I finished the second to last week of the RW summer run streak yesterday, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm a little shocked that I've made it this far.

Going into this run streak, I figured I'd do it for as long as I could until I inevitably ended up burnt out or with some annoying injury. (I was obviously hoping for the former over the latter.) But even with my unfortunate series of homeowner mishaps last week, I made it through, and now I'm only six days away from successfully completing the streak.



Week five was a pretty good week of running for me. I had a couple of shorter runs here and there, but I also went to the beach for a couple of days, and there's just something kind of magical about running along the ocean. Those three days of beach running really kicked my motivation up a notch to finish this streak strong.



Monday -- 3.1 miles. Started off the week with a solid (and humid) 5K.

Tuesday -- 3 miles. The humidity was no joke again. I love summer, but hate running in the humidity.

Wednesday -- 1 mile. Easy mid-week recovery mile.

Thursday -- 6 miles. Did an awesome run on the boardwalk at the beach. It was super flat, which was such a nice treat after running the DC hills for weeks on end. It also wasn't that humid. I felt like I was cruising right along on this run.

Friday -- 3 miles. My legs were super tired after Thursday's 6 miles, but I just love running on the boardwalk so much.

Saturday -- 1 mile. Tired legs got the best of me and I finished up my beach runs with an easy one miler.

Sunday -- 1 mile. I wasn't feeling overly motivated when I got home from the beach. I think I was just missing the nice beach views. So I did my one mile run to get it done. Also ended up doing a 26.5 mile bike ride later in the day, so was happy to have kept my run short.

Total: 18 miles.

Friends, the fourth week of the run streak was rough -- both mentally and physically.

It was tough mentally because I was really run down and tired all week. So finding motivation to get out the door was hard.

But it was also tough physically because last week my husband and I seemed determined to continually drop heavy pieces of furniture on my left foot.


Enjoy this serene view from our lake front AirBnB before I tell you about our series of mishaps.

It started on Monday when we were hanging some shelves in one of our closets. We had to move a heavy bathroom mirror left over from the previous owners. I tried to readjust my grip on it and it slipped right out of my hands, landed on my big toe and then shattered all over the floor.

Luckily, I just ended up with some serious bruising. I'm fairly confident my toe isn't broken, and I didn't actually cut myself on any of the broken glass.

Fast forward to Friday, when we were unloading the dishwasher. We knocked a wine glass from our cabinet, it shattered all over the counter, and when my husband was trying to grab a bag to collect the glass shards, he knocked a cabinet door off its hinges and it landed smack on top of my foot. My foot swelled and turned a nice purple color.

It was a comedy of errors of glass breaking and my foot taking a beating.

Despite all that, I still managed to run every day. I just had to do a lot of 1 mile runs because of my poor foot.

Monday -- 1.32 miles. We were still out of town so I kept this one short and sweet before we checked out of our AirBnb to head home.

Tuesday -- 3.1 miles. Despite dropping the mirror on my toe the night before, this run actually felt kind of OK. I was ready to stop at 1 mile if my toe bothered me too much, but it was surprisingly fine.

Wednesday -- 1 mile. Felt really run down all day, but at least got something in.

Thursday -- 2 miles. Was still feeling run down when I started this run and had only planned to do one mile, but the endorphins must have kicked in early because I decided to throw in an extra mile before heading home to present on a webinar for work.

Friday -- 3.1 miles. Felt like I was forcibly dragging myself out of bed to do this run, and then had some serious stomach cramping going on the whole time. Not my best run.

Saturday -- 1 mile. My foot was still pretty swollen and bruised Saturday morning after the cabinet door fell on it, so lacing up my running shoe was not the most comfortable. I tried to tie it a bit looser, so it wouldn't put so much pressure on the bruise, but I actually think that made the problem worse since the shoe slid around more. I was very glad when this run was done and I could curl up on the sofa with an ice pack on my foot.

Sunday -- 3 miles. No long run this week with all the things being dropped on my foot, but was excited to be able to go longer than 1 mile without much discomfort.

Total: 14 miles.

Far from my best week of running, but at least I managed to keep the run streak alive. Four weeks down. Two to go!

Week 3 officially marked the half way point of the RW Run Streak. It was also the first time since quarantine started that we'd started making some tentative plans to take a short road trip out of town so we could get a small change of scenery.

Knowing that we might be out of town over the weekend, I tried to front load the week with three milers so that I wouldn't feel too guilty if I ended up doing just a bunch of one mile runs while we were on our mini vacation to celebrate our anniversary.



I also intentionally tried to do some of my runs at a slower pace this week since I can tell the lack of rest days was making my legs feel super heavy. I had mixed results there.

Monday -- 3.1 miles. Nothing too special here just a solid 5K to start the week.

Tuesday -- 3.1 miles. Humidity started creeping back in and my legs felt tired.

Wednesday -- 3.1 miles. I intentionally tried to run this between a 10:30 and 11 minute mile pace. I did OK with that for the first mile, but miles 2 and 3 were closer to 10:15 each. Also squeeze in a short upper body strength session.

Thursday -- 1 mile. I needed a break from three mile runs and it was a thunderstorm-y day, so I squeezed in this quick 1 miler between downpours.

Friday -- 1 mile. This was the first run during the entire run streak where I just had zero motivation. I'm honestly impressed it took me this long to just straight up not want to run. When my alarm went off the thought of running filled me with dread, but I dragged myself out the door and plodded through a mile because I wasn't going to blow up the run streak over one bad day.

Saturday -- 10K. We were blessed with some amazing running weather on Saturday morning, and I was actually excited to go out and run. I did this run really, really slowly and finally felt like I actually truly embraced the concept of a long slow distance run. ("Long" is a bit of a stretch here since my distances are still kind of short). But I felt really good after this run.

Sunday -- 1 mile. This was supposed to be a recovery run, but I was running on a road that was pretty heavily wooded and about half way through I heard something crunching through the brush and it freaked me out, so I picked up the pace to get out of there. (I know that's literally the opposite thing you are supposed to do if there's a bear near you, but I didn't really think it was a bear and I didn't want to stick around to find out. I never really used to be afraid of wildlife on runs, but then a couple years ago went on a really unfortunate hike that has clearly left my traumatized).

Total: 18 miles.

As I've been doing my run streak, I have been getting a bit more lax with my strength training. So I'm going to try to make sure I find time for that. I've built a pretty solid strength base during quarantine and I don't want to lose my momentum there.

Three weeks of run streaking down, three to go!

I've got another week of run streaking under my belt, and still no injuries to report!

One thing I am noticing and really appreciating from running every day is that it forces you to find a routine fast. Right now my schedule is pretty flexible. I'm working from home every day, most things where I live are still closed and I have zero social obligations.

You'd think all that flexibility would make it easier to fit in runs. But for me it's the opposite.



The lack of schedule makes it easier for me to keep pushing a run off until all of a sudden I've procrastinated all day or suddenly it's far too hot or I've been able to come up with many other excuses to just not get it done.

So the run streak is sort of acting in the same way that a race on the horizon does. It's giving me an actual running goal and making it easier for me to prioritize my runs and commit to a schedule that works.

For now, I'm mostly running in the mornings to avoid the heat and I'm still following the majority of "run streak rules" I set for myself in terms of distances and maintaining cross-training.

Monday -- 1 mile. Kicked off the week with a recovery run after Sunday's long run.

Tuesday -- 1 mile. I had planned to do three miles on Tuesday, but with everything that's going on in the world I just didn't sleep Monday night. Lots of stress and anxiety and sadness. I barely had the energy to plod through this mile.

Wednesday -- 3 miles. It was humid as heck.

Thursday -- 1 mile. Again, had planned to do more but ended up stuck in work meetings that went longer than expected. Just got the 1 mile done so I could check the box.

Friday -- 3 miles. Another super humid run.

Saturday -- 5 miles. I had been hoping to do 6, but it was one of the first days I've run in really strong sun and really high humidity, and by the time I got to mile 3.85 I knew I needed to cut this one short. Even though I carried water with me and tried to stick to the shady side of the street, it wasn't enough to keep me from overheating.

Sunday -- 1 mile. Trying to stick to one mile as my post-long run recovery.

Total for the week: 15 miles

Week two of the run streak definitely had me embracing the 1 mile run a bit more often than I'd typically care to, but I was still glad that I was able to get out and get something done.

At one point in May, I had 14 different browser tabs open with lists of book recommendations for quarantine. I maxed out on the number of books I could put on hold from two different libraries, and I also hit the max on the number of upcoming books I could recommend the library buy copies of when they are released later this summer.

We all knew I loved to read, but quarantine has thrown my book love into overdrive.

Here are the 13 books I read in May.

Five Stars

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
I knew the basic premise of this book and that it was told from the perspective of two sisters in Ghana -- one married off to a white man and one sold as a slave and shipped to America. But I didn't realize that the threads of this book follow the generations of ancestors of these two sisters on family line dealing with wars and the growing slave trade in Ghana, one dealing with the impacts of slavery in America. This book was beautifully written, and I can't wait to talk about it in book club later this month.

Four Stars

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
Another great suspense book by Karin Slaughter. This one jumps you back and forth in time between a cult hell bent on creating mass destruction in the world and a present day woman on the run after a local teenager shoots up a diner. The story lines eventually merge together as the woman on the run begins to uncover secrets from her family's past.

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
I was pulled into this book from the minute our protagonist turns down a cringe-worthy proposal at a baseball game in chapter 1, followed pretty much immediately by a meet-cute moment with the guy from a few rows behind her. Fun, fast read.

In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins
This was from one of my "books to read during quarantine lists" and oh my gosh it was the most heart-warming story of two people finding love in a small town on the Finger Lakes. I was pulled in right away and hours flew by while I got completely sucked into the world in the book. I'm looking forward to reading others in the series.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
In the past when I've read books by comedians, they've tended to focus more on the humor than on the deep stuff. While Trevor Noah's book had plenty of deep stuff, he still managed to mix in some humor throughout as he told the stories about growing up in South Africa. I found a few of the essays a little bit slower than others, hence the 4 stars, and I wish there had been a bit about what it was like when he eventually moved to the U.S., but perhaps that will come in a second book.

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
This was the audio book I didn't know I needed. Kendrick e narrates her own book you get to hear her telling you all about her life experiences in her own voice. I laughed a lot while listening to this book, especially when she talked about her time in the Twilight movies and while being on set with Zac Efron. I also typically listen to audio books on 2x speed or else they are so slow, but Kendrick naturally talks pretty fast, so I had to drop down to 1.5x speed to listen to this book.

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
I was keenly looking forward to the release of Jennifer Weiner's newest book, especially after watching a virtual author talk with her during quarantine. This book reminded me why I fell in love with Weiner's books years ago. The story features a plus-sized Instagram influencer that is invited to be a bridesmaid in a high school frenemy's wedding. There's a plot-twist half way through that plunges you into a juicy mystery. So good, perfect for summer.

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
What would Hilary's life look like if she hadn't married Bill? That's the entire premise of this book, and Curtis Sittenfeld weaves a fun, and hopeful, story.

Three Stars

The Herd by Andrea Bartz
A young entrepreneur creates a women's only We Work. There's a waitlist a mile long to become a member and anti-feminist groups constantly threaten the company's founder. When she goes missing before the announcement of a major business merger, the hunt is on to figure out what could have happened to her.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
I listened to this book as an audio book and I thought it started strong, sagged a bit in the middle, before picking up again for a strong finish. Usually with suspense audio books, I'm forcing myself to go on walks so that I can finish the book, but I didn't so much find that with this one. I managed to finish it just before it was due at the library.

Followers by Megan Angelo
A lot of people in my book club really talked up this book, so I was thrilled to finally get it off the waitlist at the library. The story is told in two time periods, the modern day and 30 years in the future. It looks at what happens in modern times when people overshare and seek fame on the Internet and how the world we are living in now isn't sustainable. Instead 30 years in the future we're presented with a very different reality, where everyone has devices planted inside them, no one thinks for themselves and the government controls the Internet. I enjoyed the book overall, but thought parts of it were incredibly slow.

Two Stars

Swing Time by Zadie Smith
I was disappointed by how slow this book moved. The underlying story line was really interesting and it examined a lot of issues around black identity and white people appropriating that identity. But there were just too many unnecessary words that slowed down the plot, and I think distracted from the larger points the author was trying to make.

Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson
This book was incredibly weird, but it was one of those reads that made me go "huh, well look at that parallel she just drew." The story reimagines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the timeline jumps back and forth between Shelley's time writing the book and years into the future where robots basically rule the world. I likely would have given the book three starts, but I found parts of the plot dragged a bit and by the end, I was sort of pushing myself to finish so I could move onto something else.

I successfully made it through my first week of the Runner's World Run Streak!

I'm happy to report that so far I haven't injured myself and I'm doing a good job sticking to the rules I put in place to prevent that.



Here's what my week looked like:

Monday - 5 miles because I procrastinated my weekend long run. Somehow maintained a 9:28 per mile average during the run.

Tuesday - 3 miles. I tried to force myself to go slow. This run clocked in at exactly 30 minutes. That's a slower average than the day before, but probably still too fast for an easy recovery run.

Wednesday - 1 mile. Running one mile was equally incredibly weird, but also incredibly awesome. It was over in 10 minutes. I also did a strength workout later in the day.

Thursday - 3 miles. I did this run at lunch. It was so humid I had to jump in a freezing cold shower to get myself to stop sweating before my 1 p.m. video call.

Friday - 1 mile. The strength workout I did later in the day was a 60-minute suckfest.

Saturday - 3 miles. The humidity finally broke a bit so this run was actually fairly pleasant.

Sunday - 5 miles. My legs were feeling the 7 consecutive days of running. They felt super heavy when I started this run. So I gave myself permission to do anywhere from 1-5 miles. I think knowing that mentally I could bail at any point in this run actually made it easier for me to do the full five miles, though I had to throw in many walk breaks, especially on the hills.

Total miles for the week: 21

Definitely the highest mileage week I've had in quite some time, and that makes me happy.