Monthly Summary – August 2015
August was a transition month for me. I’m transitioning from surgery recovery to active surgery recovery. I’m also in the middle of a professional transition and I have a lot to say about that, but I’ll spare the readers of this blog from that. For now.
For the first half of the month, my activity was limited to walks around the neighborhood, but around mid-month, I was able to start doing a little hiking and getting in the pool for some easy swimming. The swimming came back pretty quickly and even though I’m definitely not pushing it yet, I’ve been able to swim consistently, with increasingly long swim sessions and even some faster sets mixed in here and there. I also started PT a couple weeks ago and am going once a week, mostly to do core strengthening and stretching. And yesterday, I went for a very short run to test out my legs. Everything seemed to work ok and my fingers are very tightly crossed that it will “take”. I know my hips and low back are still pretty tight from the surgery and recovery, so I’m being very careful about not pissing those muscles and tendons off. Thankfully, I’m not in any rush. And I’m really just happy to be able to do whatever I can!
My goal for September is to continue swimming and working on the PT and strength work and to slowly ease my way back into running. I don’t plan on running a ton, but it would be nice to get back out into the mountains a bit.
I read four books in August. All of them were good, but I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson was my favorite of the month. It’s a really wonderful story and I really got into the fraternal twin brother and sister who are the main characters. Sometimes you love them and sometimes you hate them and that’s pretty indicative of a good storyteller. The Power of the Dog and The Cartel by Don Wilson are a very different kind of fiction from I’ll Give You the Sun. Both of those books are about a DEA agent and his obsessive battle against Mexican drug cartels. The line between good guys and bad guys sometimes gets a little messy but one thing is for sure, there is a lot of intrigue and corruption and lots and lots of death. The Power of the Dog tells the story between the 1970’s and the 1990’s and The Cartel picks it back up in the 2000’s. I liked The Power of the Dog a little better, but once you read that one, you’ll want to read The Cartel too. Missoula, by John Krakauer, isn’t a fun read, but it’s not supposed to be. The book is a disturbing look at the prevalence of acquaintance rape and how poorly it is often handled by university officials, law enforcement and the judicial system. He does this by examining the situation at the University of Montana and focusing specifically on a few individual recent cases there. He certainly makes his point but I would have liked for him to write more about the broader, national situation, instead of focusing so closely on one community. On the other hand, telling a broad story by concentrating on some individuals is how Krakauer usually tells his story. Follow me on Goodreads if you’re interested in the books I read.
Here’s August by the numbers:
Swim: 16,885 meters
Cycling (outdoors): 0 miles
Run: 1.4 miles
Total Run Elevation Gain: 20 feet
Strength Training/Yoga: 2 sessions
Approximate monthly total training time: hours
Weight: 158