Track Tuesday & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It's Tuesday again, the day I've been dreading... Track Tuesday.  On the docket today was 2 x 1 mile repeats, though in reality I should have done 3.  I thought I might, but after 2 my legs felt SO dead.  I did one slow mile around the gym during Girls on the Run practice (inside practice AGAIN, suck) then came home and did 5 more miles outside with my 2 x 1 mile repeats.  


Mile repeat splits: 7:34, 7:36


5 miles in 42:22 (AP: 8:28) plus the extra mile earlier.

It was sprinkling / raining the whole time.  Happy to be done!

Since I hate speedwork so much and need all the motivation I can get, Denise at Run DMT had a great idea for us to team up to try and motivate each other through our torturous track workouts, and we hope you might join us!  Starting next week, we will be hosting  a new running linky party called “Track Tuesday”.  To join our Track Tuesday Team, do your speed work on Tuesday or any day that works best for you, blog about your times and remember to add our cool Track Tuesday button to your post.  Then, link up your post at either Ricole Runs or Run DMT.  Please support other virtual running partners on the Track Tuesday Team by visiting their blogs.  Give them a virtual high-five and leave some comment love too.

In book news, it's been a while since I read a book I was really excited about.  I've read a lot of entertaining and / or mediocre books lately, but none that I was dying to tell you about or to shout from the rooftops "GO READ THIS NOW!"  And that makes me sad.  Because there's nothing I like better than telling everyone I know to go read something.  Except maybe telling everyone I know to go sign up for a race.  That's fun too.  

But then I read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Truth be told, I wasn't even going to read this.  I got it from the library and almost took it back unread.  I'm not one for sad books and I knew, given the topic (9/11), that this was going to be a depressing one.  I didn't have much of a desire to see the movie either.  But I ran out of audiobooks so I popped this one in.

AND I LOVED IT.  You must read it.  Amazon describes it like this: "Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11." 

There is nothing else to say except to reiterate that I loved it.  It was much more complex than I thought it would be, much less about 9/11 than I thought it would be, much less sad than I thought it would be, and so much better than I thought it would be.   READ IT.

Then I watched the movie.  It was fine.  It was entertaining.  JMan said it was "not bad", and he hadn't read the book.  The book was WAY better. though  Just like my past experiences show.  The movie took some major liberties with the plot, which was understandable because like I already mentioned, the book was extremely complex.

In conclusion, do track workouts with Denise and I, and read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  The end.

How did your speedwork go this week?  Will you participate in Track Tuesday?!  And have you read and / or watched Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?  What did you think?