photos, but what you’re doing in this move is externally rotating your hip, which is the action of the piriformis. It is so, so hard. You’re supposed to do 100 reps- I get to 30 and want to start crying. I can get up to 50, with some rest breaks. Obviously I need this one so I keep doing it- but I dread it every single time. Friday Let’s try running again! This time, I have my RunFloat harness, which finally arrived in the mail. The idea is to keep your arms moving minimally, and only back and forth. If your arms are flailing around (like mine) your hips are probably as well, and that slows you down and leads to injuries. The jury is still out on the harness, but I did run for 3 miles with no pain. I don’t want to jinx it, but I think this calf issue is finally, finally behind me. Saturday OFF- other than hip stability exercises, including the piriformis torture. Sunday On tap- It’s time to take my run harness and taped up calf outside for a run! I’m excited to get back out there. And then later in the day of course there’s the Olympics! Swimming! Gymnastics! Diving! So much to be happy about- this week is ending on a high note. How was your week? Are you watching the Olympics? Top photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
July Runfessions
It’s the last Friday of the month (noooooo! Can’t we have a “July extension?”) so I’m meeting Marcia at her RUNFESSIONAL. But have I been running enough to collect any runfessions? Let’s find out… This week got off to a rocky start, when I ran on Monday AND MY CALF PAIN RETURNED. I have to runfess that I had a mini- temper tantrum and rage-fired my physical therapist (to be clear… the rage was all in my mind- I did not rage AT the PT! But I did cancel my future appointments.) Then I calmed down, re-framed the situation, and tried to be grateful for what I have. Two days later, I had a PAIN-FREE RUN, and I’ll runfess that it’s much easier to have things go your way, rather than putting forth all the mental energy to “think positive” and “look on the bright side.” Screw all that! Just give me a good run and let me get on with my life. I would also runfess that I did so many things at once that I can’t pinpoint what it was that made my calf feel better. It could have been the dry needling kicking in after a delay, or it could have been the Bob and Brad video I watched on strain/counter strain technique, or it could be the PNF stretching, or the KT tape, or it could have been this… I’ll runfess that when I see videos of myself running, I notice all sorts of bad habits. The Chi Running cues of relaxing my lower legs, shortening my stride, and lifting my heels up behind me really seemed to help my calf. And as if that’s not enough… I finally got my FloatRun Harness in the mail! I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’ll try it out on my run tomorrow. If nothing else, it will keep my arms from flailing all over the place. I’m excited! Between the Chi running and my new harness, soon I’ll be looking like an Olympic runner. OH YEAH… the Olympics start tonight!!! I runfess that my sleep schedule will suffer greatly for the next two weeks, but it will be worth it. Have you read Chi Running? Do you ever analyze your running form? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE OLYMPICS?