A Book Review and Extra Bright Colors.

Things about today :

1) Pineapple shirt makes it a good day

(I've wanted that shirt ^^ for over a year and finally was able to buy it for over 50% off :)

2) My mom got a "3 for FREE" deal on ZOYA nail polish and this color came in the mail for me today... thank goodness because I really needed to give myself a pedicure (runners' feet = not pretty). Did my fingers too :) I'm not a big nail polish & make up girl for the most part so this subtle color is definitely a new fave!

3) Read this book in a day

I loved Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling book The Matchmaker, especially at this time of year! It's been awhile since I've picked up a book (that I haven't read before) that I've been inclined to finish in a sitting.  It's summer, I needed something light yet engaging, uplifting yet...heartbreaking. I'm a sucker for a love story. This story is set on Nantucket and follows the life of a woman who is a matchmaker on the island. The story is told all in third person (except for personal accounts from the couples that the matchmaker set up, which are sprinkled throughout the novel). However, I like that the third person follows the different key characters of the story. For example, the narrator might be on Nantucket with Dabney, the matchmaker, but then in the next chapter the narrator is with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'm not a huge fan of books that switch from each characters' POV each chapter, but I was a fan of how this was done. This isn't any old quick-read chick-lit story. The story is told in a light-hearted manner but is not "frilly," and each of the main characters has depth and personality. You grow attached to each one of them throughout the read. I'm not going to say much more because I don't want to give any spoilers but I highly recommend it! I even cried at the end and I'm pretty sure that last time I did that was the first time I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If you want an impossible-to-put-down, not-too-heavy, yet enrapturing read, go for this :)

--------------------------------------------

I wore extra bright colors on my run today (bright orange + neon yellow) because it was POURING rain for the entire time and I wanted to be quite visible.

Got up extra early this morning to do 9 miles with 6 middle miles of SPEED but almost as soon as I got out of bed I realized that workout wasn't happening. I've been ramping up the miles and going fast for the last several weeks... and for most people that means INJURY CITY! So when my knee was aching and my IT-band felt a little "off" (my IT-band is my 'Achilles' heel' so to speak) I knew that it was going to be an EASY day and that I might not even complete the run. Every time I start to intensify my running, I can certainly tell because I feel it in my IT-band. 2 years ago, I had a serious enough IT-band injury that I was sidelined from running and in physical therapy for 11 weeks! So today I ended up doing 7 very easy miles like yesterday, and then iced my IT-band and knee 3 times for 30 minutes throughout the day. I wasn't in pain, but the precaution couldn't hurt! I also stretched twice and did my General Strength and Mobility exercises because those felt okay. I will be taking tomorrow OFF (probably a bike ride in the afternoon/evening with my dad) and then see how things are on Friday and decide if I want to resume my weekly training runs as they appear on the schedule. The key here is flexibility - which can be hard for me because I adore schedules and sticking to routines. In this case, sticking to the schedule could cause me to come out worse for the wear, so I have to be sure to learn to take it easy when needed! I guess there's always something to learn from the marathon ;)

Over halfway through the week now - weekend here we come!

Book Review : Run Don't Walk.

Recently I read a great book that I found sort of randomly at the library. I usually go to the library several times per week and love to spend time just browsing. This book was in the "new non-fiction section," and I picked it out not knowing what it was really about. Ended up loving it!

Run Don't Walk is the only memoir that I've ever read by a physical therapist, and I found it extremely interesting. The story chronicles a few years in the life of Adele, certified physical therapist at the original Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in Washington DC - which has since closed, but was the oldest military hospital in our country. 

Personally, I was immediately connected to the story in several ways. The story is about Adele's work with severely wounded (and typically amputee) veterans during some of our country's bloodiest years in Iraq. One summer a few years ago, I worked in the local Veterans' Hospital as a volunteer. Obviously Adele's experience was much more personal and deep in general, but some of her  experiences and interactions in that environment  sounded familiar or relatable to me. Also I felt I understood the patience she must have had as a physical therapist... at one point I had to rehab my IT-band for about 10 weeks... that is definitely NOTHING like being an amputee but I did get very familiar with the PT office and I did see several amputees come in and out of the office during my time there. I've always been interested in physical therapy and hearing the details of Adele's work really intrigued me.

I think a lot of us have read about the effects of other wars, particularly the World Wars, on our soldiers. However, since the war in the Middle East is only just winding down, I personally didn't feel that exposed to its aftermath on American soldiers. Adele's book gently exposes us to this, matter-of-factly explaining the hurdles they must overcome back at home. This really helped me to gain perspective and appreciation for the men that have served for us. Two of the main figures that she wrote about were under 22 years old and had already served and came home as double amputees. I had never put much thought into it, but I can't imagine going through that at my age... or ever. 

This may seem surprising considering the topic, but the entire book is filled with comic relief and Adele's personal funny stories and blunders. I never felt "depressed" or downtrodden by reading the book, though it did open my eyes to the difficulty of returning from the Middle East. In the end, Adele positively concludes that she is pleased with the difference that she is able to make, one soldier at a time. I think this is a book that anyone can enjoy and take something away from - highly recommend :) 

Book Review : White Jacket Required.

One of my inspirations in looking for a cooking class was having just finished White Jacket Required by Jenna Weber.  This wonderful memoir illustrates Jenna's recent experience of choosing to go through culinary school after she realized that jobs were too hard to find with her background in English. The book truly gives you an inside peak at life in cooking school, and it's easy to fall in love with passionate, funny Jenna as she writes about the hilarity (and sometimes heartbreak) of her experiences during that time.

Jenna goes into detail about her daily routine at the culinary academy, from brutal wake ups to brutal instructors. She writes about the switch from be enrolled in "cooking" school to her real passion "p&b" (pastries and baking). She often refers to her semester spent in Paris, where she fell in love with food in a whole new way, and learned a new, more European appreciation of it. The book ends with Jenna finding a dream job with her new set of skills. Wonderful recipes are sprinkled throughout the book, each having a special connection to the chapter that precedes it.

Jenna's love of cooking goes all the way back to childhood, and she recounts stories of baking in the kitchen as a young girl that remind me of some of my own experiences :)

Since the beginning of her cooking school experience, Jenna has kept a blog called Eat Live Run, which has now reached national fame. She used to post stories and updates about culinary school, but as her life as changed, the subject matter has, too. Now you can find her amazing recipes and sweet updates about family life (she just had a little boy a month ago). When looking through Jenna's recipes on her blog, you can see that wholesomeness and freshness are hugely important to her. You won't find a lot of "junky" recipes and though her blog is no longer themed around "healthy living," it is clear that she is of the school that if you put good stuff into your body, you get good results out of it too! Eat well to feel well.

I don't think I'll be enrolling in cooking school anytime soon but this book definitely encouraged me to find time for one of my deepest passions, which is to be hard at work making up my own recipes or new tastes. Definitely a must-read, especially if you find yourself to be culinarily inclined!

Warning - Contains Controversy : Book Review for Eating Animals.

I know I've mentioned before about reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I was plowing through it full steam ahead while we were traveling in Europe but have been reading library books for the last month that I've been home. I picked it back up again to finish it and I have to say, it's pretty groundbreaking. 

When I first started reading the, I didn't expect my feelings on meat to change. I'm just not very interested in meat, which is why I don't eat it - I think it's a waste of the life of an animal if I don't really care for it. Plus, my mother has abstained from red meat for over 30 years, and I've always been vaguely aware that certain meats contain things in them that you might not necessarily want to put into your body. I never knew specifics. My big argument has always been "Well, how often do you think primitive humans were able to catch and eat meat?" I've been interested in eating pure, natural foods that our bodies were designed to process (plus sometimes donuts :). There's no way around it - cave men and women were NOT eating meat every day. At the same time, I don't want to discourage my family or friends from eating meat if they want to; I don't have a problem with animals dying for us to eat - it's the circle of life and I do agree that it's very natural.

~ If you don't want to hear about the meat-processing industry,  I won't be offended if you skip the rest of this post ~

Towards the second half of Eating Animals, I started to learn things about factory farming that I hadn't already known. I knew about the conditions for chickens - I think that's more common knowledge for everyone. I knew that they lived sad, abused lives in horribly crowded and brutal conditions. When I started reading about the pigs, though, is when I got upset. Pigs are smart and good-natured animals, and the conditions that they are expected to live in are even worse than those of the chickens. When they are brought together to be slaughtered, some are so frightened and distraught by the conditions and circumstances that they have heart attacks on the spot. Weak or deformed piglets (about 9-10% of the piglets that are born) are "thumped" as a brutal form of euthanasia - they are picked up by their hindquarters and bashed against the ground. Sculls cracked, eyeballs hanging loose, they are left there to die. Mercilessly. Is this kind of suffering necessary? Foer explained how the excrement and disease that these animals live in are "overlooked" and packaged and processed into the very meats that are available at our supermarkets, sometimes making us sick.

At first I wanted to quote graphic excerpts from the book on here, but then I decided I didn't want to change my readers' minds on meat or be the one to "scare" them away from it. I still think that there's nothing wrong with eating meat occasionally, especially if you know where it comes from. If/when I have children, I fully plan to serve them meat as they grow up (of course, it will be extremely carefully selected by me...and probably expensive!). Anyways, I highly, highly suggest that everyone read this book and do yourself the service of being educated... not even necessarily for the health or well-being of the animals, but for yourselves and for our nation. I'm not trying to suggest that anyone stops eating meat or change your diet, I'm just suggesting that it can't hurt to look into where you meat comes from. And if you don't want to look into it - that's fine too :)

I didn't mean for this post to be graphic or upsetting, but it's something I feel really strongly about and as much as I try to keep this blog neutral, I felt really compelled to share this information. I think that people deserve to be educated :)

The Battle of the Butters.

Now that my parents have replenished my American PB, I feel compelled to write about the differences between the American stuff and European stuff.

First of all, peanut butter of any form is not the easiest to find here. Grocery stores usually have 1 kind (pictured below) and don't shelve it where you would think, with the other spreads. I've seen it in a different section in each grocery store that I've gone to!

European peanut butter does not have the "salty/sweet" flavoring that American peanut butter has. It is dry, not processed, much healthier, and much less flavorful (no offense!). It's more like America's organic peanut butter, or peanut butter that you might make yourself out of your own peanuts. I've gotten used to it, but it took quite awhile and I still don't love it because it's so dry. It actually translates to "peanut spread" more so than "peanut butter" and that's what I would equate it to as well. There's nothing buttery about it! It's really not the same phenomenon as in the United States. For all intents and purposes, I still argue that Europe does not have peanut butter...at least as we know it!

Went to the grocery store and stocked up on the important things in life.

At the train station in Paris, I popped into a librairie and picked up a compact paperback thinking I would need something to read while I'm in Switzerland this weekend. I was excited to find Eating Animals, which is something I've wanted to read for quite awhile.

Jonathan Safran Foer (a favorite author of mine) wrote this when he realized he couldn't explain to his son why we eat some animals and not others (i.e. pig yes, cat no). Foer did a lot of research into the animals eaten in different cultures, and the conditions in which some of these animals are captured or caught, and then slaughtered, and how the manner in which this is done affects our health on a daily basis. I read about 30 pages en route from Paris to Luxembourg but wanted to save the rest for the weekend. I'll have to let you know what I learn!

Getting excited to see my parents in Luxembourg City tonight...and to spend the day with them tomorrow!

Book Review: Flat Water Tuesday (& sub-zero temps).

Yesterday I had to babysit which meant once the kids were in bed...power-reading time! Remember the rowing book Flat Water Tuesday that I mentioned on Saturday? (I just about jumped up and down when I found this in the library wedged on the bottom shelf in the new books section.) Well, I plowed through all 353 pages of that in the four hours I had during babysitting while the kiddos were asleep. It.Was.Good. 

The book talks a lot about rowing in a way that I figure might be difficult to understand if you're not at least quasi-familiar with the sport. However, it flip-flops back and forth between the main character's experience while rowing in high school and his present-day non-rowing life. So, I think it can appeal to all readers - but especially rowers because when has there EVER been a rowing novel out there???

The book was a little dark - some not-so-good things happen and it is very sad. If you're like me and start to feel like all books, movies, and dreams are real, you might want to break it up a little bit so as not to feel heavy-hearted. (Fortunately I opened a new book right after finishing and that cheered me right up.)

After so long of not being on the water (and even longer since I've been able to rowing on a competitive team) reading this made me miss rowing so much! Even the bad parts, like erging all winter and like losing an important race by 1 second after months of hard work.

Definitely, definitely READ THIS if rowing is or was at one point important to you. SO GOOD and it will read quickly even if you aren't a books-fanatic like me :)

------------------------------------

Today was a day off. This was partially because it was between -10 and 3 degrees today and also because it's been about 2.5 weeks (or 3?) since I've done a day off. I also slept in v. late. 

Today's activities included errands, sister time, and practicing packing (i.e. packing everything and unpacking everything) for when I go to Luxembourg in 2 weeks. 

When we did errands it was 0.

I also picked out the cake I'm going to make for my birthday cake. 

For me the most fun in this is actually getting to bake this. I love spending the day cooking :)

Now I am having a movie night with my mom. We're watching "The Way Way Back." It's very good.

I think I'll have to skip the running again tomorrow (-4*) but hopefully some spinning or even better hot yoga if I can snag a ride!

Stay warm!

Favorite Things Friday!

I'm in the mood for a favorite things Friday!

1. Running through my neighbor's sprinklers like a ninja at the end of a SUPER SWEATY run.

2. Reading this book about this crazy guy (did you know Dean Karnazes once ran 100 miles through the night to a marathon, got there 5 minutes before the start, and then ran the marathon in 3:15????? Whaaaat!?)

3. Seeing the moon outside at night.

4. Stripey shirts:

5. An air-conditioned room at the end of a hot day.

6. Watching Cake Boss on Netflix before bed (oh yeah wild night life for meeee). 

7. Knowing I'll be seeing some of my best friends in the whole world tomorrow for a crew reunion (or crew-union?) and bfast! YAAAAYYY!

-------------------------------------------------------------
Today's run was 35 minutes including a warm-up, 3 tempo miles, and a short cool-down. It was hard but GREAT! I waited until it was just getting dark and it was (only) 81 degrees and 80% humidity--almost chilly compared to the day-time high temperatures lately! This weekend should bring a cooler front and plenty of opportunity for outdoor activity.

Every time I do a successful tempo run I feel like I need to push it just as hard the next day. However, it's important to really make your hard workouts sparse--it's recommended that you do them no more than 15-20% of your runs! This means I should only do tempo-work or speedwork ONCE a week because I usually run 5-6 times per week and cross-train rest on the other days. It's hard for me to get this into my mind...EASY runs feel like they're just not hard enough work! However, I need to remind myself of why I need to do easy runs. They'll make my tempo-work faster and more meaningful and keep me healthier! They're very important. Plus, easy runs can still be "hard" in different ways; you can add mileage to these runs. For example, I might do an easy run but stay out for over an hour, or try to do 8 slow miles or something. I like to do this with my easy runs because it still makes a challenge within them. However, all easy runs shouldn't be turned into long runs. You've got to rest! Personally, I think I might benefit more from running only 4 days a week and cross-training in between. I'll probably adapt this method when I go back to school. For now, I can't stop! Here's a really helpful video on explaining why easy runs are important.

Chrissie Wellington

Recently, I finished a book called A Life Without Limits, written by Ironman World Champion, Chrissie Wellington.

At first, Chrissie's story made the Ironman sound all the more impossible and super-human; something that I shouldn't even consider! However, reading through her story further made it sound more attainable once again. I mean, certainly I would have to take this challenge on during a time when I could focus merely on training and nutrition, but I think I could do it, just to finish one! Chrissie writes a lot about how she always felt she was very average throughout her life, and sort of morphed into this super-athlete to her own surprise! She expresses that really "just anyone" can get into this and accomplish it. 

On that lieu, this weekend's agenda will hopefully include a decent run and a long bike ride on Sunday! I love my towpath Sunday bike rides. I'm thinking of trying to do a duathlon (run/bike/run) in Cincinnati in the end of July, I think that might be my next "thing" to work towards and to look forward to! I'm also planning on going out to visit a friend whom I met at school but who lives pretty nearby--that will be amazing! Reunited after a couple of months apart!

Earlier in the week I was at Target (my happy place) with my sister, and I found THIS, which I really want to have on my wall at school next semester... Maybe I'll put some money towards it!

Also found THIS on the Pantene bottles in the Shampoo section. I'm so thrilled to have been part of the 300,000!

Injury Prevention, fruit! and Book Review

I clicked on a link today on hungryrunnergirl.com about injury prevention, expecting it to be the usual "stretch, rest, wear the right shoes" business but it was actually extremely in-depth and helpful, to the point that I had to include it in this post! The article is called fittingly "How to Prevent Common Injuries,"and was published by runner's world. There are pages and pages of really well-thought-out and explained exercises to strengthen the most common problem areas. Usually when I hear "most-common," I automatically think unnecessary...it just doesn't strike a chord with me. However, I clicked through these exercises and realized that many of them would strengthen the problem areas that I've been mentioning, many of which have been in serious want of strengthening since I've left my physical therapist. I HIGHLY recommend these exercises to anyone who's starting out or knows they're injury-prone, or even if you just hope to be running for a long time but haven't had problems yet! Here are some examples (there are is a video of all the exercises included too!):

I'll definitely be adding alllllll of the exercises (there are many, many more than the ones I just included above) to my daily routine with arms and abs. I've actually taken the day off from running/arms/abs because I feel totally blah. Mostly a mental fog but also not 100% physically. I've not been sleeping well and I think it's finally catching up with me. Luckily, I think pink pants with pink polka-dots are good at brightening anyone's day:

Sometimes a good healthy snack can really improve my mood too, so I had this plummy and appletastic snack this afternoon: 

A big part of my love of summer is my love of fruit. Yum!

Last night I stayed up very late waiting for Alex to land in the United States from his trip. I read Eat and Run, which I mentioned a few days ago because I just picked it up from the library and was excited to sit down and read it. 

I plowed through this awesome book. Scott Jurek is crazy...but only in the best way. I loved how much he wrote about his childhood and how he got into healthy cooking and eating (he's vegan, for those of you who don't know) over the course of a slow evolution. I loved his story of why and how he became arguably the world's best ultrarunner. He shares many stories about how close he was to his mom, who sadly wasted away before his eyes throughout most of his life due to her fight with multiple sclerosis. His stories about his mom and caring for her made me realize what a sweet, good person Scott is, and how he channeled this sensitivity into his sport. Any stress or sadness, and he would throw it into his running, pounding the pain away at the ground. Reading this book has encouraged me even more to live a more natural life in general, besides running, but also environmentally. It also has encouraged me even more to seek out some real trails to run on. That'll be my mission after I finish the half-marathon on the 16th.

At some point I'll write about the first running book I ever read, which was Born to Run in 2009. I was intrigued with the concept of such natural running, like what the Tarahumara do. Scott writes a lot about them because he's actually run with them! He knows more about them than many people and it's interesting to see how his knowledge has shaped his running and his perspectives on it. 

I love that the book includes his own vegan recipes and many running tips, as well. There's a section called "Easier Not Harder," that I intend to try to apply to my running sometime soon.

(p.52).

I don't personally have any interest in becoming a full-fledged, 0-support, barefoot runner, but for anyone that does, Jurek provides some good insight and advice on the subject after his experience with the Tarahumara. 

p. 149, 152.

For more the rest of his advice, you'll have to read the book! Until then read his blog! 

Chocolate Cream Cheese and another running book.

I have found a new obsession. It is called Philadelphia Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese:

Seriously, that's a great invention. I love it on my whole-wheat mini bagels but it would make a great sandwich and go well on pretzels. Wayyyyy better than Nutella (sorry Nutella). 

I recently finished a new favorite running book: The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning Greatness by Pam Reed. It's sort of an autobiography/memoir. I'm really glad I plucked this off the shelf because it turned out to be an amazing read and taught me a lot about ultrarunning, a sport which (like most people in the world) I knew nothing about about. 

Pam does a great job of introducing the sport and talking about her experience with it. She's actually a triathlete and wrote a book about her experience doing Ironman Triathlons as well (that'll be my next book!!!). In this book, however, it's really interesting to read about her experiences in 300-mile races and her experiences at Badwater. This woman loves desert races. She "invented" and is the race director of the Tucson Marathon, too. I've always talked about how much I'd like to be the director of a really big regatta like the Head of the Charles...or maybe a organizing a race someday for a cause that it close to my heart. 

Anyways, back Pam!!! I had no idea how amazing she was....I had no idea who she was. But she was the overall winner for Badwater at least twice and was the women's winner more times. She regularly wins these extremely long distance races and creams EVERYONE, even all the men. One time she ran the London marathon and a few days later she ran the Boston marathon back-to-front and then front-to-back (in other words...she ran the entire course TWICE). I found her stories and work ethic really inspiring. If you want to know about all the biggest distance races and ultramarathons, this is the book to read. I was just inspired in general, and I never even really considered ultrarunning. 

The only problem I had with this book is that sometimes she seems to brag a little bit (and I get the impression that other people have this problem with her too). To be honest...I know I can be a little braggy if I'm not careful too, and it makes sense: you want to tout your accomplishments! If you tout them too much though people tend not to like you. So be careful! Overall the book was just really great and I think most people wouldn't even notice the braggy thing. I completely recommend this book to every runner, especially ones who are looking into doing ultras. Personally...I don't know if I will ever really want to do ultras. I can barely get my mind around the half-marathon! I know I want to do a full-marathon, but who knows how long that will take me to build up to! In my mind I really want to be super awesome and do an ultra. I think the shortest ultra you can do is a 50k (31 miles) so if you can do a marathon, you probably have it in you to hustle on for a few more miles. I can't help thinking that I would get to the marathon point and be like "HAVEN'T I DONE ENOUGH???" So...it's probably safe to say that I have years before I really think about doing ultras. I do think that reading about them can be inspiring to any runner or even any athlete; it just reminds you about the mental toughness and endurance that you have to have to get your body to do these things (even if it's not a long run or a run at all! Maybe it's rowing or cycling or walking or swimming). All athletes have to have one thing in common to be successful and to keep going, and that's mental toughness. Pam does a good job with talking about this and it's importance. It's a good thing for us all to keep in mind.

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.