Marathon Training - Week 1

Marathon training has commenced!!  YIKES!!  I can't believe I am going to do this.  I just hope I'm not getting into something I cannot do.

The first day was easy.  For me Sundays are my cross training days.  Sunday is the Lord's day and as a believer, I am in church faithfully every Sunday.  As a result, trying to do a long runs on that day is not possible.  My long runs are Saturdays.

I overslept on Sunday so I decided to wait and do it in the evening.  It was later then normal when I got home due to our Quarterly Business Meeting.  I still did my workout.  I did 1k on my treadmill and then a 15 minutes core workout.  It might have been a short core workout but I felt it for a couple days!

Monday I worked late and didn't get home until after 7.  It was cold and it was raining and I was hungry.  It was all things that normally keep me in, but out the door I went and did a 3k run!

Tuesday I made sure to leave work on time.  Not only did I need to do a 5k run, but I was trying to get my nephew out for a run as I'm taking him on the youth run for the bluenose in a little over 2 weeks.  It was raining and it was raining hard.  Within just a couple of minutes I was soaked to the skin.  As I was running past Sobeys (local grocery store) there was a bright flash followed by thunder.  I kept going. I told myself if it did it again, I would turn back.  I begin to wonder as it started to rain harder if I was nuts.  I did it though.  I got a 5k run in.   I was a drowned rat and soaked to the skin.  It was awesome!

Wednesday is another cross training day.  Between work and our mid-week service at church its another day where cross training is easier.  I walked for about 3k after work.  Big mistake.  I was in work shoes.  My feet ached for days and I have a blister on the bottom of my big toe on my left foot.   I didn't do anything else.  Can you really count walking as cross training.

Thursday was to be a 3k run.  I went out after work to get a friend's wedding gift and a new dress for the wedding.  I didn't run when I got home.

Friday (for the first week only) was to be a cross training day.  It was a long work day with JOY Club in the evening.  (A kids club I work in at my church.)  I should have done it when I got home.  I didn't.

Saturday - long run day.  I should have done 10k today.  I didn't.  I slept in.  I didn't get up until after 11.  I had no time after that as I needed to get ready for my friend's wedding.  It's after 9pm now and I haven't done it.  I enjoyed the wedding.  It was great, but I should have gotten up early enough to run.

I told myself from the start I needed to stay dedicated to what I was doing.  For the first 3 days I did.  I followed the schedule and followed my diet and watched what I ate.  It went down hill after Wednesday.  The first week didn't go well.  I hope the second goes better.

I'm looking at my training schedule and Tuesdays are going to be hard.  How I"m supposed to run over 10k after working all day, I'm not sure.  I need to motivate myself better somehow.  I still have JOY Club for another 4 weeks.  (Our closing is June 2 and after that Friday's are free in the evening.)  How I am going to get a run in that night, which will usually be 6k, I don't know.  I need to get myself up early enough to go in the morning before work, but I struggle to get up in the morning on time for work as it is.  

I hope I can do this. I hope I stick to the plan better for Week 2 then this week.  Given the weather, I will have plenty of experience of running in the rain this week!  I just hope shoes can dry fast enough between runs!

Fatal Frost by Nancy Mehl

Fatal Frost starts off with getting your adrenaline rolling and it doesn't stop until the end of the book.

US Marshal Mercy Brennan has recovered from being wounded on duty.  She is unaware that her recent reunion with her father has put her high on the watch list of the post power street gang in the city.  Her boss assigns Deputy US Marshal Mark St Laurent and Lieutenant Tally Williams to protect her.  As they leave to "protect a witness" they soon realize that the storm they encounter will be the least of their worries.  As they dangers around they amount will the help they need be able to get to them on time?

This books is full of action from the start to the end.  You are drawn into the story from the very start and you don't want to put it down until you are done.  The suspense in the book keeps you guessing all the way through.  You get hints here and there but not to enough to make you figure it all out.  

The romance is not just between Mercy and Mark but also in the close friendship between Mercy and Tally.  I enjoyed how Tally and Mercy were able to see how God was able to work in their lives through all that was happening.

I enjoyed this book and definitely can't wait to read more in this serious! 

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.

* NOTE - This will be my last book review.  I've have put a stop to receiving new books.  I have found that I just finish the new ones I got one month and the next months ones arrive.  I have no time to re-read all the books I have on my bookshelves.  I'm taking a break for a bit to read old favorites.  I may sign back up again after a few months.

Out of the Spin Cycle by Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker wrote this book to offer messages of encouragement to mothers.  The book is filled with stories of her as a mom with her kids and offers up encouragements to other moms.  Each chapter has a Bible verse and contains a short lesson.  Each chapter ends with a couple questions to help you reflect on the chapter and what you read.

I have to say this book is not what I was expecting when I saw that it said it was devotions.  I felt it could have contained a lot more Biblical principals and the stories she told to maybe be a little shorter.  I was disappointment in the book.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own. 

Wild Montana Sky by Susan May Warren

Kacey Fairing is a Search and Rescue piolot in the armed forces.  On her recent tour of Afghanistan she was in a devastating crash.  She is on leave for the summer and wants nothing more then to heal emotionally and spend the summer with her daughter.  She gets a job for the summer working for PEAK Rescue.  Her only hope as she returns home to her home town that no one brings up her past mistakes.

Ben King has also returned that summer.  He is reason to stardom on the country music circuit in his hope to heal his broken heart.  He's called home to help with PEAK Rescue when his father is injured. His father has others reason for Ben being home, when he also hired Kacey at the same time.  Neither of them are ready to see each other again and open up the old flames that both Ben and Kacey want to forget and thought were in the past.

Through the summer they work together as their home town is facing devastating floods.  As they work together will they repairs the hurts that have happened or will they turn from each other again, when they really need each other.

Susan May Warren has written a wonderful story.  I love the setting in the story of the small country town.  One where everyone knows everyone.  The story moves along and opens before yours eyes.  Near the end it gets to the point where it's impossible to put the book down!  I can't wait to read more in this series. 

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own. 

Waves of Mercy by Lynn Austin

Anna Nicholson is from high society Chicago.  She comes to Hotel Ottawa in Holland, Michigan after breaking off her engagement to her finance.  She needs time alone to think and learn more about her new found faith.  She has so many questions she wants answered.  While she is there her recurring nightmares she has come back and a lot more frequent.

While at the hotel she meets a hotel worker Derk Vander Veen who is studying for the ministry.  He is able to answer many of the questions she has.  As they talk Derk can't help but see how Geesje de Jonge seems to have a similar story and would be able to help her.

Geesje de Jonge is writing her story.  A story that starts 50 years ago in the Netherlands.  She painfully tells her story of doubts, regrets, hardships and joys.  As her story unfolds, the similar story of her what's happened in her life and in Anna's life links them together in a way that neither expected.

Lynn Austin has written another spell binding novel.  She has such a wonderful way of drawing you and opening your eyes to so clearing see the story (in this case the two stories) that are unfolding before you.  I do have to admit I didn't care for the end (which I don't want to spoil) but I do see where Geesje's advice came from to Anna - though I was hoping for a different end!

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own. 

The Christmas Angel Project by Melody Carlson

Cassidy, Grace, Belinda and Louisa start the Christmas season with a struggle.  Not only are the facing struggles in their lives, that may just change their lives, they face the loss of their good friend Abby,  Abby's husband Clayton passes on to them the Christmas presents Abby had made for them.  Each of them received a handmade angel ornament that was made to look like them.  Together they decide to start a Christmas Angel Project.  Each of them seeks to find a way they can minister and be an "angel" to the people around them.  They agree to meet and report on what they were doing and how they were doing it.  Through it all they learn how not only can they help other people, they also leaned how they could help each other.  Through it all they learn how to open up to each other and how to share their struggles.

Melody Carlson has written a remarkable short story.  It was so great to see how not only can you help people this time of year at Christmas but how you can help each other throughout the year.  It is such a wonderful story that makes you want to cry and cheer along with the ladies as they grow and learn together.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own. 

The Domino Effect by Davis Bunn

Esther Larson is a top risk analyst for one of the country's top banks.  Every since 2008 she has been researching.  She realizes she has uncovered a list of many different things that falling one after the other, like domino's, will make what looked like happened in 2008 seem minor.   As her employer makes more and more "risky" decisions, she realizes there is something she needs to do and she starts speaking out.  She starts broadcasting what she sees coming and what people can do to help themselves.  

Craig Wessex comes into Esther's life when she is struggling with all this.  He is a former accountant and is there to encourage Esther along.  Esther is there to encourage his two daughters who are upset with their father and the change he is making in his life.  When Esther was thinking she had no friends, when she thought she had no one to be there for her, her friends surround her and help her as she speaks up and encourages her along the way.

Davis Bunn has written a remarkable book.  He takes the book of Esther where she states "for such a time as this" and weaves it all throughout the story.  This is a book that you can pick up and not want to put down until you are done.  While it seems the financial aspects of the story might seem to hard to understand, it's written in such a way it's simple and easy to understand what is happening.  It also makes you wonder what is happening in the financial world, and if something like what is talked about in this book could really happen.  

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.