February 2022 Reads!

Argh, I am already behind. January 2022 reads here in case you missed it. Anyway! Without further ado!

(10) The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism by Kyla Schuller (2021, 304 pages) (nonfiction, intersectional feminism). Audiobook. I wanted to read this because I read an interview with the author. Intersectional feminism and the toxic nature of historically white feminism is a topic I have passing familiarity with but I wanted to know more. I found this to be an excellent “101” in intersectional feminism. Schuller walks through the history of American feminism using case studies where she compares the actions & approaches of a white feminist leader or icon with those of a contemporaneous intersectional feminist. If you don’t really know what white feminism or intersectional feminism is or aren’t familiar with the (deeply problematic and harmful) history of white feminism (i.e., what a lot of white ladies just call “feminism”), this is a great and very accessible place to start.

(11) The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021, 335 pages) (genre = dark). Audiobook. Ho-ly shit, guys, I don’t know where to start with this one. It’s very hard to know what to say about this book–even the genre–without getting into spoilers. So let’s just say that there’s a very strange man that lives in kind of a sad house with his cantankerous daughter and a Bible-reading cat. And a new next door neighbor whose little sister disappeared at a nearby lake 11 years ago. And…nothing is exactly what it seems. I am often disappointed when books advertise “so many twists and turns!!” because a lot of times you can see the “twists” coming a mile away. That…was not the case here. It’s hard to get into content warnings without spoilers, but let’s just say it is quite dark in places and I can absolutely see how some people would nope out pretty quickly. But it’s all done in the service of a really rich and earnest story and not shock value.

Race Report: Oakland Half Marathon 2022

Alright, generally, I like to make you wait and read all the way to the end for the punch line, but I'm just gonna get it out of the way now:

Official: 13.1 miles / 1:40:57 / 7:42 pace
Garmin: 13.14 miles / 1:40:58 / 7:41 pace

In case you forgot, I ran a 1:56:05 half marathon on Feb. 6, just six weeks ago. And while I didn't run that race all-out, I didn't run *this* one all-out either (and that 1:56 felt a LOT harder in the last miles than this 1:40 did). When I tell you I wasn't expecting to run this kind of time, I am not bullshitting you. Yes, I've had some very encouraging workouts lately, and I definitely expected to better my Kaiser Permanente time. But when I say 'better,' I mean by like five to eight minutes, maybe ten minutes faster at most. I thought if I had a really, really great day, maybe I could run 1:45. 

Why did I sign up to run this race?

Originally, I signed up to run this race in March 2020. I'd had a couple of okay-but-not great 10Ks and with so much work travel and other personal travel going on, running had kind of fallen apart in terms of real, structured training and become more catch-as-catch-can via hotel treadmills, squeezing in 3-5 miles in foreign cities and countries between meetings and flights, and very occasionally getting to the gym at ridiculous hours. A couple weeks before the race, I was already waffling about whether I should just show up and give it whatever I had or defer and hope for better circumstances next year.

And then what happened?

Training Log: Oakland Running Festival Race Week!

My last week of training before the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon (which is what I ended up running!).
~*~*~Oakland Running Festival Race Week~*~*~

Training Log: 2 Weeks to ORF uhhhhh something or rather

Less than one week until Oakland Running Festival! I am either running the half marathon or 10K, but I'm not 100% sure! But probably the half marathon I think! (When this training week started, though, we were two weeks away--hence the post title.) Think you can guess my finishing time? Stay tuned!

I have to say, I've been really enjoying this little mini training cycle. I am very far from "peak fitness," though if we're honest, I don't even really know what that means anymore, and I kind of don't care. That said, let's look at some facts:

Fact: I've ramped my mileage back up to a few 40+ mile weeks and it's feeling good. There are days when I'm tired, but it's a very reasonable, understandable level of tired that I'm able to recovery from, not bone-deep, existential, mental and psychological exhaustion that leaves me incapable of doing anything.

Fact: Even if I'm tired before a run, I generally start to feel much better once I get started (vs in 2021 when I would often feel worse).

Fact: I'm running workouts now as fast or faster than I was in 2016 when I Boston Qualified.

Fact: I look forward to workouts instead of dreading them or having panic attacks about them. When they are physically hard, it feels totally manageable and like something I am in control of, vs. something that is happening to me.

I don't know how next Sunday is going to go performance-wise (or even which distance I will be running!) but I'm feeling very optimistic. Not PR optimistic, but like I'll be able to put up a strong effort I'll be proud of after, and that's what is important to me right now.

Let's take a look at how the week shaped up despite some unusual scheduling issues:

Training Log: 3 Weeks to ORF 10K (or half marathon??? )

Hello friends! I'm super excited to be connected back with the coach I was working with last year, now that I seem to have the injury-and-utter-exhaustion gremlins back under control. I actually renewed my subscription earlier in February but apparently it didn't process until the 26th, so I went old school for a few weeks & cobbled together a few weeks of training on my own.

My approach was basically to look back at the last time I ran a decent 10K on mostly easy mileage & just a few workouts (it was Race to the End of Summer, Fall 2016, WOW) & see what I did then. I had a bit more mileage under the belt at that point but not WAY less, so I figured using that workout schedule was probably at least a good starting point while I waited for Coach A to build me a proper training plan.

(In other news: For dumb reasons, it's not actually clear whether I'll be running the 10K or half marathon on 3/20, and I'm kind of fine with that?? Like the training isn't meaningfully different, especially when you've only got 4 weeks?? Oh well! 🤷🏻‍♀️)

This week was a little unorthodox since we spent the weekend skiing in Tahoe, but I still managed to get some quality training in.

Training Log: 4 Weeks to ORF 10K & uhhhh doing nothing has made me faster???

Remember weekly training logs? I am bringing them back. Honestly when I started blogging lo these many years ago, I never could have anticipated how useful it is to be able to look up EXACTLY what you did during a particular stretch of training and EXACTLY how you felt about it at the time. Strava is great & all but if there is one thing I have learned by now it's that splits never tell the whole story.

With four weeks to go until the 10K, it seemed like a good time to at least start doing some kind of speed work. Now, if you don't remember, I was really, REALLY struggling with speed work last summer and fall, both from a staying-healthy standpoint and also just a getting-faster-and-feeling-not-like-ass-everyday standpoint. On 9/23, two days before Wharf-to-Wharf three miler, I pulled my hamstring at the track running 200m's after months of that hip joint feeling off and doing a ton of strength and PT work that just didn't seem to be helping. Things have really been going much, MUCH better after taking 3.5 months almost completely off, but I was still feeling a bit nervous about going to the track for the first time since pulling that hamstring.

Oh and did I mention I pulled that hamstring on 200m rep #6 of 12? And this past Tuesday's workout was 8 x 200m? I did! And it was! I could tell you I wasn't perseverating on this a little as I jogged to the track but that would be a big, fat lie.