Book Review: Still Alice

My book club pick for the month of June was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. The story is about Alice Howland, a Linguistics professor at Harvard, who is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

The reader meets Alice early on, when she just starts to have some memory trouble. She forgets the word she wants to use, she misplaces small items, or forgets a meeting. Small things that happen to us all when life gets busy and hectic. Alice chalks these things up to menopause at first, and goes to see a doctor about it. It isn't until she gets lost on a run, forgetting where she lives on a very familiar route, that she starts to think something more could be wrong. 

After a few rounds of testing, she is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease at the age of 50. She struggles with telling her husband and her three adult children, because cognitive prowess is so highly regarded in her family. Her husband is also a professor at Harvard, her son a doctor, and her daughter a lawyer. When Alice starts a seemingly rapid downward spiral into the disease, she finally does tell her husband and they tell their children together. Alice realizes that they may want to be tested for the disease. 

The novel becomes about finding what truly matters to you in life. What would you spend your time on if you knew you only had years, or even months, left to remember it all? With the help of her youngest daughter, the wild-child, carefree and full of life, I thought that Alice really did a 180 from who she was when the book started. 

My book club had such a great discussion with this novel! Whether you know someone with Alzheimer's or not, I really think that anyone can relate to this book. Genova does a great job putting you in Alice's shoes so that you can really understand the frustration that she is going through. The fear of losing yourself. 

We talked about whether or not we would get tested for Alzheimer's. Having the disease on both sides of my family, there is a very real possibility that I could have it as well. There are often times when I do forget something small, whether it be a name or a detail, and it makes me wonder - is this just a memory slip? Or is it more? Genova does a great job at making the reader take a step back to analyze their own life, and think about what is really important to them.

The book was also made into a movie recently, staring Julianne Moore. Although the film was good, several of us that had seen the movie agreed that the book was so much better. The movie just skims the top layer, whereas the book gives you so much more detail and "meat". Since the book is not very long, I definitely recommend it over the movie. 

For more information about Alzheimer's Disease, go to the Alzheimer's Association website to learn more. 

If you knew you had the disease, how would you want to spend the rest of your healthy years? What kind of care would you want to have? What would your expectations be for your spouse? 

Fitness Friday

Hello! It's time to check in on marathon training again. This week was actually really nice since it is a "rest" week for me. Technically my week starts on Monday, but I include the previous weekend's long run in my recap posts here. So don't think I'm a total crazy person when I combine "rest" with "14 mile long run"...

Saturday - 14 mile long run! A group from my running club meets up most Saturday mornings. Typically, I run Sunday morning, but I knew the weather was going to be icky on Sunday so I changed things up a bit. There's anywhere between 6-8 runners in this Sat morning group, all different paces. One in particular ran about my pace, but she started off super slow. So I ran the first 5ish miles alone, then 4 with her, then 4 alone again because she stopped to use the restroom at a gas station we passed. By the time that I only had 2 miles left, she had caught up to me and passed me! But I kept her in my sights and ended up following her in for that last mile. We ran an out & back course, and the wind was in my face the entire time coming back. That made things kind of tough, but overall it was a good run. Average pace: 9:47.

Sunday - Nothing but rest!

Monday - I had every intention of doing yoga before going to work this morning. However, I woke up 3 times through the night with an excruciating headache that aspirin just wasn't touching. By the time 4:45am rolled around, there was no way I was getting up for yoga. The extra hour of sleep didn't do much for me, but I know I needed it.

Tuesday - Fartleks at the track. 1 mile warm up, 5 x 800m @ 7:50-8:00 pace with 3 min rest, 1 mi cool down. I met up with 2 other running club members for this one. At 5 am! I'm very excited that my little early AM group is growing, even if it's by one person. The intervals were pretty easy, but my Garmin lost satellite signal in the 3rd fartlek so I had to run the last 2 by feel. So my paces for the first 2 were 7:44 & 7:57. The last 3 took me 4:06, 4:11, & 4:07 min, respectively. I think that's in the right pace range judging by the times for the first two, which were 4:05 & 4:15. I don't know...it's all so confusing!

Wednesday - Since my half marathon next weekend is on Sat, I decided to stick with the Sat schedule this week as well, and moved my Thurs run to Wed. So 4 miles at an easy pace this morning. It was 55 degrees and breezy - beautiful! My first run this year without a jacket too. 2 of these miles were a little too fast, and my quads are letting me know that, but it was really hard to slow down today for some reason. Average pace: 9:35.

Thursday  - nada. Loving this rest week! Actually, work has been super stressful this week, so tonight I enjoyed a glass of wine al fresco and did not even think once about exercising.

Friday - Super easy 4 miles. My quads are still a little tight, so I tried keeping this run really, really easy. Average pace: 9:54.

Tomorrow I have another easy pace run on tap: a "long" run of only 5 miles. I kind of love these taper weeks! But this coming Tuesday I have a hard VO2 max workout. Not sure what that's about with my half marathon coming up next weekend, but I'm trusting the training and going with the schedule.

Happy Friday!

How's your training going? Do you enjoy tapering or rest weeks?

Four Things

I got this from Tracy over at A Change of Pace. It looked like a fun little "get to know you" post!

Four names that people call me other than my real name:
1. Al
2. Ali
3. Babe
4. Jennifer (seriously, there are a few guys I work with that cannot remember my name, and call me Jennifer. Also, I ran as a "Jenny" after buying someone's bib last year for a half marathon. If the shoe fits?)

Four jobs I've had:
1. Steak'n'Shake drive thru operator/server
2. Stable worker (feed horses, muck stalls, etc.)
3. Assistant Manager of a really ghetto hat store. So ironic.
4. Bank Teller

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. A Christmas Story. #forlife
2. My Girl
3. Frozen (thank you Emily)
4. Little Mermaid - my childhood favorite, and I force Emily to watch it every now and then, too.

Four places I've lived:
1. Detroit, MI
2. Boynton Beach, FL
3. St. Charles, MO
4. Hibbing, MN

Four places I've visited:
1. Washington, D.C.
2. Charleston, SC
3. Estes Park, CO
4. Bayfield, WI

Four things I don't eat:
(This is a tough one)
1. Lutefisk
2. Headcheese
3. Fast food (except on very, very rare occasions)
4. Uh...Rocky Mountain Oysters? Enter anything really bizarre here.

Four of my favorite foods:
(This is tough too!)
1. Chocolate. Or dessert of any kind. I don't discriminate
2. Bananas
3. Veggie omelettes with salsa on top
4. Any food that includes cheesy goodness. Mac n'cheese. Grilled cheese. Pasta with cheese. Too bad this is few and far between in my diet...

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Sons of Anarchy - currently watching
2. Parenthood
3. Walking Dead
4. American Horror Story

Four things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in less than 2 weeks
2. Minnesota Half in August + weekend getaway with hubby
3. Runners Retreat in NC!
4. Detroit Marathon in October!
(are we seeing a theme here? How about visiting the new Mr. Roberts restaurant, owned by semi-famous Sarah Master? Also, hitting up Wine on the Mississppi at some point this summer.)

Four things I'm always saying:
1. "Hey babe?"
2. "Emily..." in any tone
3. "What the f**k?" - usually but not limited to work
4. "I don't know" - mostly at work. For some reason, a select few employees seem to think I know everything. Flattering, but annoying.

Weekend in Review

Happy Monday!

Screw that. Is Monday over yet? I am not having a great Monday morning. Woke up with a headache, super tired from said headache, and the humidity today is putting a serious damper on my hair.

But we had a great weekend!

Saturday morning started out with my long run. A first for me - 14 miles!

Then I had to go grocery shopping when I went home. By the time lunch rolled around, I was seriously ready for a nap. Even after a nap, I was pretty tuckered out so we just stayed home for the rest of the night.

Travis rented 50 Shades of Grey for us to watch on Saturday night. Because apparently he doesn't get sarcasm. I was totally lying when I said "oh, we could get 50 Shades of Grey...or American Sniper!" Guess which one he came home with? Complete waste of money & time.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain & overcast skies. So Emily and I (mostly I) made homemade peanut butter.

This is what a 3 year old hot mess looks like. Yeesh!

She conveniently showed up right at the end when I was scooping the peanut butter into a mason jar for storage. But she liked it! "Kid Tested, Mom Approved".

Side note: I made the PB with locally produced honey that I bought at our Farmer's Market. I felt like such a hippy! It's creamed honey, so it's more like a butter spread almost. It made the peanut butter very light and fluffy. We love it! 

A friend of mine invited me over to watch the movie version of Still Alice, since we had just read it for book club this month. If you're not familiar with the book or movie, the story is told from Alice's point of view as she struggles with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's runs in my family, so this was particularly interesting for me but also incredibly heartbreaking. I'm proud of myself that I didn't cry during the movie, but I sure did while reading the book! 

Once I got home, the weather had really cleared up. I told Travis that I absolutely did not want to stay home and make soup for dinner, which is what we had planned. Instead, we jetted off to Grand Rapids to eat at Zorbaz on Lake Pokegama. It's kind of a rowdy place that serves pizza & Mexican food, but it was really nice sitting outside and enjoying the atmosphere. 

They had a volleyball tournament going on down at the beach, and there were tons of boaters out. Afterwards, we went to CherryBerry for dessert. It's a serve-yourself froyo place. That's fun for Emily since she can put all sorts of stuff on her yogurt. Personally, I don't like their frozen yogurt. I'd rather have the real thing! 

We got home kind of late, so it was bath time and bedtime - for Emily and I both! I'm pretty exhausted this morning from all our fun this weekend. How is it that some weekends seem relaxing, but end up jam packed anyway?

How was your weekend? Do you like frozen yogurt or ice cream better? 

Fitness Friday

Sunday  - 13 miles, easy pace. I mentioned on Monday that I did this run with another member of my running group. She has similar time goals for our half marathon coming up, so she also had a similar "easy pace" which meant we were able to stick with each other the entire run. This was the first time I'd ever met her, and I always worry that things will be awkward running with a complete stranger. But the conversation was easy, and we got to know each other over the 2 hours that we ran together. We might even try to run Garry Bjorklund together. Her time goal is slightly slower than mine, but she said she'd love to use me as "competition" to keep up with. I'm game for that! Average pace: 9:35.

Monday - no yoga in the AM. But I did do hip & lower leg strengthening after work. I think I might be over yoga. Not 100% sure yet.

Tuesday - Threshold Intervals at the track. The workout included 6 800m repeats at 7:55-8:00 pace. I posted this workout as an event in my running group, mostly because I didn't want to be alone at the track at 5am. I only had 1 taker, who turned out to be a bit of an oddball character. Nice guy, but odd all the same. He ran right next to me through all the laps, and was kind of chatty. I don't mind chatting on a run, but at 5 am...while running much faster than conversational pace...let's just say that he helped to add an extra layer of challenge to this workout. So much so that I lost count during the second set and only did one lap, so we added an extra 400m at the end. However, I was relatively comfortable at the paces, even while talking. So I'll chalk this one up to success! Paces were: 9:38 warm up, 7:58, 8:00 (400m), 7:56, 7:58, 7:56, 7:57, 7:52 (400m), 9:26.

Wednesday - National Running Day! I originally was not planning on running today, but after incessantly checking the weather for this weekend I decided to squeeze in a run after work. I typically run on Sunday mornings, but it's supposed to rain and be gross. I don't want to deal with that. So, 4 miles at easy pace for an average of 9:42 min/mi.

Thursday - Another 4 miles at easy pace. My legs felt a bit tired with the back to back runs, but I couldn't slow down for some reason. My paces broke out at 9:33, 9:37, 9:40, 9:33. This run should have been closer to a 10:00 min pace due to my Wed evening run. Oh well.

Friday - resting. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be running tomorrow morning rather than Sunday morning, so I'm letting my legs take a break. I should have done circuit training, but every once in awhile my quads get a bit sore so I'm just being extra cautious.

Saturday - hopefully 14 miles - a distance PR for this lady. I'd appreciate lots of good thoughts sent my way!

How's your training going? Any big plans on tap for the weekend?

Recipe Review: Mediterranean Baked Sweet Potatoes

I have to share this recipe with you. You have to try it. Yes...have to and have to.

Mediterranean Baked Sweet Potatoes from the Minimalist Baker

So you know I try to eat healthy. Travis is trying to eat healthy right now too. Recently I stumbled across a link on Pinterest for 30 Vegetarian Dinners that you can make in 30 minutes. Hello, I am down with that. 

There were so many good recipes in that link, this one included. We made these tacos, also from the Minimalist Baker, that were amazing. Make those too, ok? 

Anyway, sweet potatoes. Sometimes I'm on the fence with sweet potatoes because they are obviously good for you, but they're also a potato. Years and years of my mom brainwashing me that potatoes = starch = bad has led to not always trust the sweet potato health benefits. But I was willing to take the plunge for these babies. 

Basically, you cut your potatoes in half, rub 'em up with olive oil, and bake them in the oven for 25 minutes. The chickpeas are mixed with a few spices, and roasted on the same pan in the same amount of time. Stupid easy. 

The sauce is hummus or tahini based. Tahini is the main ingredient in most versions of hummus, just in case you didn't know. I have tahini on hand, so that's what I used, with generous amounts of lemon juice & dill for some bright flavor. I also diced up a tomato, and mixed that with parsley, dill, and lemon juice. 

Tada! Dinner is done! What did I tell you? Stupid easy. The hardest part was cutting the sweet potatoes in half without cutting a finger off. 

The flavors are so good together - savory, a little sweet, and zesty from the lemon juice. For Emily, I just scooped some of the sweet potato out of the skin, put it in a bowl, topped it with everything else, and she ate most of it. After trying a couple of chickpeas, she decided those were not her favorite. But Travis and I definitely enjoyed them! 

So. Add this to your next menu plan. K?

Do you have any favorite vegetarian dishes? What do you think of sweet potatoes - good or bad?

It's June! Plus a Weekend Recap

Good Monday morning to you! Can you believe it's June already? Where does the time go? I feel like I'm always saying that, but seriously. Life is on warp-speed setting, and I can't seem to slow it down.

June is host to my first half marathon of the year, the Garry Bjorklund Half Marthon in conjunction with the infamous Grandma's Marathon. I have a goal time in mind, but we'll see what happens. I'm hoping the weather is a little nicer than last year. It was cold, misty, and foggy the entire race in 2014. While I don't want it to be hot, a little sunshine would be nice! Given our weather this weekend though, cold is a possibility. This weekend we had low's in the 30's and a high yesterday of barely 60 degrees. I don't mind cool weather, but when it's that cold at the end of May...enough already! But maybe if this could continue for my race...that wouldn't be so bad.

We had a pretty uneventful weekend, which is always ok with me. Friday afternoon I picked up our first CSA share. We'll be picking up every Friday through the summer, so it's a little like Christmas! Since our growing season starts a bit later here in northern MN, the farmer doesn't have much produce yet. Just spinach and rhubarb. I opted for 2 bundles of spinach since I'm not a big fan of rhubarb. They supplemented with 2 pounds of ground pork, and a dozen eggs.

We've already made a big dent on the spinach, and used half the eggs. I know that we already paid for this food, but it kind of feels like we're getting free stuff! Love it!

Saturday Emily and I went out to lunch at a local golf course with a friend that I used to work with. We had a nice visit, and Emily was really good, considering we were there for almost 2 hours. We sat inside, but had a nice view of the course and the "waterfall", or fountain in a pond outside. Emily enjoyed watching the golfers come and go. Then we did a little shopping, but we both started to fade pretty fast. By the time we got home, I was more than happy that Emily wanted to veg out on the couch and watch Peter Pan.

Sunday I woke up with the sun to get 13 miles in. I planned to meet up with 2 other members of my running group. One of which wanted to do 13, the other needed to get 22 miles in before his next marathon in a few weeks. Needless to say, he left us after a few miles! But it was nice running with someone else for the entire run; the miles really fly by. I'm starting to get worried that my next solo long run will be a bear without the distraction!

Afterwards, I was all about relaxing. I use these ProCompression socks for recovery, and had to giggle at how bright my orange socks are.

Hello safety orange! I posted this pic on facebook with the caption "and tomorrow I'm applying to be a school crossing guard".

We ended the night with a little vino and popcorn, and the movie "Chef", with Jon Favreau and John Leguizamo. It was pretty good, funny, and just made us hungry!

What are your June goals? How is the weather in your neck of the woods?