Seen on Team Green

Rarely a day goes by without a text/email/whatever from a friend saying, "OMG this is so Jerbear!" Usually this friend is Jenn, ha, but she's not the only offender. If I had all of the monies in the world, I would dress in green 98% of the time instead of my standard 90%. I thought I'd share some of the green (not the money, sorry I'm poor!) goods on here in a somewhat regular manner so at least someone can enjoy the green beauty!

$19.95 via Piperlime

I need another green bag like I need a hole in my head, but I don't have a green beach bag persay, sooooooo.......

$98 via Piperlime

I've been coveting this dress for months, but haven't had a special enough occasion to spend $100 on a dress. It also hasn't come down in price in all those months I've been watching. It will be mine someday, mark my words.

$95 via Modcloth

I'm currently obsessed with all things skirts and dresses and I adore this skirt.

$35 via Modcloth

BRB hiding my monies....

Running Nutrition

I have always had issues with my stomach when it comes to running. In high school I'd get so nervous for track meets that I wouldn't eat all day. It should come as no surprise that my 800 meter split in the 3200 m. relay at the beginning of the meet was always significantly faster than my open 800 meter run at the end of the 6-8 hour meet. Derp. When I first started distance running in college, I was running to lose weight and burn calories, so of course the last thing I would do would be to eat any sort of nutrition on my runs. That would just eat in to my dominoes cheesy bread calories for later! (mmmm cheesy bread!)

When I started my blog 4ish years ago, I also started reading a ton of blogs and seeing that almost every plain Jane runner was using gels/chews/etc. to help fuel them on their runs and races. I wanted to be a faster/better runner myself, so I gave it a try, and it helped dramatically. I initially started out using GUs, and that has been the main standby fuel for me throughout countless training cycles.

When I started training for marathons, and my long runs got longer and longer, my GU consumption on a run would hit 3 on 20 miler days, and this past fall, as I've slowed down, would be near 4-5. Blech. My first marathon my stomach was so wonky that I stopped taking any nutrition at mile 20, and ended up slowing to almost a crawl throughout the last 6.2 miles. Uff.

I've always wanted to experiment with different types of nutrition, but in the past few years I've either been in the heart of marathon training or not running long enough to need any nutrition. But with this spring half training cycle I'm finding some wiggle room to experiment. Most of my long runs are in the 2 hour range, so if my stomach decides to revolt, I don't have too long to suffer through.

When I was in Madison, I grabbed some Honey Stinger chews and on my last long run, and they were great. I've tried the waffle thingy before and I had to toss it. I'm super weird when it comes to food textures, so the GU chomps were a no-go too.

So while I'm experimenting, what other fuel would you recommend? I just placed an order for GUs and Honey Stinger chews, so I'll probably be set for the spring (hopefully, I spent $80 for crimmenlly's sake!) but still would like to do my experimenting this spring while I can. Marathon training starts in June. Gulp.

Edited to add: Saturday's hourly race forecast indicates that the windchill will be -15 at race time. Lol NOPE. Sorry jaseface.

Weekly Reads: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Mix together one part Willy Wonka and one part library book nerdery and another part awesome trivia and gaming and you'll have Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. I picked up this book because there was some buzz about it being a candidate for the Newbery award. I absolutely LOVED it. I flew through the book (I think I finished it in one sitting, two at the very most) and wanted to dive in to the book to participate instead of reading. While I don't think this will win the Newbery, I think kids will devour it! I know that 8-10 year old Jerbear would've absolutely loved it. What's even cooler is that the author Chris Grabenstein has created a game based on the game played out in the book for schools and libraries to utilize, so I'll be planning a tween program based on it. I also showed the book trailer to my kids last week and they thought it looked awesome.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

In this cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night in the Museum, Agatha Award winner Chris Grabenstein uses rib-tickling humor to create the perfect tale for his quirky characters. Old fans and new readers will become enthralled with the crafty twists and turns of this ultimate library experience.

Winter Race Weather

Every year I intend on running the Frostbite 4, a 4 mile race about 30 minutes from where I live. This race is pretty cool because they have 3 different race course, and choose which one to use the morning of based on the wind direction (they obviously *get* how miserable our weather is). I have a six mile run with 4 at tempo scheduled during the week and thought a 4 mile race would be a great kick off to my 2014 racing schedule.

In looking at the weather forecast, the high for the day is 16, real fee 5, with a low of 3. Which means, the windchill will probably be well under zero at the race start. The explanation of weather for the day, according to accuweather is: Cold with a thick cloud cover.

Hmm...

How cold do you race in? I'm on the fence about doing this. On one had, I know I'll push harder in a race than I will on a treadmill training run, and it'll be nice to get a guideline of where my fitness is right now. But on the other hand it seems silly to drive 60ish miles round trip for a ~36 minute race that might be miserable and may be too cold to push hard enough to even get an idea of my fitness level.

Do I need to suck it up? Would you race? Will you come with me so I can have a race buddy? K thanks.

Sincerely,

Freezing up north

Mock Newbery Discussion

For the past five months I've been reading any children's chapter book published in 2013 that has any hint of winning the Newbery Award. I marked my winner months ago, but just recently read a book that is challenging my thinking.

Any book published in 2013, aimed at children from birth to 14 is eligible for the Newbery provided the author resides in the United States. The following are the books my co-workers and I read that had Newbery potential. I've bolded the selections that I've read:

• Counting by 7s
• Lincoln's Grave Robbers
• Paperboy
• Navigating Early
• Every Day After
• Hokey Pokey
• A Tangle of Knots
• Beholding Bee
• Zebra Forest
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
• Flora and Ulysses
• The Center of Everything
• The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
• Doll Bones
• Far Far Away
• One Came Home
• The Real Boy
• Hold Fast
• Rump

My original pick for the Newbery award was Counting by 7s. I adore that book. After reading Navigating Early, I have changed my vote. Clearly Counting by 7s should get an honor award, as should Paperboy, Zebra Forest, and Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library, although it's more likely that True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp will get the honor nod.

A few co-workers and I have been reading and discussing some of these titles for the past few months, and decided to meet up for dinner and host our own Mock Newbery discussion. The results of our voting are:

Personal Picks
Emily picked Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Alesha picked Counting by 7s
and I picked Navigating Early

Then we chose who we think the Newbery committee will select and we had a three way tie:
True Blue Scouts
Navigating Early
Counting by 7s

By this point, the margaritas were kicking in, so we didn't have any further debate to try to sway the other "voters" to side with us, but we all agreed that all three of these books will likely get an award or the top honor.

Additionally, Alesha thought Beholding Bee would get an honor, Emily thought Lemoncello should get an honor, and I had a tie between Paperboy and Zebra Forest.

The actual awards are January 27th at 8am EST and I'll be up early to watch them live! Children's librarian nerdery FTW!

Weekly Reads: Far Far Away

Far Far Away is another book on my Mock Printz award reading list and has quite a buzz surrounding it. The cover has green smoke on it, so clearly I was drawn to it! I started reading it, and honestly was not getting in to it. I hit page 100 and I asked a co-worker when it started to get good, she responded that if I wasn't already in to it, I might not like it. Well crap.

I took a break and read a few other books. Then picked it back up. Once I got to the halfway point it was amazing. I couldn't put it down. There aren't any chapters in the book, just little page breaks in the story, and I think the disjointedness of that affected my enjoyment of the book. I would just be getting in to the story and there'd be another break. Overall it was a really great read, but not the normal "OMG MUST READ MUST READ" right from the get go, as most books I adore are. And while I don't think this will be a Printz award winning book, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Printz honor selection.

My rating: 4 stars.


Summary from goodreads:

It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn't even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he's able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. 

After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it's been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn't been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm. 

Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion.

And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings...

Week 3 of Spring Training

This week was low on "sticking to the training program" but high on "running inspiration" so it wasn't a total wash. I was sick early in the week, and when I was finally feeling good enough to go for a run, life smacked us in the face and running was the last thing on my mind. I was able to get out for a gorgeous 10 miles on Sunday and frolicked around town with a giant smile on my face. Week 4 is a scheduled cutback week, so I'm flipflopping week 3 and week 4, so I can redo my week 3 quality workouts. I did manage to get in a few core work sessions, so it wasn't a total wash!

On the running inspiration front, I have tentative race bestie weekend plans for next year to possibly run the Houston half or full (likely the full) after it was gorgeous and magical etc. etc. and our bestie lives there, so yeah, duh. Where do we sign up?? The guaranteed entry for qualified times for half and 10k requirements are slower than my PRs which has given me extra motivation for spring races to get back to my old speed. I'll be running 3 halfs and 1 10k before the cutoff, so consider a fire as having been lit under my hiney!

Additionally, I have been doing some planning regarding the fall marathon plans/ideas/shenanigans. Sorry, Danielle, it doesn't look like Chicago or Philly is in the cards.... this year. The more I look at the Bemidji Marathon the more I think it'll be the perfect race selection for me. It's about 5 hours north of here, so it should be nice and crisp mid-October. It's pretty darn flat, but not pancake flat like Fargo (which is actually hard because your muscles don't get any variation for 26.2 miles) but more like the flatness I'm used to running with mini tiny rollers to keep it interesting. My 18 week training program would start the day after my last planned race of this upcoming season, and my only race on the schedule--Sioux Falls half (my 10th consecutive SF half!!)--falls on a day where I'm scheduled to run 18 miles with 14 at GMP. Even if it's a hot day for the half, I should be able to knock out 14 miles at GMP. WHOOP! Most importantly, I've got Kyle on board to come along, because opening pheasant hunting season isn't until the following week (great planning there!) and my parents are planning to come and spectate barring any major issues in the next year. My parents have never got to see me run a marathon, so I'm pretty psyched. The race goes around the lake, so Kyle and my dad can get their fishing game on while they wait for me at the various spots. :)

I basically spent the afternoon on Sunday working on my training program to start in June. It's been awhile since I've had this sort of excitement for running. I sure hope it sticks around.

And my fastest mile of my long run on Sunday was the last one. Running the last 5 miles in o 35mph winds was less than fun, but it was still a way stronger run than last week's 10 miler! AND it was also in capris. WHOOP.