Reading about running.

One of my favorite things to do is read. I especially love reading about sports (or at least the sports I like). I've read many books about rowing and running, and on the days leading up to the half-marathon, a lot of my focus is on running. Yesterday I slogged through pollen and walked to the library, where I checked out two books; one is an old favorite and one is new to me. Mile Markers is the one I found by accident, while I was trying to find my fave Kara Goucher's Running for Women. I had read about Mile Markers on one of the blogs that I check regularly, so I recognized the title and picked it up! I was 50 pages in before I realized that Kristin Armstrong is of THE Armstrongs...as in: Lance is her ex-husband (or is her "wasband" as she calls it). I'm glad I didn't know that before I began the book; I can tell I would have liked Kristin a lot less...she would've seemed less normal, I guess. Anyways, she's hilarious. I love the book. It sort of throws me every once in awhile, though, because it's not chronological, though the passages cover many different points in Kristin's life over the course of a few years. So that's confusing, but the stories themselves are great. Definitely a new favorite!

Kara Goucher's book is one that I've come to time and time again. I always find something new, and never read it cover to cover (which is weird for me). Kara has lots of personal anecdotes in her book, but also includes training tips and advice. It's an all-around very helpful book. It was actually thanks to this book that I was able to self-diagnose my IT-Band Syndrome days after it's onset (although it still took 3 months before I went to go to the doctor for an official diagnosis...). I thought it would be good to come back to Kara and see if I can learn anything else before the half-marathon. These days, it's all I think about. Plus I'm missing running, which I'm taking a break from because of my foot. These books allow me to live vicariously!

Finished the boathouse doors! I wasn't there to put on the "M" but I received these pictures of how awesome it looks. I guess it started raining before the paint dried, so they had to cover the doors up with these handy tents! Looks fantastic though, I'm sad I couldn't be there for the finish.