Tara at Running N Reading hosts a Weekend Update Link-Up where people can share their weekend fun and successes with each other, as well as introduce each other to new things: races, workouts, books, food, gear, etc.

Since running and reading are my two favorite “try to retain some semblance of myself” while being a stay-at-home Mom activities, I was excited to recently come across Tara’s blog and to participate in this link-up!

Current Reading

I’m currently reading The Summer of Long Knives by Jim Snowden, a historical fiction thriller set in Nazi Germany, for a TLC Book Tour in October. I’m almost halfway through this one and had been having trouble immersing myself in the story. There wasn’t much character development on the front end and I’d forgotten the details about key Third Reich personnel (i.e. Goring, Himmler, Heydreich) from previous books I’d read. The story has now taken an interesting turn, so we’ll see if things pick up from here.
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I’m currently listening to The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. It’s a Stockholm-syndrome type kidnapping thriller and I’m only about two hours in, so I don’t have a good view on it yet. I’ll keep you posted…
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“On Deck” Reading

Next up for me on the Kindle is Edge of Eternity, the third and final installment of Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy, this time focusing on the Cold War era. I loved Fall of Giants (set during WWI) and Winter of the World (set during WWII), so have been anxiously awaiting this third installment! And, Follett’s books are not known for brevity (Eternity is over 1,100 pages!), but they’re very readable and don’t feel as long as they are.
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Since I just started The Good Girl, I’m not sure yet what I’ll listen to next. It normally takes me awhile to get through an audiobook since I only really listen while I’m running. But, I’m always interested in fast paced audiobook recommendations!

Running
Week 9 of Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Half Marathon Training Program down…3 more to go! I was supposed to race a 10K this weekend, but I had my brother’s wedding, so I obviously skipped the race. Instead, I ran 10 miles for my long run prior to leaving for the wedding. My splits were fairly similar to last week’s 10 miler, except that I took this week’s out slightly faster than last week’s. And, I definitely felt that at the end. 

What have I learned from training so far?

• Even though I skipped this week’s cross-training day and a recovery run so I could focus on having fun at my brother’s wedding, I think it was a much needed mental break. I’d been getting a bit burned out and I’m glad to have a mini rejuvenation period going into my last 2 weeks of training (11 and 12 mile long runs).
• Wearing sky high heels the day after a long run is not very comfortable!!