Trail Run or My Longest Run So Far

I think I am ready for the Irvine Lake Mud Run and I really think I can do the Camp Pendleton Mud Run if I keep my running up. Here's why.

Last night, I left work a little early and met up with Daniel at a nearby county park. We headed out for a trail run. The route we did was supposed to be 5.2 miles round trip, but we didn't have any way to measure that ourselves.

Going in was mostly uphill. Believe me, that got tiring. But for the most part, it was gentle enough it wasn't too bad.

Our ultimate destination was a waterfall back in a canyon. Okay, waterfall is a generous phrase. It only has water in it if we've gotten a lot of rain and/or recent rain. There is a little part where it is in free fall, but most of the "fall" is actually cascading down the rock. Still, I'd heard about it before, so it was nice to actually see it.

Now there is some discussion about how far we actually ran. Daniel is claiming 5 miles, I'm claiming closer to 4. See, the last section is on some great hiking trail, but not great running trail, so we walked it. But only when we reached a spot where we could see the falls did we really stop for a rest. And coming back we kept moving, too.

I know I've never come close to running 4 miles before, so no matter how far we actually ran, I know this is the farthest I have ever run. And when we got back, I was tired, but not ready to drop over.

Irvine Lake is in 10 days, and it's 3.9 miles. Yes, I may need to walk for a few minutes, but I'm hoping the obstacles will serve as a good resting point. I'm not planning to run more than 3 miles at a time between now and then.

Yes, I will have to increase my mileage for Camp Pendleton, which is 6.2 miles. But I am focusing on the immediate goal first. I figured that Irvine Lake would be a good way to make sure I am on target and to see if there are any things I will need to adjust. I think it will be just that.

I've been alternating between looking forward to it and worrying about it as the date came rushing toward me. Now, I'm just looking forward to it. I'm going to have a blast. And I know, barring something unforeseen, I can cross the finish line and not be ready to collapse.

That Was a Relaxing Weekend At Home?

In case you haven't noticed, I've been a little busy on weekends recently. And I've got another long, crazy stretch in front of me in April. So I was looking forward to this weekend as a slow, quiet weekend at home.

Yeah, right!

Okay, so Friday night I actually spent at home just vegging, watching the special features on the season 1 set of Castle I just got.

But Saturday started bright and early. I headed down to Burbank to catch Waking Sleeping Beauty in one of its limited engagement theaters. I wound up meeting up with Angelique and her friend John there. We had both talked about going to see it then, and then decided at the last minute to actually go see it. Naturally, I enjoyed it. How could this Disney fan not enjoy it?

From there, I raced down to Westwood. Well, maybe raced isn't exactly the right word since I was taking some of the notoriously slow freeways in LA. I got there in time for a book signing by John Vorhaus, aka JV. I've been playing ultimate Frisbee with JV for years, so when I found out he'd written a mystery, I had to get a copy. Sounds like a fun read, so I'm hoping I will enjoy it when I get to it.

From there, I headed to my ultimate Frisbee pick up game. Four of us showed up, but we just threw the disc around for about an hour, then I left.

Believe it or not, I actually spent some time at home at that point. Ate dinner, wrote a review, watched an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Then Daniel and I headed out to see The Nut Farm, a comedy play from 1929. It was pretty funny, and we both enjoyed it.

It's no wonder I over slept Sunday morning and missed the first 20 minutes of church, isn't it?

Actually, Sunday wasn't much out of the ordinary. I went to church, went over to Joe and Erica's in the evening, and hung out at home in between catching up on TV and doing some reading.

So, yes, it was a good weekend. But it wasn't as quiet as I had hoped. I'm hoping this next weekend will be quiet enough that maybe I can get a movie or two off my DVR. After all, I have three that have been on there since June. But I'm not holding my breath.

How's This for Something Different?

Thanks to my blogging buddy Luis, I found this page to change your blogger template. Looks like it is something that blogger is beta testing right now. Considering I've been tired of my template for a while and wasn't that big a fan of the other options available, I'm thrilled. I love getting to have three columns. And there are so many options for backgrounds I can have fun with this for a long time.

Yes, I did spent way too much time playing around with it this afternoon. I think I have it the way I want it, which is pretty basic, but I might play around with it a bit more. I like the more solid background to the writing, but I wish you could see more of the background picture. Then again, if you can't read the blog, what's the point of having it, right?

I also got rid of all those blog rings I've had on my blog since I started it. It looks like many of them are abandoned and rign surf changed things so much that I didn't like their new service. You get lots of ads for them and a link to an ad filled page listing other blogs in the ring. Um, what about those links that used to send you right to the next blog? Plus you had to fill out 1000 characters on your blog, and it had to be different for every blog. That's a lot!

So what else has been going on?

That's a good question. It seems like it's been a busy week, but I can't for the life of me figure out why. I think that's a sign I'm watching too much TV. I'd worry, except I expect several shows to be canceled this year, so hopefully I can cut back next year. (Yes, I hear you laughing now. Just because I've said that every year I've kept this blog doesn't mean I won't follow through this year. And in other news, I have this bridge to sell you.)

In TV news, if you haven't seen this week's Lost yet, you are in for a treat. I felt like lots of stuff about the show got explained. I am very anxious to see how what we now know all plays out. And I think I am really going to like this show when it is over. And they've added a twist to my least favorite character on 24, which just makes me want that person gone even more. Even knowing what the cliffhanger was on Castle, I'm very glad I didn't see it until last night. Can't wait for the next new episode. And Chuck has the best writing and acting on TV right now, period. If you aren't watching, you are missing out.

I've gone running to days this week, finally running three miles with a big hill in the middle both times. I was going to go for a shorter run this morning, but my roommate decided not to go, and my left leg was feeling very tight, so I went back to bed and read a couple chapters in my book.

I sure do wish I knew what was going on with my left calf. It is really starting to worry me how it feels.

Think that's about it for now. Got movies, plays, a book signing, and hopefully some ultimate this weekend. And this is supposed to be a quiet weekend.

Book Beginnings on Friday - March 26th

So, I'm hoping to start participating in the new weekly meme from Page Turners called Book Beginnings on Friday. The idea is to share the first sentence of your current book and talk about whether you like it or not.

I am currently about 70 pages from the end of Dem Bones' Revenge by Kris Neri. I'm actually going to cheat and include the first paragraph, aka the first two sentences. And they are:

"You do see I have no choice, don't you, Tracy?" the breathy voice said over the
phone. "I have to kill you."

Now if that's not going to catch your attention and make you keep reading, I don't know what will. That, to me, is a great beginning. And it sets up a great first page that introduces the main character and allows the humor of the novel to come through.

I plan to finish the book today, so check back next week for a full review of it.

Word Association for March 24th

Let's get in this week's word association, shall we?

1. Burrito :: Bean and Cheese
2. Spike :: Buffy
3. Tougher :: Than Nails
4. Mock :: Laugh
5. Slurp :: Drink
6. Knock :: Door
7. Conference :: Room
8. Madness :: is Spreading
9. Minds :: Empty
10. Connection :: Terminated

St. Pat's Hat 2010

This last weekend was the annual St. Pat's Hat Ultimate Frisbee tournament hosted by LAOUT. Last year, I was on the winning team, and I was thrilled to see that four of my 18 or so teammates were from that team last year.

While in year's past, they have tried to stick wtih green team names (while throwing in one or two non-green), this year they completely threw that out the window, using the colors from the Lucky Charms cereal to name the teams. As a result, i was on one of the Blue Teams, nick named Magic Mirrors. (Blue Magic Mirrors? Don't know where that came from, but we'll go with it.)

Saturday is always a fun day. It's all about rankings. We played four games with one bye round. Unfortunately, our bye was the second round. I always prefer third or fourth over first or second.

And Saturday was when I felt I made my best contributions. I threw two scores, although I didn't catch the disc in the end zone for any scores this year. I was getting open quite a bit and completing most of the discs I threw.

We had a complete rookie on our team, and she did well as well, scoring a couple of times. AJ and Rod were our superstars, and plenty of plays came through them. But, as AJ pointed out before our first game, you need to use every player to win a tournament, and I truly felt like we did.

We won all four of our games on Saturday. Unfortunately, only one team got a first round bye on Sunday, and we weren't the only team with a perfect record. The other team had a better point differencial, so we had to show back up at 9:30 Sunday morning.

That first Sunday game was about our only blow out. From there on, the games got tougher. And everyone takes Sunday games more seriously because you keep advancing if you win. As soon as you loose, you start in the consiliation rounds. Both the quarter final and semi-final rounds were very close. In fact, we came back from a 4 point deficet to win the semi-final round.

And then we hit the finals. That turned out to be a pretty big blow out. We traded points for the first few points, then started pulling ahead. We took half 8-4 and the final score was 14-8.

That's, right! I am now a two time St. Pat's Hat Champion!!!!!!

This year, the prize for the winners was some sweet shorts, too. I'm really happy with them.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like I played my best on Sunday. I only got the disc once that I remember, and wound up throwing it away.

And overall, I wasn't as fast as I had hoped I would be. I ran hard, but I could rarely keep up with my guy. What happened to all that speed I thought I had last weekend?

Still, it was a very fun tournament. I felt like the team gelled. While we certainly had our superstars, we didn't have any egos. It was always make the smartest throw not force it to one person in particular.

It also helped that we had a very large squad. We had two full squads plus one. Many of the other teams seemed to have about four subs total. Even so, most of the games were close, like within 4 points when it ended.

I even went to the party this year. Okay, so I mainly wanted to find out if we had that first round bye or not, but I'm glad I went. The food was good and plentiful, although there were longs lines to get it and it wasn't coming fast enough at first. When I left, there was plenty of food sitting out there waiting to be eaten, so it was just a matter of timing.

The weather was perfect this year, too. Granted, it had been nice all week. Saturday was sunny with temps in the low 80s, I'm sure. Sunday was overcast most of the day, but a this overcast. There was more of a cooling breeze, but it was still very pleasant to be outside both days. We had two people on our team who had come down from Canada, and they thought the weather was perfect. Frankly, so did I.

Spring Reading Thing 2010 List

Here it is the first day of Spring, which means it is officially time to start Spring Reading Thing 2010. I am spending most of the day playing ultimate Frisbee, but I've been putting together a mental list for a while now. We'll see how I do at remembering them all now. :)

Books from last Spring's list I still haven't read:
Exposure by Brandilyn Collins
Double Minds by Terri Blackstock

Books from Fall Into Reading 2009 I still haven't read:
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Offworld by Robin Parrish
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman
Dem Bone's Revenge by Kris Neri

Other books I hope to/plan to read:
Death of a Trophy Wife by Laura Levine
Magic and Other Misdemeanders by Michael Buckley
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Set Sail for Murder by R. T. Jordan
Rolling Thunder by Chris Grabenstein
Revenge for Old Time's Sake by Kris Neri
Corpse on the Cob by Sue Ann Jaffarian

That's thirteen books, or just over four books a month. I will probably get through more than that. But I can't seem to remember any more of my list right now, so I am going to try something new. I am going to start with a list I know I can get through, and then add to it anything else that strikes my fancy. So maybe I can get through my official list for a change this Spring since normally I list more books than I can possibly read and wind up with several books left over.

Stay tuned to find out.

3/20 Update:

So I found out today at the ultimate Frisbee tournament that one of my Frisbee buddies has a mystery novel that just came out and he's having a launch party in one of my favorite bookstores next Saturday. Guess what I'm getting in a week. And I know I will try trying to read it sooner rather than later, so I am adding book fourteen to my list today:

The California Roll by John Vorhaus

3/26 Update:

I remembered another book that should be on my list since I am on the waiting list for it at the library. I'm up far enough I am pretty sure I will get it in May.

The 9th Judgement by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

My Body Thanks Me for Resting

Today, I've been resting from exercising. And my body is very glad.

It started last Sunday with that ultimate Frisbee game.

Monday, I hit the fitness center on my lunch hour. I did some half hearted stuff on the weights and then used the stationary bike for 20 minutes or so.

Tuesday morning, I got up and ran 2.6 miles before work.

Wednesday and Thursday, Daniel and I ran after work. That was a very pleasant activity since it's been in the high 70's/low 80's all week. Spring has definitely hit Southern California, and I am loving it. Anyway, last night, we ran 2.3 miles.

Wednesday run was fun and different. We got dressed for our run, including out running shoes. Then we jumped in one of the pools fully clothed before we started running. Why, you ask? Because it was recommended to test out what you plan to wear at the mud run to see how it will do when wet. We only ran 1.5 miles that day. I have no idea what the people in the pool thought of us, but I got a kick out of it, if only because it was something completely strange.

Now, if you've been adding that up, you'll notice that I ran 6.4 miles in three days. Even when I was running 3 miles consistently, I was taking a day off between runs.

Last night, my legs were definitely feeling it, so instead of watching FlashForward, Daniel and I went and soaked in the hot tub. My legs felt much better after that.

In fact, they've been feeling fine today. But I'm not going to push it. I've got an ultimate Frisbee tournament this weekend. I'll be playing four games tomorrow and at least two on Sunday. I'm resting today so hopefully my legs are ready to run like crazy.

In other news, I've started the roommate search yet again since Craig is moving out at the end of the month to get married.

Tuesday night, I went down to the launch party for Lisa Lutz's new book in the Spellman saga. See, I hadn't gotten enough books signed in the past week. It was fun as always. I'm just over half way through and enjoying it as always.

Speaking of books, I've got to put together my list for Spring Reading Thing. Maybe I'll work on that tonight instead of reading before Bible study.

Mini Review: The Last Illusion

I love history, so at times I wonder why I don't seek out more historical mysteries. But one series I do love is Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy mysteries. Set in the early 1900's in New York City, Molly is an Irish immigrant making a living as a PI. The Last Illusion is the latest in the series and takes place in the world of illusionists.

Molly and her fiancee Daniel, a police detective, are attending a performance of illusionists on a rare night off. The headliner is supposed to be Houdini, but he never gets to go on since one of the warm up acts accidentally saws his assistant in half.

The next morning, Houdini's wife comes to Molly's house and begs Molly to protect Houdini and find out what secret he is hiding. As a result, Molly is at the theater when two more "accidents" take place. Can she figure it all out?

This is definitely one of the stronger books in the series. When it is in top form, the mystery and historical detail combine for a rich tapistry. And that's the case here. The plot starts quickly and never slows down, yet the period feel is there on every page. And the inside look at how some of those tricks are done is enjoyable as well.

Plus I love these characters, especially Molly and some of her more flamboyant friends. I think I've even grown to like Daniel since I didn't think he was completely in the wrong in some of his arguements with Molly this time around.

All told, this is a very well done and highly entertaining book. Don't miss it.

Word Association for March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, let's get to this week's word association.

1. Children :: School
2. Saddlebags :: Horse
3. Restraint :: Bound
4. Awake :: Morning
5. Blood :: Cut
6. Shutter :: Island
7. Posted :: Review
8. Corn cob :: Summer
9. Flagrant :: Disrespect
10. Fart :: Ew!