Friday Reads: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

So much for my romancey streak...I know - you're all devastated.  But I simply MUST tell you all about this fabulous book I just finished.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.

Oh - it gives me chills just to think about it.  So good.

The year is 2059 and clairvoyants in London are forced underground by SCION because their mere existence is illegal.  If they are caught - they are killed...or so everyone is led to believe. Paige Mahoney is one of these clairvoyants, but a very special one - a Dreamwalker.  Her job is to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. Working for one of the biggest Mime-Lords, Paige has steady work and the protection of the syndicate she works for.   That all changes one day when she accidentally kills the guards who have entered the train she is on with the intent of arresting her.   Killing them without bloodshed or struggle - her spirit simply walked from her body and took care of the threat.

Shortly after, she is rooted out of hiding and arrested...and brought to Sheol I.  This is where she discovers that the voyants haven't been getting killed by SCION - instead, they are imprisioned and trained by a new enemy.  The Rephaim.   Creatures of the underworld who say they are protecting SCION from cruel, human-devouring beings called the Emim.

More importantly, though, is how important Paige is to the leader of the Rephaim.   Nashira, the Blood-Sovereign, collects those talents she wants for herself and absorbs them into her, for lack of a better way of describing it.  When the Blood-Consort, Warden (Nashira's betrothed), selects Paige to be his pupil, eyebrows raise and an interesting relationship develops between the two that left me guessing why his loyalties to the Blood-Sovereign were so strained.

Add to this that Paige's former Mime-Lord is also on Nashira's list and a whirlwind adventure is embarked upon where loyalties are tested, friendships are tried, and it is hard to see who will fall next.

I am not going to recap further because it is such an interesting read with a complex social structure and interesting character relationships.  I find it hard to believe that this work came from an author barely into her 20's - it is so rich and vibrant.  You really must read it to believe it.  Hell - it's worth reading just for the food descriptions.  I am no foodie, but the author must be because every time she started to talk about the food, my mouth would water. LOL.

 I really do think it's worth reading if you like a little Dystopia or a little paranormal in your day. Apparently there are more to come in this vein and I am quite looking forward to them when they arrive (the next one is out this October).

88 Days to Go

I was going to title this differently, but let's be real here - I am working toward an end date and this will serve as a reminder of how little time I have.

So, how did this week go?  I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for the answer. (Ha!)

It went well.  Really well.

I am down 5 lbs from where I was last Monday when I started.  Yay for small wins.  I haven't taken any measurements yet and probably won't until the end of March when I take new progress photos.  I'm still not posting the before shots until I have something to compare.

My Unbreakable Rules have kept me right on track and I am feeling really good about my decision to use them.

I am eating really well.  I have been bringing my lunch everyday (except today, where I forgot to grab my prepared lunch out of the fridge - GAH!) and being much more choosy about my treats.  I only had candy once last week.  This is a HUGE thing for me.  Turning out the kitchen light has been really helpful...as has having baby gifts to knit and a page-turner book to read.

I ran 37 slow kilometres last week and fit in one session of resistance training, some planks for core work and not nearly enough stretching. With the exception of Monday (Rest day) I managed to get in my 10,000 fitbit steps each day.

Unfortunately, I came to the realization last night that the shin pain I've been having is really likely shin splints from a combination of my calf muscles still being too tight after the hammock injury and from ramping my mileage too fast at the end of my training for hypo half.   My own stupid reality and I am going to have to slack off a little bit to help them heal.  I am planning to swap a couple of my runs for walks each week and see if that doesn't help until I can slowly turn them into runs again.  I will probably also add in some crosstraining on the bike to take the stress off.  I also ordered a shin wrap, since I find my calf sleeves are not enough, and hope that arrives quickly.

I am also starting to feel a bit run down.  Everyone around me has been sick ALL WINTER and I have been pretty remarkably healthy.  I am fighting something right now and am hoping to win again.  If it attacks my lungs, though (like it appears to be trying), my shins might get some extra rest.

So with 88 days to go - I am feeling really good about my start.  Wouldn't it be awesome if I ended up needing to buy all new swimsuits before I go?

The Basement Long Run

Yesterday, my twitter feed had filled up with runners complaining about how slick running was in the city.  This just added to my resolve to avoid the dip in the thermometer and just stay inside for my long run this week.   I only had 10k to do and that would just give me some extra time with the Doctor and Rose so I leapt at the chance to stay warm and get it done.

I thought I might try taping my tender shin to see if it might help.  I have no clue what I'm doing but figured if I could just support the area - it might help.

Off I went - started an episode and settled into a groove. I felt pretty good.

Unfortunately - the stupid KT Tape doesn't seem to like me very much and within a few minutes, I was doing this to get it off me entirely (there is no sensation I like less than the feel of a bandage rolling off...)

I slowed the pace A LOT and decided I would just aim for a steady state run - no walk breaks, just keep going and maintain 8min/km for the whole thing.

It was working grandly.  After the first episode of Doctor Who, I popped upstairs to check on my kids - who were watching a movie and gobbling down copious amounts of popcorn. I refilled my bottle and ate some honey toast to fuel up for the last half of my run.

I was at 5k after that first episode.  One more episode should time it perfectly.

I found this second half a bit more challenging.   I just couldn't cool off, despite having 2 fans blowing on me.  This isn't the first time I've encountered this phenomenon.  I happen to have this stupid thing right above my 'mill.

Sure, it heats the house just fine in the winter - but it also overheats me when I run during the day.    I decided to just power through and get it done.  By the end I was getting pretty uncomfortable and the second I hit 10k, I slowed to a walk to cool down and started daydreaming of a home gym revamp.

10k complete.  Only one episode left on Season 2.

All cooled off and happy to be done. (Judge me not by the state of my basement...we're revamping the storage room)

Yeah - a home gym revamp is definitely in order.  Hubby did this last one and it just isn't working out for me now that I am actually using my treadmill more often.  I don't think we will need to move much to make it work better.  Just rotate the treadmill 90 degrees and about 10 feet north of where it is.  That will take me out of the line of fire of the heat vent and would also provide me with 8 feet of clearance BEHIND the mill in case one day it flings me off. I don't have that luxury right now with the weight bench right behind the mill.

Moving it will also give me a change to spruce up my inspiration wall a bit.

Ok - the wheels are turning.  I have a feeling I know how I'll be spending nap time today.

Four Years of Run!

Today marks 4 years since I started this running journey.  FOUR YEARS!!!!

Happy Runnerversary to me!

Everyday, I can still hardly believe I started, let alone that I kept going.

• Over 500 runs logged on pavement, trail, track and treadmill; rain, shine, snow, ice, hill, mud, dirt, mountain, hypothermia, country, city
• 58 races run
• 2 Full marathons (and now training for a third)
• 13 half marathons
• 2 relays
• 1 Goofy
• Over $13000 raised for the fight against blood cancer
• Too many 5, 10 & 15k races to count
• So many runner girls running by my side - thank you all for your support!  I am proud to be friends with such incredible women - both near and far!
• 3500 kms
• 16 pairs of running shoes
• Races run in 12 different cities/towns in 2 provinces and 2 states (doesn't seem like much for how much I feel like I've travelled)
• Steps run in 3 different countries (Canada, US, Mexico)
• Pounds and pounds of Gu ingested
• Litres and litres of electrolyte mix drunken
• Hours and hours spent at the chiropractor to keep me on my feet
• Two drawers bursting at the seams with runwear
• One treadmill purchased
• Two garmins, one ipod, one fitbit
• 32:04 to 27:35 in a 5k
• 1:10:44 to 59:38 in a 10k

but most importantly

• one healthy me who exercises consistently and loves almost every minute.  Yep - that's the most important thing of all.

Friday Reads: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I must have a hankering for quirky romance this year.  Don't get too used to it.  I must just not have enough books with Orcs in them on my upcoming reading list. :P

I picked this one up after encountering someone reading it in a course I took.  She had been laughing so hard that I figured that was a good sign for the book.

Now for the book.  Picture this:  Sheldon Cooper decides he needs a wife.  How would he go about it?

Intrigued?  Meet Professor Don Tillman - a genetics professor at the University.   His life his rigidly scheduled to the point of ridiculousness.  But he embarks on a special project - The Wife Project - so he won't be subjected to a lifetime of loneliness.  Using his tendency toward analyzing - he designs a questionnaire to find a suitable mate and begins his search.  Through various dating methods - he administered the questionnaire and was continually disappointed that his perfect match was not coming through this.  Finally, his friend Gene offers to filter the questionnaires and send him the candidates that are most suitable.

And then Rosie comes to his door - sent by Gene.  Don immediately assumes that Rosie has been selected by Gene as a suitable candidate, despite all appearances to the contrary.  On the surface, Rosie doesn't fit at all - she smokes, she drinks, she isn't at all what he wanted intellectually.  And why should she?  She never completed the questionnaire.  But he can't get her out of his mind.  When she suddenly hands him a  genetics problem - to discover who her biological father is - he leaps and channels all of the energy he had been putting into The Wife Project into Rosie's Father Project.

The more time they spend together, the more Don wants to see her, but he has convinced himself that it is just the challenge of finding out.  Of helping her.  Of helping this off-beat, completely unsuitable woman.

You can pretty much guess how it works out - man falls in love, even though she thinks he's incapable of feeling love.   He embarks on The Rosie Project to convince her.

This was a really great read and it was a pretty quick read.  I loved that it was told in the first person, from Don's perspective.  This really showcases the Sheldon Cooper-ness of him.  There were parts of the book that were completely laugh-out-loud funny as he makes observations about the normal world from his perspective.   I really enjoyed it cover-to-cover.  I felt some of the "problems' in the story were pretty obvious but I liked how Simsion worked through them.   I can't believe it is his first novel and I look forward to following this author as he puts out future books.

Highly recommended.

Workout Wednesday: The Unbreakable Rules

So, yeah.  I'm back on the wagon.  I have just over 90 days to whip my ass into gear and get ready for my beach vacation...and I effectively frittered away the extra 150 days I COULD have had.  Reality is setting in - I don't have much time and I need to focus and lose some of this weight NOW!

I did so well back in the day.  I managed to lose 50lbs between January 2010 and June 2011.  But, since I returned to work after my mat leave - the scale has been going consistently upwards.  Sitting all day instead of chasing after toddler twins tends to have that effect.  But, really - look at the last year alone:

Currently - I am much closer to my previous start weight than I am to my low of 2011.   That scares the crap out of me.   I know I am much smaller than I was back when I started because there is a heck of a lot of muscle under that fat.

Luckily, I gave myself a bit of a kick in the pants this weekend and did some soul searching in the shower to see if I could come up with a plan.  Then it hit me.

I forgot about Unbreakable Rules!

I THRIVE with unbreakable rules.  Conditions that I can transform my health that are non-negotiable.

When I first started this journey to health, over four years ago, I was a mess.  But by setting one unbreakable rule, I was able to stick to the plan.   I still follow that unbreakable rule - I can watch seasons of shows I want to watch...as long as I do it on the bike or the treadmill.  Yep - still do it.  I won't even commit to a new TV series (I'm talking one on DVD or Netflix - not random, weekly series) without a plan to only watch while I work out.

But that one Unbreakable Rule isn't helping my expanding waistline (or - more specifically - widening butt region)

I need more.

With that in mind - I have spend a bit of time figuring out what I think I can handle for the next three months to whip myself back into shape.   I think I've come up with a list of Unbreakables that can get me there and that will set me up for success as I work through my marathon training plan as well.

Here we go again...

My Unbreakable Rules - 2014 Edition

• The kitchen closes at 7
  The light goes off and I do not enter it unless I am refilling my water bottle.
  
• Only one cup of coffee per day (if any)  
  I have been overdosing on the coffee lately...and I like mine fully dressed so it's not helping matters.  I like my tea black (plus stevia) so if I need an extra boost - I can always switch to tea.
  
• Track every bite and activity in My Fitness Pal
  I need to be aware.  Plus - the calculator they have when you finish each day helps motivate me when it tells me how much I could weigh in 5 weeks if everyday was like that.
  
• 2-3 BIG bottles of water each day
  I have been slacking on the water and need to get back at it.
  
• One special treat per week.  Choose wisely.
  I'm eating far more crap than I need - including eating out too regularly.  This will help me ask myself if I want to spend my treat on this thing right now or if I'd rather have something worth waiting for.
  
• 10,000 Steps a day
  I have been wearing my Fitbit for almost a year and a half.  I love it.  I am usually pretty good about getting my steps in, but I want to up the goal to get in that 10,000 each day instead of trying to average out at 70,000 for the week.
  
  
• Move 6 days of the week
  Including one core and one resistance workout to supplement my running.  On the rest day - try to at least stretch it out.  I am not going to commit to a specific workout plan - I will choose my resistence workouts from my collection of DVDs or maybe even from Pinterest.

There we have it.  A new list of unbreakables.  I feel good about this.  I feel like this could work really well and is totally do-able for the next 3 months and (hopefully) beyond.  I am not setting a particular pound goal - at this point I think I need to be happy with whatever I can accomplish before the end of May.  But I feel like I can stick with this and keep the success going so I can be in really good shape by the time all of the other weddings happen later in the summer.

Wish me luck.

Do you have any unbreakable rules to help you succeed? Tell me about them in the comments.

Winter Off-Roading

Now that I am in marathon training and my goal race is so much later than all of my friends running Calgary, I have been looking at ways to run with a variety of people and paces on my long runs.   To try new trails and pathways and start pushing myself again.

I had been reading Leana's recent posts about her XC races with a fair bit of envy.  I've been kind of flatlined on my running lately and my mojo needed a bit of revving - so I got in touch with her to see if maybe she'd be up for some company this weekend...and she invited me along to check out the Nose Hill XC course she ran last week.   Two loops would get me the 8k I needed for my training schedule...and it would also give us a chance to finally go for a run together.

We met up just before 10 at Nose Hill Park and, along with Leana's other friend Tara, we were headed out by 10 on the nose.

Leana had recommended that I wear traction aid to help on a few icy patches she'd encountered, so I broke out my Costco specials (the Due North ones I bruised my feet on a couple years ago) and hoped for the best.

Luckily, on the snowy trail, I couldn't feel them pounding into my feet so I started to feel a bit more optimistic about them, though still not quite ready to trust.

The first part of the trail headed straight uphill (and uphill and uphill).  Tara (the speedier of us) headed up ahead a bit and Leana and I plodded ever upwards.   It had been pretty windy in the parking lot, but on the way up the hill, we hardly noticed it.  That all changed when we got to the top and the tree cover vanished.

and the wind pushed us around.   It was crazy strong.  I kind of wish I had stopped to take a video of this one off-leash sign that was up there - the wind was ripping it back and forth so forcefully that it looked like it might fly out of the ground at any minute.

I mean, just look at what it did to all 3 inches of hair on my head.

But it was so pretty up there...all mountains and sky for miles and miles.

It was better when we turned east onto a side path.  The wind at my back actually helped my pace considerably and I was able to keep up with the other ladies much easier.

Note to Banff Marathon organizers: please arrange for the wind to be at my back the whole race.

When we turned south again, the wind battered us from the side again and I fell back.  Not far back, but far enough that the wind deafened me and I couldn't have followed a conversation if I tried.  So I stayed as close as I could.   Then we turned off the main path, across the snow and into the trees.  This was my favourite part.

We wove through the trees and lost some altitude.  Then we were ejected onto the main path again and it was time for loop two.

Second verse...same as the first....well - not quite the same.   While that wind was cold and deafening - the sun was warm and while we had been running the loop - the sun had been melting the snow and ice and the wind had been re-freezing it.  I found the second loop much slicker than the first.  Areas where the snow had been crunchy - it was now slick.  I was still having trouble trusting my cheapo traction aids (I think today proved I can justify a pair of microspikes)

Before we headed into the trees again - we stopped for some group photos.

and then we headed for the trees.   In the time since we'd last run through there - the wind had completely covered over the approach with snow.    And it was pretty deep - much deeper than what we'd run through the first time.

I'm so glad we did the two loops - that bit through the trees was every bit as fun the second time.  And didn't last nearly long enough.  Soon, we were out on the main path and heading back to the parking lot.

That brought me to exactly 8k.  Leana still had a bit more to add on, but I was pooped and decided to cut out and go run the errands I needed to do before I headed home.

One last photo

Thanks Leana for letting me tag along today.  I had so much fun and it was great to mix it up.  I hope we'll have more opportunities to get out together in the coming months.