Run Log: July 2013

Running in July has been a roller coaster.  First we had those really really humid days, were it was 78 degrees first thing in the morning with 99% humidity.  Throughout that we had 16 straight days that it rained {mostly big storms}.  Then I hurt my back {STUPID TONY HORTON} ~ which limited my miles...and sent me to the chiropractor.  Then I spent a week in Colorado ~ running at 9000 feet. { It's funny to look at the information from my Garmin ~ most of my runs take place at 700 feet.  My 12 miler into Keystone took me up to 9,300 feet.  It was a run!  I'm pretty proud of myself that I did it.}  And now we are having the greatest weather.  In the 50's and 60's to run in the morning & 70's and 80's during the day.  Beautiful!
I'm still scared of the marathon ~ but I'm trying to build my confidence.  I know my husband is trying to prepare me, but his lack of encouragement is kinda tough to take.  I'm running 14 this Saturday.  14!  That will be a new distance for me & I want to be excited about it.  I want to prove to myself I can do it...and that I can do 26.2 come October.  According to Mike, 14 are baby miles.  Well, hopefully I feel that way in October too.
Cross Country starts on Monday!  I AM SO EXCITED for the season to start.  Last year we had ONE kid run 100 miles over the summer ~ I'm hopeful that we will have a few more this year.  Lots of 50 milers

July’s Totals:

112.65 miles for the month 
650 miles for the year
14 biking miles for the month
132 biking miles for the year
424.64 miles in my black, pink & blue Asics ~  They continue to serve me well...and I'm just going to wear them at Stig...time to buy a new pair



My WEIGHT:  The scale has said the same thing the past few mornings: 131.  I'm very happy with that & know it is due to my running miles & not my eating habits.  I don't know what I'm going to do come October 14...but I'm saving my size 10's.

Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month: 12 @ Rocky Mountain High elevation
Favorite place to run this month: The trail at Hog Back Ridge North ~ just ran it for the first time today.  It's a 1.5 mile loop & it's pretty fun.  
# of bags of Candy Cane Kisses left in my cabinet: One
# of books I read this month: Six ~ probably a record!
Monthly mileage record: 112.65 ~ July 2013 {after taking two months off of record breaking mileage ~ I'm back!}
Highest mileage ever-at-one-time:  13.5  Sunday, April 6, 2013

PR's:
5K: 22:45 (Rabbit Run 10/30/11~ but I think it was a short course)
10K: 52:02 (Cleveland 5/15/11)
10-miler: 1:21:29 (Hermes Cleveland 10-miler 4/28/12)
half-marathon: 1:47:35 (Cleveland Half 5/19/2013)
marathon: 3:50:05 (Akron relay {team run} 9/24/11)

#21, #22 & Colorado Vacation

What's a summer vacation without 2 books read?  So I'll start with book #21 ~ The Ocean at the End of  he Lane by Neil Gaiman.  This was a strange little tale of mystical happenings.  The main character return to his childhood home and remembers his encounter with evil spirits from across time & space and his rescue by his neighbors.  It wasn't a bad tale, but it did cause me to have a bad dream!  I dreamed a ghost visited me in the room I was staying in at my parents' house, closed the blind & tried to take me.  It was a frightening dream.

Quotes:

epigraph ~ "I remember my own childhood vividly...I knew terrible things.  But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew.  It would scare them."  Maurice Sendak, in conversation with Art Spiegelman, The New Yorker, September 27, 1993 {Which certainly explains much of Sendak's work!}

p11 ~ Books were safer than other people anyway.  {I totally understand that sentiment}

fl: It was only a duck pond, out at the back of the farm.  ll: Perhaps it was an aferimage, I decided, or a ghost: something that had stirred in my mind, for a moment, so powerfully that I believed it to be real, but now was gone, and faded into the past like a memory forgotten, or a shadow into the dusk.

#22 ~ Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray is a cute little read.  I love with I find a new author to like.  Ray creates lovable characters, funny and thoughtful plots, and light enjoyable stories. {with happy endings}  This is a 'remake' of Romeo & Juliet {obviously}, but in this story Julie & Romeo are in their 60's and try to make a romance go in the face of their feuding families.  Enjoyable!

fl: The first time I heard the name Caciamani I was five years old.  ll: It's Romeo and Julie's now.  Two locations to better serve you.

And my Colorado vacation 2013 ~ started with a delayed flight out of Cleveland ~ and then a 3 minute connection in Chicago.  I was sweaty when I took my seat on the final flight ~ but I made it!  

Hiking Cataract Lake

We hiked Cataract Lake, Jeeped over Georgia Pass ~ in a thunderstorm, at dinner in Leadville with the Bueny Butlers, shopped, swam, rode bikes and I ran over the dam & did a 12 miler to Keystone Lake and back ~ almost killed me.  It was a great week, and it went too fast.

At the COLD top of Georgia Pass

#20

So, what did you do this summer?
I read books. {not a bad summer, if you ask me}
#20 for the year is Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray {who is Ann Patchett's mother, who knew?}  It was a great little read with a very interesting plot.  Seems these women, due to a drug interaction problem, really become invisible.  Not figuratively, which most people assume, but literally.  And most of the families don't even notice right away.  It's a fresh look on relationships ~ great characters & funny moments.  She makes the impossible seems not so far fetched & very entertaining.  I will read more of Mrs. Ray.

Quotes:
p9 ~ why are you making an assessment of your face?  Your only two options are to fix it or live with it.  There's no point in just beating yourself up about it.

p100 ~ but then the kids who were coming in weren't kids I'd taught before, and I had to learn how to control them on my own.  In the end it really isn't so different from teaching second grade.  You just have to always be bigger than they are.  Even when you're not. {oh so very true of any classroom}

p156 ~ The truth, we realize as we get older, is a very complicated pastiche of feelings and facts, of what can and cannot be said.  It's different for everyone.

fl: I first noticed I was missing on a Thursday.  ll: "Well, I see you too," he said.  " I see you just fine."

#19

David Baldacci's Hour Game is #19 of the year.  It is the second Maxwell and King novel & another good one.  Such an intricate plot with many twists & questions.  High excitement & good characters.  I do get rather unnerved by the details of all the murders & the fact that there are people who just want to kill...yet, I still read.

two good words ~

p1:         esoteric

 {intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest}


p7:          frenetic

{fast and energetic in a rather wild and uncontrolled way}

and then I must have been too involved with the plot to stop for any good words!

fl: The man in the rain slicker walked slightly bent over, his breathing labored and his body sweaty.  ll: Michelle punched the gas, and they drove off in a swirl of dust.

Catch up

What's going on this summer?, you ask.  Not much says Becky.  Much says the rest of the family.  The youngest is currently on his second vaca of summer ~ in Colorado with my parents.  He had a flight adventure...we dropped him off at the airport on Saturday, and after watching him make it through security we drove away. {this was actually after a wedding and before a reception}  I'm waiting for his text telling me he's landed...and it finally comes.  "I've landed....in Colorado Springs"  WHAAAAAT?!?!  Seriously, my first thought was, "I bought him the wrong ticket?"  quickly followed by, "He got on the wrong plane?"  Come to find out, there were major thunderstorms in Denver so the plane rerouted to Colorado Springs where it waited out the weather and then flew to DIA.  So he made it, and my parents only had to wait a few more hours.
And since I've already let the cat out of the bag, my excitement has been the two weddings I've been to the last two Saturdays.  Both sped teachers I work with.  Very beautiful, both of them and fun to hang with some people from school that I haven't seen for a while.  Nothing majorly eventful at either, just  good time with vodka tonics and a photo booth.

Two weird stories...
#1  I was at Giant Eagle shopping, obviously.  I stopped to pick up lettuce.  I turn around, holding two heads of lettuce and almost physically run into this older guy.  I gasp, because he's startled me.  He says, "I was going to take your cart, but I thought you might beat me up."
That's weird.
#2  I was walking my dogs and Hog Back Ridge North {my new favorite place} and I hear people and see three dogs running free.  I yell out, "Hi, I have two dogs that aren't really great with other dogs."  I then pull off the trail {as much as I can} to allow them to collect their dogs and pass.  They never come.  I waited two or three minutes and start on the trail again and NEVER see them.  They just vanished into thin air.  Very weird.

Marathon training:  Going well.  All of my leg/feet issues seem to have cleared up. I ran 28 miles last week & feel more confident in my running.  I've been running long runs with Dodd recently, but last Saturday we ran separately.  I have to say that I was glad because I just wanted to disappear into my music and run at my pace, not having to worry if I was going too fast or too slow.  When I finished, I texted Dodd to see how his run went.  We both ran the 10 miles in 1:28.  That is also very weird.  So I guess that's weird story #3.

But today...I took my dogs for a great walk at my favorite place.  No one was there, so Tonka was off leash the whole time {I just need to mention that I've always wanted a dog that would stick around and not have to be on a leash.  It's rather awesome}  Fonzi is ALWAYS on a leash.  He would take off after a squirrel and I'd never see him again.  We had a good walk, even if it was very very hot and humid. {Tonka walked through a giant muddy bog to cool off just as we got to the car...UGH ~ then he jumped in the pond at home to clean off}  Then I did my P90X ab core 4 workout {since July is Ab month} and on the third exercise I felt my lower back clench.  I am now in PAIN.  I've stretched and rested the rest of the day...because tonight is the big GHOST WALK at the Mansfield Penitentiary.  Really horrible timing for a tight back.  I can walk...but it's rather John Wayneish.
I hope I can enjoy it.
And I hope I can run tomorrow.
Stupid Tony Horton.

#18

A delight for #18...I Do, I Do, I Do by Maggie Osborne.  I love the historical romance, this one set in the Yukon Gold Rush.  Three women who were all duped by the same man, who married them and then ran off with their money, team up to track him down and kill him.  They do things they never thought possible and become the best of friends doing it, and of course, they find true love.  There is nothing like a good romance in the summer {or anytime, really}  Not as good as my favorite Maggie Osborne, Silver Lining, but just as enjoyable.

Quote:
We can't possibly walk up and shoot him in cold blood.  That would be unforgivable rude!  The polite thing would be to warn him first and explain why we have to kill him.


Good Words!

 timidity

 melee

quagmire

 egregious

fl: I know Jean Jacques would send word if he could.  ll: "I do!"

#17

There is only one word to describe book #17 and that would be disturbing.  The Dinner by Herman Koch is just disturbing.  People explaining away evil acts in the name of a happy family.
Scary because it's probably an accurate description of real people.  Hopefully the minority of people...but it's frightening that there are any that would think this way.
At no point did I ever feel sympathy for any of the characters.  They were all sad and pathetic and I can't say I'm a better person for having read this book, nor would I recommend it.  I just found it disturbing.

fl: We were going out to dinner.  ll: "Dear old Dad," he said.