Recently, I ran my 3rd Frozen Gnome 10k on the local trails at Veteran's Acres Park in Crystal Lake, Illinois. In 2021, I ran this race virtually, on the course, and returned in 2022 for the live event. This has become one of my favorite trail races--I love the location, the distance, the swag, and the fact that it is in January! The race organizer puts on great events and I was excited to rerun it!
This may be the gloomiest January I can remember, and that's saying a lot because January around here is always gloomy. According to local weather icon Tom Skilling, we've had 20% of our normal sunshine so far this month. Even though it's been warmer than normal, it's pretty rough waking up to gray skies every morning. I was fortunate to catch a little sunshine on my runs on Sunday and Wednesday! It's something you really appreciate when you live in the Midwest. I'm making plans to go out to California in early March to visit my sister again and I cannot wait to soak up the sun.
For now, I have to make my own sunshine.
.png "Are you there sunshine? It's me Wendy cover")
How many of you remember the book Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume? Reading it was a rite of passage for so many of us growing up in the 70s and beyond. My copy was so worn out! The title of this blog post is an obvious take on that book title, but did you know that the eponymous movie is being released on the big screen in April? How can it even be as good as the book? The trailer looks pretty cute. The 1970s are having a moment and I for one cannot wait to see this movie!
This week, the universe reminded me that I should never get too comfortable when things are going well. On Wednesday night, I woke up with a throbbing pain in my back molar. I didn't recall biting down hard on it or anything, so I took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep. The pain returned the next morning and worsened when the day went on, so I finally broke down and called the dentist. Worst case scenario? I have a cracked tooth (there's a crown on it, so she wasn't sure) and will need an extraction. A better case scenario would be that I need a root canal. Either way, it was abcessed and she started me on antibiotics. I continued on around the clock ibuprofen.
By Saturday, the tooth was feeling better, so I was able to run my race (see below). I'm still taking ibuprofen but not as often, and I have an appointment with an endodontist on Thursday. I've never had a toothache until now and I have to say that it is a pain like no other. I think we runners are pretty darn tough and I really had to dig deep to get through the past couple of days. But there was no way I was going to DNS my favorite race!!! My dentist didn't tell me I couldn't run, but I know she wasn't thrilled about it. No one gets us runners, am I right?
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Let's catch up over a cup of coffee! What are you having? I'm drinking a cup of Philz Julie's Ultimate, a new-to-me brand that the hubs gifted me for Christmas. With a scoop of GLG collagen and a splash of half and half, it's like heaven in a coffee mug.
What would you tell me over coffee?
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I wrapped up 2022 with a total of 77 books read. I don't set reading goals--that's just too much pressure! Reading books is one of my guilty pleasures and I don't want to feel bad if I can't get through one to meet a goal. It's hard enough when all my library holds come in at once and I only have a few weeks to read them all!
Everyone has been posting their favorite reads and after reading so many books, I can remember only a handful of them. Tops on my list are Lessons in Chemistry, followed by Unlikely Animals. These 2 books checked all the boxes--they grabbed me within the first couple of chapters, I didn't lose my interest, I didn't want to put them down, and they've stuck with me for a long time after finishing them. The characters were interesting and quirky. The stories weren't clichèd. And they were different. A couple of other books are worth mentioning as well: What Could Be Saved, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, Remarkably Bright Creatures, Carrie Soto is Back, Hurricane Girl, Now is Not the Time to Panic, and Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
I also read a few non-fiction books, most of which were really good. Non-fiction November gave me an excuse to explore some books that were on my TBR but just couldn't find the time to read! I continue to refer back to Next Level, which validated and educated me about how to train after menopause. It's also on sale for kindle for $2.99 right now! Other favorites include Good for a Girl, Corrections in Ink, Solito, and Running While Black.
This is just an observation of mine, but it seems to me that many of the books I read this year were unnecessarily long. I don't mind a long book if the story cannot be condensed--in fact, I'm reading an amazing one right now--but there's nothing worse than reading a book that just meanders on and on. Just get to the point! It reminds me of a hair stylist I used to go to who took an hour to cut my hair but mostly spent her time fluffing it. Chop chop! Good editing is a must to make a book crisp and interesting.
Over the holidays, my sister and I were comparing favorites and it was a good reminder that not everyone likes to read the same thing. Multiple times this year, I read highly recommended books only to be disappointed. People always ask me how I find the books I read and mostly, I pick books that are recommended by a couple of the book bloggers I follow. I hope that you will find a couple here that you might like!
At the start of the week, I continued to need time to recover from the never ending GI bug that started to plague me in the middle of last week. I started to feel better, physically, on Monday, but some lingering symptoms kept me from getting too active.
As well, the cold weather finally let go of us on Tuesday, just in time to return to work! I decided not to get up at 4:30 for pool running to give myself a little extra rest. It was a good decision, as I woke up to an email from the park district that the pool was closed due to a water main break. I rolled out the yoga mat and had a date with Adriene, which was the perfect start to a decent day.
There was nowhere to go but up from there!
It's the end of December, the holidays are just about over, and in a few days, we'll be singing Auld Lang Syne. But before we do that, it's time to clear our souls and soles by heading into the runfessional! Do you runfess? Marcia makes it easy by opening the runfessional on the last Friday of every month. It will feel so good to start the new year off fresh, wouldn't you agree?
As if getting ready for the holidays wasn't stressful enough, this week literally brought me to my knees as I was sidelined for several days after coming down with the stomach flu on Thursday. My job is the gift that keeps on giving! Speaking of my job, I also had my annual review, and let me just say that blindsided does not begin to describe it. The cherry on my sundae of a week included the arrival of the so-called 'bomb cyclone' on Thursday, bringing high winds and bitter cold, but thankfully, not much snow.
It's the little things.
The good news was that because of the weather, our office was closed on Friday, giving us all a bonus day off. I still wasn't feeling great on Friday, so I welcomed that extra time to recover. Plus, my youngest made it home from Wisconsin. It's so nice to have him around!
I've been hitting it hard this month, lifting heavy weights to max out as we do this time of year, and this week I really felt it with heavy legs, especially on my runs. Running is my first love and I started strength training many years ago as a way to build strength for running and prevent injuries. Every year, when I hit my peak lifting weights and feel like this, I have to remind myself that I'm building for the upcoming year. With my focus shifting to trail running, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out, especially on those hills of Wisconsin...and maybe beyond. Stay tuned for that!
In the meantime, just like we runners do with a goal race, I'm looking forward to being done with this strength cycle!
After the disruption of the past 2 years, 2022 was the year when races and running returned to normal! Maybe a little too normal, as I ran 3 long distance races in the time span of 5 weeks. These were races that had been deferred from the year before.. I did DNS one fall race, a deferral from last year due to my broken leg. I didn't let the training go to waste though, using it to finish up the Mammoth Hike Challenge with a 14 mile run.
There were a couple of 5ks too. Those races rekindled my love for speed and pushing my pace. I'm considering working on that for 2023. But I'm getting ahead of myself--this is a recap!
All in all, this year was a really great comeback from a rough 2021! I've linked the title of each event to the summary if you want more details.
I don't want to jinx things, but my runs have been feeling really strong lately. I won't discount all that trail running I did during the fall, especially in October for the Mammoth Challenge. But I am definitely giving credit to my strength coach for this heavy strength cycle that we are wrapping up. Earlier this year, I shared that I felt as if she was pushing me too hard and asking me to lift weights which felt scary for me. We had a very difficult discussion surrounding this and she backed off a bit. When we started my strength cycle this fall, I was feeling ready to challenge myself again. For her part, SJ changed up the way I trained and I responded really well to that, both physically and mentally. I have really enjoyed this strength cycle and guess what? I'm going to challenge my 1RM in at least the deadlift and the bench press. I'm still not sure about the back squat, but SJ wants to work on those a little bit longer, so stay tuned for that.
This strength cycle has made me feel better about myself and that confidence has helped me on the road and at my job. On the road, over the past couple of weeks, I've experienced that runner's high several times after a run and it's been a while since I've had that happen! It happened again on Friday. What a great way to set a positive tone for the day!
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| Friday's mess of a run! |
