Weekly Reads: The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love

The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love has an amazing book cover. I love using this book on my library displays. I picked it up at the end of the summer, and it was a perfectly nerdy love story. I enjoyed it so much. Definitely a must-read for comic con fans and nerds in general.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Archie and Veronica. Althena and Noth.…Graham and Roxy?

Graham met his best friend, Roxy, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.

But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever—moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.

When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Chronicles of Althena, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be…even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.

2017 Goals

I love making a list and crossing off things as I complete them, so it should come as no surprise that I love making goals, especially for the new year. Without further adieu, here they are:

Running

• Run 1000 miles.
• Run a Sub 2:05 half.
• Run a Sub 2 hour half.
• Run a sub 25 minute 5k (I'd take under the 8:02 pace if the course is short, I'll probably do the summer Parks and Rec 5ks again, and they are always short!).

Life

• Rescue another pug.
• Read 175 books.
• Eat breakfast more.
• Cycle 500 miles.

Yoga

• Find an additional yoga teacher opportunity and partnership that I'm excited about.
• Handstand!
• 30 day sadhana
• Minimalist Challenge. 

Weekly Reads: The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo

I listened to Amy Schumer's The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo on audiobook. I had just started listening to it on a trip down to visit my mom. Two days later she passed away. I spent a lot of time in my car driving back and forth to spend time with my dad and then come home over that next week. And every time I got in my car, Amy was there to cheer me up. I laughed out loud, teared up, and it was so good. She did not disappoint.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is - a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friends - an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. Whether she's experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line, sharing her own views on love and marriage, admitting to being an introvert, or discovering her cross-fit instructor's secret bad habit, Amy Schumer proves to be a bighearted, brave, and thoughtful storyteller that will leave you nodding your head in recognition, laughing out loud, and sobbing uncontrollably - but only because it's over.

Spring Race Plan

A few weeks ago, I had the insane idea that I would run a half marathon every month in 2017. After spending an entire Sunday plotting, pricing, and spread sheeting the hell out of the idea, I thought about my goals for 2017. In 2017, I'd really like to get faster. I looked at running a race every month in 2017... would that really help with my goal of getting faster? Maybe, maybe not. By spending money to travel for races during not great racing months (February, July, August) I was taking away from being able to double up on some months where it is beautiful to race around here--April, May, October.

I decided to scrap the plan for now, but I will do it someday when I have more of a focus on quantity over quality (and perhaps when my bank account has a lot more $$$ in it so I can travel to some really great locations!).

My plan for the spring is to travel to Dallas in January to see my family and Dominique. In March, I'll travel to San Antonio with Kyle for a work trip (that conveniently falls on the weekend of the Alamo 13.1!), and then my goal race for the spring will be the Brookings Half.

I recently learned that Pete Pfitzinger has a new book specifically for 5ks-half marathons, Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon. I have had a love affair with his book for marathoners, Advanced Marathoning, and ran my 10k and half marathon PRs during tune up races while training for a full on his plan in 2011.

This go around, I'm working through a 10 week base building program that will get me from my current mileage to 30 miles a week. I do have to modify it a bit, because during that first 10 weeks I'll be running the half in Dallas. More or less as a fun run slash reason to keep running during December/January when it is so much easier to stop running here!

The 12 week program will peak at 47 miles (eeps!) and has great progression through the different stages of training, similar to Advanced Marathoning. I'm also planning to continue with my weekly Sanford POWER sessions if they continue to offer them on a night or early morning that works with my schedule! Fingers crossed. 2017 might be a speedy year! Wait and see.

(yes I 100% asked for this new book for Christmas from my MIL. Danielle sent me the marathon one years ago on our mutual request to be speedy... spoiler, I never did, she REALLY did!)

Weekly Reads: Scrappy Little Nobody

As soon as I heard that Anna Kendrick was writing a book, Scrappy Little Nobody, I put in a request to my library for the book and the audiobook. I need them BOTH. Once the items were added to our library, I realized that I didn't get added to the list for the audiobook. Insert sad face here. I got the book copy and flew through it. I feel like I would be besties with her. If given the option, I would've much preferred to listen to it, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

A collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award-nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.”

At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.

With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.”

Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).

Fall Parks and Rec 5k Series

The Monday after the Sioux Falls half, the fall 5k series started up again. My legs were shot from the half so I took the first night off. But I was there and ready to roll for the next week.

It was also my first race with my purple elephant tattoo for my mama. <3

September 19

2 mile warm up

1. 8:34

2. 8:54

3. 7:44 (8:42 pace)

2.89 25:13 8:44 pace

180 avg HR, 183 max HR

3rd place female

Kyle was nice enough to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary the night before so I could attend. Oops. Haha. It was more than worth it, imo, as I posted one of my best 5k paces in years. Actual years! Super consistent splits and an even faster last mile. Wahoo!

September 26

2 mile warm up

1. 8:29

2. 8:29

3. 8:23

.03 :11 (7:08 pace)

3.03 25:35 8:27 pace

169 avg HR, 177 max HR

 3rd place female

The following week I posted a faster time, but we ran the opposite direction, and I knew it was a shorter course. I just didn't have as much fight in me as the previous week. My heart rate data shows just how hard I wasn't working. Ooops.

October 3

1.  8:38

2. 8:41

3. 7:42 (8:47 pace)

2.88 25:03 8:42 pace

160 avg HR, 172 max HR

1st place female

 

The final week I went in with one goal, to post my best time of the fall for the 5k. Beat 25:35. I slacked a bit in the second mile, and then really dug deep in the third mile. 8:22!!! And then I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch, and my time was identical to two weeks ago. 25:35. I couldn't have done that if someone had offered me a million dollars to do it. Oh well. :)

October 10

2 mile warm up

1. 8:31

2. 8:36

3. 8:22

.02 :05 5:03 pace

3.02 25:35 8:29 pace

162 avg HR, 171 max HR

2nd place female

Pugoween

Back in October, we had Ollie's favorite holiday: Pugoween. This year, I wanted her to be Pughetti. I picked up some fabric, yarn, giant styrofoam balls, and brown spray paint. Kyle contributed two nights before by spray painting Ollie's meat balls.

The night before Pugoween I set about constructing her costuming. Essentially just hot gluing everything to the fabric. It took maybe ten minutes to make. That's a far cry from the hours my mom has spent in previous years of constructing her costumes. Sorry mom!

I found one of her smaller sweaters and attached the fabric to it with safety pins. She tried it on and looked amazing. We fell asleep with Pugoween costume championships dancing in our heads.

 

For anyone that questions whether Ollie has fun dressing up or not, I present to you Exhibit A. All the smiles, on the tail wagging. All the cute. She tied for first place. So our streak continues!

 

This picture just cracks me up. A hot dog sniffing the butt of spaghetti.