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I’m at approx. 2 miles 3x week, plus long run today of 5 miles. I’m not timing anything except intervals–the Forerunner is invaluable now that I’ve finally figured out how to use it for those. I did 9 400m repeats Tuesday, but that sounds like a lot based on stuff I’ve been looking at; more like 3-5 repeats, 400m up to 1600m, crops up in what I’ve found googling. (Maybe not, based on this). Speedwork seems like the most confusing thing! I don’t have much of a goal for Chris Thater aside from equalling my 29:56 finish in 2003. I’m not timing anything, I’m just using the race as a motivation to run. My weight is at about 120 (I was slowly gaining before starting to run again, and on vacation week before last I was running but also eating way more than I normally do!); it would be great to get down to 115 by race day (Aug 28), but again, I’m not taking any of this too seriously. I could, but one thing I learned from the marathon: even though I can do anything I set my mind to–and I guess I can!–the tricky part is the setting. I don’t want to waste my limited (so far) “setting” power on this particular race.

On my long run today I spent most of the time thinking about HP 6, which I finished last night. Hot and sticky!

For a while I was trying to do outside work (digging, weeding, getting rid of invasive plants, etc.) as my exercise, plus some weight-training on my lunchtime. But I can’t really get the same intensity and side-benefits that running gives me. So I started up again. I need a goal, so I’m going to do the Chris Thater 5K again (August 28th). Since I haven’t run in months, I started with a mile a day Tu/Wed/Thu and 2 miles “long run” (ha!) this morning.

Really, nothing compares to running–not just the intensity, but the way it clears my mind and gets me out in nature and weather in a way I love. It’s like my head is full of bits of string that get tangled into a big ball, and running is a sure-fire way to start looseing and straightening and unweaving them. I think I’m happier when I’m running consistently.

To my surprise, googling on that yields nothing, though it seems like a very obvious joke.

Mini-existential crisis–I wrote two new book blog entries, which took forever (maybe 45 minutes each) when they were forgettable books that I though deserved maybe a sentence each; I’ve been asked to do book reviews for a new newspaper & don’t know if I want to/ought to/would regret saying no. How to balance wanting to try & do everything with having the normal spacetime limitations? My coping strategy for most of my life has been to do a bit of what I most want to do at any given moment, then use denial and procrastination to avoid making decisions. Hmm…somehow that doesn’t seem to to turn out particularly well. Strange!

I just finished Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin, which is such a remarkable, mindblowing, thought-provoking book that it made me think of the best books I’ve ever read so that I can put it on the list.

Five Best/Most Interesting/Most Mind-blowing Books I’ve Ever Read (The Ones That Jump to Mind, At Least)

• Chance and Necessity, Jacques Monod
• A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander
• Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstadter
• On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
• Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin

Happy happy birthday to me–and it has been one so far. My birthday tradition is to take the day off work and spend some time thinking about where I am in life, where I want to go, etc. Usually I do a few exercises from whatever self-help book is currently my favorite–this time it was a Cheryl Richardson exercise from her Life Makeovers newsletter–and I re-read what I wrote in previous years. It hasn’t changed much from year to year, which is a good sign. This year was especially rewarding because when I was 35 I had two answers to “if you died right now, what would your biggest regrets be?” One was leaving a big mess behind me (and I’m working on that, although I haven’t made much progress), and the other was not having written my “turkey book” (which was my NaNoWriMo project!) Plus I had said how proud I was to have run two miles the weekend before with very little walking! So with a marathon and a “novel-length work” under my belt, I feel pretty good about 40. I don’t mind getting older as long as I’m satisfied with the amount life I’m getting out of my years–and I am, today. Yay running!

I did a slow five miles this morning. I haven’t run in about 3 weeks, since we’ve been away on the weekends and the dark cold mornings have been a disincentive I haven’t been able to conquer. But I haven’t fallen as far back as I feared. Despite stopping for quite a while (and I haven’t turned the Forerunner’s autopause back on yet) for some dog time, I still averaged 11:16 per mile. Total 56:16, splits 11:00, 11:25, 10:55, 11:49, 11:05.

It’s been amazingly warm for the time of year. On a mid-November run the ponds were iced over and Stanley Lake was partially frozen, but it melted again and today there was no snow or ice anywhere, with temps in the forties–great for running. Partially cloudy, windy, with a tiny bit of spitting rain at times. My dog time was spent trying to get the boxers on Schoolbus Hill to come over and say hi. The younger one (brindled and white) wouldn’t get closer than a few hundred feet and would turn and run as I approached. The older one (standard fawn color) joined the younger but wouldn’t come over either, even though he’s come up and greeted me plenty of times before–but that’s when the tubby black mutt led the way. Interesting dog personality variations!

I haven’t been doing much running, but I wrote and wrote and wrote and I’m finished with my “novel-length work!” The NaNoWriMo zaniness really worked for me. I reread enough to pick an excerpt for my author profile, and I was surprised to find a section that wouldn’t make me blush too much to reveal in public, so maybe it’s not quite as bad as I fear. But I’m setting it aside until January, when I can come back to it with more detachment.

I need to pick a December project–and I definitely want to get back to running–but I’m still basking in my achievement, artificial as it may be!

I said no blogging until I’d met my quota, but maybe I’ll do at least one entry a week. I’m at almost 8,000 words, so well behind where I “ought” to be (14,000 by the end of today)–I’m not whining, just saying!–and a lot of that has to do with the election. I have been in a deep depression since Black Wednesday and I’m just starting to come out of it. I haven’t burst into tears today, so that’s a first. I tried to run five miles yesterday but ended up composing an open letter to my community in my head (not sure if I’ll actually do anything with it) about how alienated I feel right now. For the first time since we moved here almost 15 years ago I wonder if we made a mistake. I’ve put so much of myself into my work and into my volunteer efforts…. Anyway, I started actually crying while I was running and then I couldn’t breathe, so I had to walk. I ran maybe 2 1/2 miles off and on.

Today I feel much better, I think because I have a course of action (write the letter) and I’ve gotten a lot of the emotion out (thanks to everyone who let me cry on their shoulder). So, not much writing done, but I did run a proper five miles around 4pm. I didn’t bother to bring the Forerunner, just got dressed & went.

It was a lovely warm day for November. I saw the young kinda-crazy black lab who lives on 267, then the bigger one who’s on Canada Road–I *thought* they were two different dogs but I haven’t seen them on the same day before. The bigger one, who used to be a little shy of me, came right over and leaned against my legs as I petted him or her (haven’t checked sex). On my way up the hill I caught a flash of orange. There were 5 or 6 pumpkins in the woods next to the road–for a second I thought they had grown there, then it almost looked like they had fallen out of a tree. Obviously they were tossed there to get rid of them and they’ll get eaten.

At the top of the hill there were my friends the tubby lab/shepherd mix and the boxer, so I got to pet them too. A good dog day! Lots of people were out in their yards because it was so beautiful. As I rounded the lake, the clouds started coloring from the sunset. It was an especially nice one–lots of shifting shades of pink, blue, and crimson. It’s a great time of day to run. I saw my fifth dog, a Scottish terrier, on a lead with 3 guys walking along the road. I said hello and the guy holding the leash said hi in kind of a clipped, not-that-friendly way. Oh well.

OK, back to various types of writing. I’ll be trying to catch up this week, but again, no whining & no beating myself up!

My average speed is almost 2,000 words an hour! Of course, this is on the first day when inspiration is at its height. I’m not sanguine enough to feel confident, but it’s sure heartening. I’m well over quota for today at 2,270 (no blog entry if I don’t meet my quota!) and still had time to write a book blog entry I needed to write (because it was a review copy).

Thank goodness my Inner Editor was whisked away to a kennel by Chris Baty:

[T]his month you’ll leave your Inner Editor here with me at the fully licensed, board-certified No Plot? No Problem! Inner Editor Kennel–where it can spend its days carping with other Inner Editors, happily pointing out typos in the newspaper and complaining about the numerous plot holes on daytime television.

It will be very, very happy here.

(there’s an actual button to touch in the book, which I did first thing when I woke up this morning) Thank goodness, because what I’ve written so far is really terrible. But that’s OK. Quantity, not quality!

Another 5-miler this afternoon, and I composed the opening scene and closing paragraph of Turkey Season in my head! Not in exact sentences, but the feel of it. This should get me off to a good start tomorrow, I hope. 55 minutes, splits 10:53, 10:09, 11:15, 11:49, 10:52. I started with a 3/3 rhythm but I almost bonked around mile 2 (I was clammy and had jello legs, but they didn’t turn to lead) & just let my mind wander after that. Heavy steel-gray clouds with some clear sky at the horizon; as I rounded Stanley Lake, the sun came out and lit up the remaining brown and orange leaves in the most incredible, saturated golden light. The glowing hills against the dark blue-gray sky were breathtaking. Glimpses of the surface of the lake through the trees looked like a solid gray substance–the water was riffled in the wind but not reflecting the light, so it was matte and opaque.

I might or might not get to the second Snowflake Pattern planning step, or do the Magna Carta exercises in No Plot? No Problem!, but I’m feeling excited and ready to get started tomorrow. I’m also feeling hopeful about the election. Election Night is going to be a NaNoWriMo fest, as people stay up writing waiting for the results. My plan is to stay up no later than 2am, no matter what; before that time, I write until we have a President. If Kerry wins, it’ll be such a weight lifted that I’ll sail through the rest of the month. I don’t even want to think about him losing.

But no matter what your political beliefs, get out there and VOTE!!!!

One-sentence summary: An animal-loving city girl moves to the country and meets a wild turkey hen she can mysteriously communicate with–but school and turkey hunting season are starting.

Ehh, not so great. It’s 28 words long, whereas Randy recommends 15 or shorter. He also says it should tie the big picture to the personal picture–I think it does that.

A transplanted city girl meets a wild turkey hen and finds they can talk to each other–but hunting season is coming. (22)

In the woods, before hunting season, a city girl meets a wild turkey hen and discovers they can communicate. (19)

OK, that’s good enough for now.