Monthly Recap! Summer 2019

Posted September 12, 2019 by Wendy in recap / 0 Comments

So it has been awhile since my last recap! I’m combining all the summer months here HA. It has just been a very jam packed, busy but wonderful summer! I always have dreams of all this reading getting done over the summer months but more often than not, I’m so busy doing all sorts of things that I get WAY less reading done over the summer! Do you find that’s the case for you?

Favorite Things In June, July, August:

Races

I ran the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in June and got to do Ragnar Northwest Passage in July again with my amazing friends and van fam! I was runner 11 which meant I got to run across Deception Pass and it was actually light enough during my run to see the view! (~5 AM?)

ragnar northwest passage team photo and rock n roll half finisher

I did the Chelanman Try-a-Tri — basically a sprint tri but the swim distance is only 400 meters which I needed! This was such a challenge for me because I hadn’t swam in like a decade. I am not a good swimmer but I got in some solid swimming training in and the hardest part – getting in open water swimming. It freaked me out and I almost decided to just quit. I never even said much about this on social media so that I could maybe quit and not have anyone know. But… that’s not me and I pressed on despite how anxious I was to tackle it. I’m so glad I did it though and very proud of myself! 🙂

Hiking and backpacking

The pacific NW has the most beautiful locations! My husband and I did many hikes and a few overnight backpacking trips this summer and it was so much fun. I’m hoping to still get in one more backpacking trip maybe?? We’ll see how the weather holds out!

We also took on a really hard hike for my birthday last week! It’s an area called the Enchantments but is such a sensitive alpine area that permits are extremely limited for overnight backpacking (we have entered the lottery every year to no avail). So we decided to do it in one day – 22ish miles, 5000+ ft and about 13 hours. It was gorgeous and well worth it! It was a great way to spend my birthday!

I did a really fun Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt with some friends that was such a good time! It was all over the Seattle area and there were some very inventive clues, puzzles and activities and challenges to complete! I hope they have it again next year because we had such a great time! We didn’t win but… maybe next time!

Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt by Optimism brewing

Book Events

I got to see Pierce Brown again on tour for Dark Age! My best friend Rebecca and I are such big fans and were so excited to see him again – we recreated our picture with him from his last tour a few years back and were also very ecstatic that he remembered us.

Pierce Brown Dark Age tour. Picture with howler #1

Month In Review:

[26 Jul] AI Space Adventures: Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff

[20 Aug] TTT: Top Favorite Tropes
[26 Aug] Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer ★★★★½

Books Read in June, July, August: 7

Books Listened to in June, July, August: 13

Favorite read of the last few months: Call it What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer, The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker and Stolen Time by Danielle Rollins

Challenges Progress:

Goal: “Grand Slam” 21+
This month: (well three months) 6
Progress so far: 16/21

I checked off a few more of the Popsugar Reading Challenge objectives!
A book with a plant in the title or on the cover: √ The Unhoneymooners
A retelling of a classic: √ Pride
A book set on a college or university campus: √ The Chase
Prompt from past Popsugar challenge: √ (from 2018: book about time travel) Stolen Time

Fitness Front:

Injury wise, it’s been over a full year since I hurt my hip and I’m finally running normally although I don’t know that it’ll ever feel the way it did before – I still do all of my exercises/foam rolling/warm up/cool down/stretch every day without fail. The frustrating thing is just this last week or so my LEFT side (my good side!!) has been really tight and acting up. I’m really anxious about it. Been taking it easy with more bodyweight work outs and will be subbing my hill intervals tomorrow with an easier tempo run. Wish me luck!

I just missed running a sub two half at the Rock n Roll Half Marathon which I was really upset about because it would’ve been my first sub 2 half post injury! I just want to get back to where I was before. But I know I have it in me and I’ve definitely made strides since June!

Besides the other events I mentioned in my fave list above, I also ran the Enforcer 5K that was put on by Seahawks former safety Kam Chancellor! I LOVE him and he partnered with the Snohomish Running Company of which I’m am ambassador for. The event was such a great time despite POURING rain and I was really happy to pull out an 8:10 avg pace!

I also am doing a Strong In Fall challenge by Danielle Pascente, a personal trainer that I follow on Instagram. She is genuine, very motivating and has awesome work outs! Plenty of room for modifications to make things easier or harder and easy to tailor for YOU so if you’re interested, check out her page @daniellepascente – late sign ups still open for another day I believe! I’ll be updating my progress on my fitness IG handle @thatreadingrunner if anyone is interested in that content!