February Book Update

I started working again this month, so I think the increased number of books finished is entirely related to that.. tons of time alone, on a bus. I also read at lunch, because our office is kind of boring, and we all eat at our desks.

• A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley. This is the third Flavia de Luce book, and I'm still interested. I enjoy that they are fast to read.
  
  
•  Where the Heart is - Billie Letts. Book club book. We refer to this as "Wal-Mart baby" book, and seriously.. The book itself was ok, although not my favourite. It felt like having a baby in Wal-Mart was some sort of wacko "American dream" type thing.. so strange to me.
  
  
• The Bride's House - Sandra Dallas. This book was about three generations of girls and their lives in and around the "bride's house." It was well-written, and I enjoyed it.
  
  
•  Exes and Ohs - Shallon Lester. This book sounded funny.. but it wasn't, really. It was written by a girl, living in New York who apparently did weird things or had terrible relationships. It was more just stupid. Seriously do not recommend, although it was super fast to read.
  
  
• A Study in Sherlock - ed. by Laurie R King and Leslie S Klinger. This was a bunch of Sherlock-style short stories. Some where different versions of Sherlock stories, some where new Sherlock stories, and some just had a similar theme of detective. I don't love short stories, so this took a bit to get through, but I did enjoy it.
  
  
• A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick. Twisted story! It was really good, but I can't say much about it without giving important things away. It was totally not what I expected, but that's good.
  
  
• The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin. One year to become happier. Gretchen had different resolutions to become happier every month. I enjoyed reading it, and I think that I definitely took some things from it. It made me think a lot more about how my actions and reactions affect other people...
  
  
• Outlander - Diana Gabaldon. Good. So good. One of the main characters in this book sounds really hot, which totally helps, but I can see how so many people love this series. I can't wait to read more.
  

C25K - W9D3

Last day of scheduled running (which means that maybe instead of posting every other day, I'll post once a week or something)!!

Today's run was in Kamloops, and I decided to run downtown (along the river) instead of trying to run up and down the hills near home.

Stats:
-30 min
-5'41"/km
-5.31 km

C25K - W9D2

Early run (left at 8:50 or so) before heading to Kamloops for the weekend. Didn't eat breakfast beforehand, which was fine.. until about half way through. Still haven't figured out what the best combo of eating/waiting is for running..

Stats:
-30 min
-5'28"/km
-5.54km

This was ~20s/km faster than my last run.. Wooho!

C25K - W9D1

Two runs left! Hard to believe.

Up to 30 minute runs now.. I think after the next two runs, I'll go down to 20 and try and push for faster and faster times, and then gradually increase the time again.

Stats:
-30 min
-5'48"/km (ugh!)
-5.31km

Definitely not my best, although I was less concerned about needing to stop at lights tonight. The last 10 minutes were great - I fell into some sort of awesome rhythm, and I was able to run a lot faster..

C25K - W8D3

Today I had chest pain on my right side, and that same shooting pain in my lower left belly. Didn't make for a fun run!

I stopped to help a lady with directions, so the timing etc is a bit off..

Stats:
-28m51s (to make up for talking to her)
-5'41"/km
-5.08km

Not that great, but whatever.

C25K - W8D2

Lesson learned: DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOU RUN! Apparently the almost hour and a half between dinner and run was not enough, and I suffered more stomach pain.

Ran with R tonight, who runs (obviously, being that he weighs nothing) wayyy faster than me...

Nevertheless..

Stats:
-28min
-5'26"/km
-5.17km

C25K - W8D1

Week 8! The end is in sight.. and almost on my calendar.

Tonight's run was a bit later than I'd hoped, leaving around 8:20. Unfortunately.. that didn't seem to be long enough for dinner and tea to settle, and I ended up with some pretty bad pain on my left side. My whole stomach doesn't feel that well right now, but.. according to my ipod, this was the longest and fastest run yet..Nice of it to keep my spirits up, but I feel like it's lying.

Stats:
-28 min
-5'16"/km
-5.34km

Woohoo! Maybe the 3 minutes longer really does average out to a slightly faster pace. Guess we'll see when I run the next two .. 

C25K - W7D3

Six more runs! Crazy.

I've been thinking a bit about what I'll do after this 9 week C25K thing is over. I'm not sure that I'm really ready to commit to running every other day for the rest of my life, but maybe two or three times a week? I do enjoy the benefits (feeling healthier, being able to eat tons of full-fat sour cream without too many repercussions..) Guess I'll figure that out later.

For now..
Stats:
-25 min
-5'23"/km
-4.66km

So.. slightly faster than the last two runs, but still tied for the fastest.

C25K - W7D2

Another afternoon run! Fun times..

Nothing too exciting other than a bit of chest pain. I'm sure it's nothing that eating a bit before the run couldn't fix (or maybe learning how to breathe differently, who knows).

Stats:
-25 min
-5'29"/km (getting slower! ahh!)
-4.59km

So... slower, and fewer kms. Boo :(

Oh -- R's amazed that I've gone this far. Silly boy.. I'm stubborn.

C25K - W7D1

Tonight was the first after work run. I wasn't really looking forward to it (it poured most of the day), but it turned out to just be misty, and a nice 8 degrees. Can't complain too much!

This week is 25min runs. I'm hoping to start pushing myself to run faster, and while I thought I had, according to my ipod stats, I was actually slower than Tuesday.

Stats from today:
-25 min
-5'27"/km
-4.67 km

C25K - W6D3

Woohoo, another 'week' of running done!

Felt pretty sluggish today too - my calves, thighs and shins were bugging me yesterday (seriously, lame) so maybe that's part of it. It's sunny and beautiful out though! It also said it was 0 on my computer, so I wore way more than needed, but...

Stats from the ipod today:
-25 min
-5'23"/km
-4.68 km

Slightly slower than my 20min run from last week, but further.

Next week is just 25 min runs, so I guess I'll have something more interesting to compare.

C25K - W6D2

Ended up going for a late run (4:30) today. Going from late morning to evening runs will definitely take some getting used to. I was cooler than normal, and really slow (the slowness is probably attributed to the lack of food before said run). Anyhow.

Aside from being sluggish today, I found out that my ipod isn't entirely good at being truthful for the mileage. I turned it on at 13th/Hemlock, and off at 13th/Oak, and it said 0.93km, while google maps says that should be 0.7km. Oh well, I'll still record here what my longer runs are.

C25K - W6D1

Apparently I underestimate how much heat the sun can produce during winter. I went out today (+5 and sunny!) with two long sleeved shirts + a tanktop. Overheating much!?

This week is another set of different runs. Today was warm up, run 5, walk 3, run 8, walk 5, run 5, cool down. For some reason, even though I survived 20 minutes on Wednesday, running for 8 today wasn't that fun. I think I'm getting bored of runnig to the techno, and maybe, just maybe, listening to songs that I liked (and know) and knowing how many were in the playlist, and thus, how many more I had before the run was over was comforting.

Oh well. I have 11 runs left!

C25K - W5D3

Well. Longest run so far today! It's gorgeous, sunny, and not too warm. I decided to forego as lots of the podcast for this week, since it has lots of 'week 1, stop/start, week 2, stop/start'.. so I made a quick playlist.

My exciting playlist consists of.. :

• Moves like Jagger - Maroon 5
• Somewhere else - Toby Keith
• Where them girls at - David Guetta
• Little Yellow Blanket - Dean Brody
• Dirt Road Anthem - Jason Aldean
• Take a Back Road - Rodney Adkins

Amazingly enough, it was 20:01. Perfect for a 20 min run!

My lovely new ipod has a pedometer and other fun things, so.. my 20 min run today was 3.80km, and 5'20"/km. Which means, were I running 5km, I would be just over 30 min. Ooh, my ipod also has a lovely lady that tells you either how far you are (if you want distance), how long you've been (timed) etc. She told me every 5 min, and then counted down each minute of the last 5. :)