2012: Books 12 - 16

Title	Author	Review
REAMDE	Neal Stephenson	One of the most addictive books I've read in ages.  I re-arranged my workout schedule for 2 weeks, substituting much more time on the recumbant bike and stairclimber than originally planned so I could turn these pages.  This is no doubt due in part to the author's commitment to linguistics (if you just started studying Mandarin, this book has tantalizing word bits to taunt you), and his commitment to the 2nd Amendment Gun-Nut Pacific Northwest culture, which I probably understand inherently due to my family, but recently, got a first hand look at during our tour of the Pacific Northwest.  I'm ordering the Baroque Cycle trilogy.
Men Who Stare at Goats	Jon Ronson	Funny and scary at the same time -- an exploration of the U.S Army's (and CIA's) exploration of New Age and paranormal techniques for peace and war.  A quick and easy read of many very funny tales linked to (predictably) some horrifically grim ones.
Trip of the Tongue	Elizabeth Little	See the full review
Townie: A Memoir	Andre Dubus III	This memoir from the author of House of Sand and Fog is filled with the struggle with darkness you'd expect from the source of that haunted tale.  But it's full of joy and grit and fight and triumph and learning to love, as well.  Daily violence is described without drama and the matter-of-factness of the tone is what makes this book simultaneously shock the reader while reminding her that “of course this is the uglier stuff of how life works”.
Quicksilver (Abandoned)	Neal Stephenson	A historical fiction with recognizeable characters such as Isaac Newton and Lord Byron, but too much arcana, theatrical verse, and commitment to historical details for me to enjoy.  After 361 slow pages, I finally purged the book from my todo list and moved on.

2012: Books 6-11

Title	Author	Review
How to be Good	Nick Hornby	A fluffy quick-moving tale of an adulterous wife who gets her wish -- a transformed husband who looses all his bitterness and becomes the extreme embodiment of Good: loving, understanding, gaggingly empathetic, reaching out to the poor, giving away their worldy posessions, and more.
Into Thin Air	Jon Krakauer	Famous in the late 90s, this book tells a personal account of a survivor who returned from the Summit on of one of the deadliest days on Everest.  A humbling reminder of how human life is fragile and existence, despite the best technology, depends on luck, good judgment and the cooperation of mother nature.
IQ84	Haruki Murakami	A three-book saga of childhood acquaintances who fell in love, grew up pining for one another, and finally found each other in another world with two moons where magical powers exist.
Never Let Me Go	Kazuo Ishiguro	A haunting tale of clones rasied to be organ donors and the minimal lives they lead.
Winter's Bone	Daniel Woodrell	An epic tale in Ozarks dialect of stubborn survival in a savage poverty-governed world of blood-law.  I read this after returning from Cambodia and it reminded me that "third world problems" exist in every country, even America.  I am a few generations away from super strong blood-law.  But I understand it at a visceral level.  Both my father's people and my mother's people have their pride and their inherent rules (and their high numbers of siblings and cousins).  Blood law is a strong force.
Solar	Ian McEwan	A hilarious tale of a non-sympathetic protaganist: Brilliant. Dellusional.  Nobel Prize Winner. Philanderer. Lack of discipline. Fat. Guilty Situational Laughter inspirer. Exceedingly functional alcoholic.  Gloriously entertaining to watch the minimal plot as it unfolds, and yet, it ends, as you know it must, in tragedy.

2012: Books 1-5

Title	Author	Review
Run Faster From the 5K to the Marathon	Brad Hudson	An interesting perspective on adaptive training and using feedback to get the most out of what you are doing.
Racing Weight	Matt Fitzgerald	A very different look at nutrition than one I've ever taken.  I appreciated the new perspective.  Turns out, if I want to be disciplined, I can manage my macronutrients in my sleep, but I definitely need to pay much more attention to my micro-nutrients than I have been (I was rarely hitting the RDAs for potassium and iron despite maintaining what I thought was a very healthy diet.)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake	Aimee Bender	A clever tale of transcendent children who travel on emotional and spiritual planes that intersect uncomfortably with the physical.  Well done.
Run Less; Run Faster	Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss	Only time will tell, but I was inspired by the data in this book and look forward to applying its principles in my 2012 running. (Note: Time told that this approach was not for me.  There were no "just go out and run" days on the schedule and I found that I needed those days, as running is as much a mental release as a physical one for me.)
Ready Player One	Ernest Cline	Oh fun!  As a child of the eighties, this easter egg hunt of pop culture and nerdy self-consciousness was a fabulous escape on a work trip to Washington D.C.  Gamers, techies, and nerds who grew up in the 80s will adore Mr. Cline's attention to all of their childhood loves.

2012: The Year In Books, Part 1

2012 has been an amazing year for me, book-wise.

I get an uncommon amount of my life pleasure from books.  I know this about myself.  And yet, not since before college have I gone so far out of my way to make reading for pleasure such a major priority in my life.  I am pleased with this change, and wonder just how far I can push it, in terms of increased value in my life.

Most importantly, I discovered audio-books.  So while I also spent the year visually reading the words of more pages per day than my norm, in addition,  I consumed 5 great books that I otherwise wouldn't have experienced.  I suspect that running, slowly, with an audiobook (or slowly using any of the cardio machines at the gym) may be my default "keep-myself-healthy-as-long-as-possible" work-out as I slide toward the comforts of middle age.

Second, I set a goal of 9,000 pages to avoid the short book shuffling I did in 2011.  It worked like a charm.  I'm still closing out the year, but I fit in IQ84 and Reamde without any concern -- Unlike last year, when I was shooting for total books and worried about the 900+ page options.  This year's page count goal made the big bertha books just as attractive as their emaciated cousins.

I've got 9+ days to go and I'm guessing I'll land just short of 12,000 pages with an additional 6 audiobooks.

Reviews for all will come in over the last few days of the year.

Zombie Runner Bay Trail 5 Mile

Yesterday, I headed out for the Zombie Runner Bay Trail 5 Mile.

It was the largest race they'd ever hosted with about 700 participants between the marathon, the half marathon, and the 5 miler.  Nice local race, although expensive -- $50 for day-of registration for the 5 miler if you opted out of the t-shirt.  If I'd been more on the ball, it could have been $40 for advance registration, but work and life have been much too crazy for me to even see the race registration ball, much less be on it.

My goal was simple -- string together some faster miles to prep for next week's 5K.  I'd run some mile repeats in the 8:30/mile range earlier in the week and had been amazingly sore the next day, so I was interested to see what pace I could sustain and how painful it would be to do so.

At the start, it was quite cold for these parts, in the high 30s -- you could see everyone's breath.  I started in running shorts, knee-high compression socks, a long sleeve technical shirt, and my running jacket.  I never took my running jacket off -- I just wore it to the finish line and on my cool down.  It didn't really warm up too much by 9 AM.  At the finish, my hands were steaming, which was something I'd never seen before.  (I am *not* one of those runners whose hands get cold on runs.)

The majority of the race was an out and back on portions of the trail I regularly run, around the golf course and the airport.  They did add a section I'd never realized was part of the trail system -- a sort of back route to the duck pond, so that was a nice discovery.

I started with a mile at 8:43, thinking I could probably sustain 8:45s for the full distance.  It looked like the course was actually 4.8 from the aid station information, so I was hopeful that I could really push it for such a reasonably short distance and then I could do a nice slow 2+ mile cool down.

Ummm.  No.  8:43; 8:48; 9:03; 9:04; 8:51 (mile pace for the last 0.7 on my garmin).  While the first two felt good and relaxed, like I was holding a little something back, that third and fourth mile were a struggle, and the last bit was at almost full effort.  Certainly, the gravel and trail sections slowed me down a bit compared to the pavement (first and last mile+), but I wasn't too impressed with myself, regardless.  After mile 2, I don't think I passed a single person whereas somewhere in the range of 10 people passed me despite me trying to prevent it each time.

I did Bikram last night, and while I didn't wake up sore, I do wonder if perhaps stretching, holding poses that require muscle tension, and sweating an insane amount for 90 minutes in a 106F room isn't the best thing to do the night before trying to push on speed. On the other hand, perhaps it was just what the doctor ordered and prevented me from pushing too hard and injuring myself.  Hard to say. 

Overall, it was 4.7 miles at an average pace of 8:54.  Then another 2.35 to cooldown at a leisurely jog.  A great run, for sure.  Beautiful day, hard effort, and a nice friendly group of people.  But it definitely showed me that I have some work cut out for me to get my speed back.

The good news is that this morning, I am nowhere near as sore as I was the day after the mile repeats.  So that's a bit of progress of sorts. Today, I've got a nice easy 3.25 on the calendar with E and that'll be the end of the running week.

An enjoyable week of 25.6 miles, all at average paces in the 9s or 8s.  Nothing too long.  Nothing too fast.  But focused on recovering some of the spring that the marathon always seems to suck out of me. 

Facebook Vacation

I've confirmed that today's Facebook's privacy changes allow strangers to see everything in your timeline if they search for you by name.

I was annoyed but putting up with the reality that people could tag me in photos or posts without my consent and it was up to me to delete the tags.  Essentially, this meant I had extra work -- I had to regularly login and confirm that everything where I was tagged was something I wanted everyone to know about me.  If I didn't regularly login, someone could tag me and it could stay up, visible on my timeline for my entire network until I finally got around to taking it down.

But, before today, I was one of the (apparently very few) users who hid their entire Timeline from search. As of today, that feature is now gone.  So, I had to go through my entire timeline and "hide" the things I did not want viewable by strangers in connection with my name.  Mind you, I'd already done this by "hiding" my entire timeline.  Again, like publication of tags of my facebook profile without my consent, the publication of the timeline to anyone who searched for me by name caused me extra work.

I'm guessing the day is soon coming when facebook will cater solely to people who do not share my privacy concerns.  At that point, even if I'm willing to do all the work, the features I want just may not be available.

So, I'm taking the rest of the year as a facebook holiday to evaluate my options for (a) how much I actually miss facebook; and (b) if I miss it enough, how to address this issue in 2013.

Cram It All In

For the post-marathon recovery week, I did very little, physically.  Lots of rest, approximately 7 miles of walking, a Bikram session (much harder than expected as the first *real* workout I attempted the Wed after a Sunday marathon), a 30 minute session of cardio at the gym including a 1.25 miles on the TM, and I capped it off with a glorious weekend of walking around San Francisco and a 3 mile Sunday AM run on the Embarcadero with my husband.

I love running with my husband.  I was so happy to enjoy the weather, the views, the people watching and the experience of breathing hard and moving well together.  Such a privilege.  I very much hope he is willing to continue to do this with me, because it is awesome.

Around these minimal workouts, I stuffed everything and anything that would fit in the holiday season last week.

Tons of work from clients frantic to get things done before the holidays?  Check.

End of year billing and accounts receivable hurdles? Check.

Mandarin night dinner of Peking Duck with the Mandarin Ladies?  Check.

The usual mixture of professional lunches and coffees for networking, potential new clients, and maintaining relations with people in my field?  Oh, at least 3 of those.

Good friend going into labor causing obsessive phone status eval?  Check.

But wait, there's more.

The friend had a very happy and healthy baby girl.  Go baby RB!

Saturday AM, we tried to fit in a NAR high power rocket certification for both me and E. Unfortunately, the fog ceiling disagreed, so despite our rockets being ready to go, the weather won out (as it often does with respect to rockets).

After that, we checked into our hotel and hit up 3 holiday parties in SF in less than 24 hours where we reconnected with old friends and made new ones.  Plus, in addition to the run along the Embarcadero, we also fit in a a brunch with friends we hadn't seen in a long time to catch up at the delicious Gracias Madre (Vegan mexican food? I know. I was suspicious too.  But it was amazing!).

All told, I think I had the most social interactions I've had in 48 hours since a very long time (probably sometime last holiday social blitz).  If I was good at names, I could tell you the names of the 10-15 new people this weekend (but I'm not, so that's a bummer...).

In short, this introvert is exhausted.  But proud.  It was a very productive week.

CIM 2012: The Good

The race was so FUN!  Much to my surprise, running in the storm with thousands of other folks was a blast.  I don't think I've heard that much laughter on a race course, ever.

Definitely, for me, part of the fun was the abandonment of a time goal. After the long bathroom break, I just kind of relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience in a way I've never done on a road marathon.  I never hit the, "oh man, this is really difficult, I don't know if I can keep doing this" phase.

While triumph over the internal mental struggle and maintaining race pace as long as possible is one of the best sources of the sense of accomplishment you get from a marathon, it's also quite uncomfortable.  I was never actually uncomfortable (other than the chafing) on this marathon.  I never got too hot. Never too cold.  Never struggled with keeping my pace.  My breathing was never labored.  It was actually kind of *easy* -- which is not a word I associate with the marathon.

Several new things were quite good for me about this race:

1.  I used duct tape to create a handle on a water bottle with a sport top.  I filled it with gatorade and I brought my own Gus in my Gas Cap.  This meant that I was able to avoid the crowds at the aid stations until my electrolyte bottle was empty.  The bottle lasted me all the way past the half marathon.  Once it was empty, I threw it in the trash at the next aid station and then quickly walked through the later lesser-crowded aid stations when I needed water or electrolyte drinks for the remainder of the race.  This was brilliant and I will definitely be doing this in future marathons.  

2.  A tank top with gloves with fingers cut out was just perfect to keep me from getting too cold when the rain and the wind picked up.

3.   My Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12 handled the water amazingly well.  I don't think I'll go out of my way to avoid puddles in the future.  They dry out surprisingly fast if you keep running after wading through standing water.

4.  I took my MP3 player on the course for the first time ever.  I let myself turn it on at mile 16.  It was a definite pick me up.  I'll be bringing music on future races as well, although I need to figure out how to get it out of my pockets and into my ears in a faster fashion.

And, I finished a marathon, running the whole time (at a nice easy pace) -- anytime you can do that, it's Good.  I feel healthy, strong, and very alive -- all of which are good things.

Splits:

Notable miles:

Mile 3 -- Ditched the 4:25 pace group because they seemed to be going too fast. Stopped for 40 seconds to take off my running pants and saw Jen.  We ran together to close the gap on the group ahead and use them as wind blockers before we parted.

Mile 4 -- 4:36 portapotty break.  When I was done with this stop, all desire to race was gone.  I was just going to run easy and have fun.

Mile 9 -- Finally completely ripped off the heavy duty trashbag.  This took much longer than I'd expected and slowed me down quite a bit.  Just another reason the dollar store poncho is the way to go next time.

Mile 16 -- Music reward.  Pulling out my MP3 player, detangling it, and getting it in my ears also took longer than I'd expected.  The music was worth it, so I'm going to need to figure out how to get faster at this trick. 

End of Mile 25 -- 46 second break at the light rail tracks.  The lights were flashing.  The arms came down.  No trains to be seen.  Eventually a cop just waived us through.  I was very glad I wasn't racing for a time goal when this happened.  I just slowed to a walk and waited at the red and white arms, confused.  But I wasn't the least bit angry, which I would have been if I was racing.

Last 100 ft -- a woman I'd been running ahead of for the last few miles decided to try to edge me out in the finish chute.  Really?  I mean, come on, the race for the podium was over a while ago!  For some reason, this move on her part seriously annoyed me and since I hadn't run hard, I had plenty of pep in my step to drop her.  This is how I closed out the marathon at a pace faster than any of the intervals I ran in the whole training cycle.     

Oh, and my goal to run an even race for the first time in my life?  I'd forgotten about that one when I decided to relax and have fun.  But, somehow, thanks to the portapotty stop, I accidentally almost nailed it.  Check out my chip splits:

Mile   5.9	1:02:51		0:10:39
Mile 13.1	2:19:18		0:10:38
Mile    20	3:33:15		0:10:40
Mile 26.2	4:39:29		0:10:40

Marathon #8, Done.  Totally different than what I'd expected, but very fun.