The eighth month of the year is behind us, incredibly, and in my household anyway, we have already returned to the thick of it with school beginning and all the other concomitant obligations and priorities. It’s sorta like going from zero to 100. I almost forgot to write my July training recap — and then completely forgot to post about it on instagram or fb — but the world kept turning, so here we are.

 

What to say about my training in August? To be honest, not a whole lot. The name of the game was recover from racing TSFM, and it took the better part of the month to get there. I’m still not quite sure why it took my body so long to recover from SF — you’d think that after doing more than thirty of these things, I’d be able to predict it a little better — but it did. It was peculiar only because I knew my training had been solid going into the race, and post-race, I didn’t have any new or residual niggles or injuries come up; instead, it was more just a feeling of total exhaustion, of sludge that seemed to populate my legs and never really leave for a long time. Meh. It translated to a month of my almost-lowest volume this year (121.2, exactly half of July’s), but I sure felt like I needed it. I inadvertently took an entire week off (coinciding with a trip to Disneyland), only raced once (“raced”) to help field a full women’s team for XC, and it has been just within the past two weeks that my legs have finally been like oh yeah hey what’s up when I’ve tried anything beyond just GA or recovery paces.

Having a “down” month in running right at the end of summer was pretty refreshing. I’m so glad I decided against pacing at the Santa Rosa Marathon at the end of August — for once,  I had some foresight, yay! — because it was nice to have a bit of a break after the marathon and not try to rush my recovery, like I had to last year. In the four weeks of August that I wasn’t running a whole lot, not only did my fam and I head to Anaheim for a little getaway, but the girls and I also enjoyed the rest of summer by doing things around the house (bunkbeds!), playing tourists with my sister’s neighbor’s family who was in town for a few days, and gearing up for a packed year of Girl Scouts stuff and lots of other activities that completely escape me now but that are super time-consuming (but also super fun and mega-rewarding).

 

 

The end of the month marked a “soft beginning” to CIM training, though it likely won’t begin in earnest for a couple weeks still. I’m excited to return to the race — along with a bevy of my teammates and buddies from other teams! — and to train through the gorgeous autumnal weather in SJ (which usually equates to “cool and crisp in the morning and summer-like in the afternoons”). We’ll throw in some XC action into the mix, plus maybe a couple road races this fall, and December will be here before we know it.

 

---

Racing: Just the Santa Cruz XC Challenge in mid-to-late August. I haven’t gotten around to writing a RR about it, and it’s like three weeks ex post facto by now, so suffice it to say that I probably won’t. (You can read last year’s recap and imagine it was pretty similar this time around). The course was the same or very similar to last year, and we had a much bigger team turnout than before. It was a warmer day, I still wasn’t feeling recovered from SF, and I ended up running about 2 minutes slower (bah) than last year (and in the process, sorta lost a toenail). No matter; it’s a pretty course, and I love the opportunity to see my teammates and other buddies. It’s always the company that makes this stuff so enjoyable and memorable.

Running: Basically all easy miles and just a handful of trail runs in August. I went back to MP for the first time since January, and it was just a few weeks after part of the hills had caught on fire. Sadly, some of the hillsides were still very black and a bit apocalyptic (and even still smelled smoky). On another weekend morning, Janet, Saurabh, and I hit ARP, and my nose exploded 2.5 miles into the run, which was … amusing.

 

 

Reading: Eh. I think I mentioned it in July, but I started The Handmaid’s Tale and didn’t get too far with it. Same goes for Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness. Very surprisingly to me — since I say that I don’t particularly enjoy reading fiction anymore — I picked up Crazy Rich Asians at the library and just had a blast with it. That said, I have zero desire to see the movie — I’ll do one or the other, but never both — but definitely would recommend the novel if you want something fun for a change. Since finishing that, I began Ben Rhodes’ The World As It Is and am making my way through it.

Eating: I had to put this on here this month because I had the impossible burger twice in August, once at The Counter and again at the Cheesecake Factory. I’m an unpretentious eater, generally speaking, but after being vegetarian for more than a decade (and being almost-vegan for most of that), experience has taught me that veggie burgers are not created equally. I had heard about the impossible burger and hadn’t thought twice about it, writing it off as a stupid gimmick, but when I saw that it was available at the aforementioned two places here in town, I gave it a try. It was good! I can’t really comment to how “meat-like” it tasted or its mouth feel (because let’s be honest, I don’t exactly remember what a burger feels like anymore), but I enjoyed it. For what it’s worth, the Counter prepared it medium well, and I think that tasted better than how CF prepared it.

Cooking: Probably like the rest of the running world, I picked up Shalane and Elyse’s new cookbook this past month and have enjoyed working through some of the recipes. I haven’t made tons from it yet, but everything I’ve made (the can’t beet me smoothie, the chicken cannellini bean soup [sans chicken], presto pesto, superhero muffins with carrots and green apples, and the black bean chipotle burgers) has all been delicious and other-people-approved.

Listening to: Courtney Dauwalter’s interview on I’ll Have Another was super entertaining, and she sounded like such a down-to-earth person in real life that it was almost hard to believe that the same person was such a fierce and formidable ultra competitor. I’ve continued to listen to the same IVF-focused podcast that I’ve listened to pretty regularly for the past year-plus, and I won’t give away any spoilers, but it has gotten super interesting of late. Just within the past week or so, I began listening to Lauren Fleshman and Jesse Thomas’ Work Play Love series as well, which I have enjoyed much more than I anticipated (and would highly recommend).

Annoyed by: Carelessness? Sure. Exhibit A: the whole fambam was in my van a couple weeks ago, with C driving, and we got rear-ended. We were stationary, and the car who hit us was going probably not much more than 10-15 mph. It was enough to make that horrible sound of metal on metal, and when it was all said and done, it cost more than $1k in repairs to my car. Fortunately — importantly — everyone was ok, but it was aggravating because the guy who hit us was 21 and driving without a license (and presumably, without insurance). Everything’s done and over and taken care of by now, and like I said, fortunately, no one was hurt, but seriously: it’s aggravating how careless (or selfish, or however you want to describe this type of behavior) people can be sometimes. 21 years old and without a license??? And still driving a car (that wasn’t his)?! Grrrrr….

Anticipating: Everything. Every day is a new adventure, rife with potential and endless opportunity. How’s that for motivation 😛