Summer Ends

I did not sleep well on Friday night and did not have much energy for my Saturday run. I was planning to run 10 miles on Saturday. However, I ran 5 miles and decided no to push it. On Sunday, I ran 15 miles as planned. I was planning to run on the mostly flat C & O Canal but due to the amount of rain we have received the last few days, I ran on very hilly roads to the elementary school and around my neighborhood. I think it was a wise decision to stop on Saturday. My long runs are my most important at this point of my marathon training and if I ran the full ten on Saturday, I may not of been able to complete the fifteen on Sunday. I worked on the rowing machine today and will run 5 miles tomorrow.

500 Days of Summer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(500)_Days_of_Summer

Virginia and I made a rare trip to the movie theater a couple of weeks ago to see a movie without the kids. We originally were going to see Julie and Julia, but based on positive reviews decided to see 500 Days of Summer.

The movie can be summarized pretty simply. Tom falls for Summer. Summer does not want to make a commitment but likes Tom and goes out with Tom for a while. Tom is madly in love and thinks that Summer is the one. Summer tells Tom that she never wants to get married. After several months, Summer breaks up with Tom. Tom takes the break up hard. He randomly meets Summer several month later and finds that Summer is engaged to marry someone else. This pretty much shatters Tom. Several months after that, Summer meets Tom at his favorite spot and Summer convinces him that they were not meant to be and that he needs to move past her. At the end of the movie, Tom meets someone else, who is named Autumn.

I enjoyed this movie and can relate to Tom. It really is not a romantic comedy since Tom does not end up with Summer and Summer never felt like Tom did for her. The best facet of the film is how the movie skips around through the 500 days that Tom was in love with Summer without being disjointed.

500 Days of Summer is unlike most other films. It does not fit easily into a typical movie category. However, it works well. I give 500 Days of Summer a B+.

Running and More Sparks

I am getting in my miles. I did 7 yesterday and 5 today. I am planning to do 10 tomorrow and 15 on Sunday. I will be around 180 miles for the month of August which I am pretty sure is my highest total.

The Guardian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian_(novel)

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks is really two books. The first part is a typical Sparks story with likable characters falling in love. Julie is widowed at a young age. Shortly after her husband, Jim's death, she gets a great dane dog who Jim arranged to keep her company and protect her. Julie names the dog, Singer and the dog becomes a big part of her life. Singer acts like a human and adds comedy to the story as well as being intensely loyal.

After grieving for several years, Julie begins dating again. She goes out with Richard who just moved into town, but does not feel sparks. Julie starts dating and falls in love with Mike who was her husband's best friend. In a typical Sparks story there would be one last twist where, one of the two either dies suddenly or they live happily after. In the Guardian this is only half the story.

The second half of the story is that Richard turn out to be a cartoonish stalker. He has murdered both his parents and his wife. His wife looks a lot like Julie. With the help of a young police women named Jennifer, Mike, Julie and Singer they kill Richard in a fight to the death. Singer, who is the Guardian also dies in the fight.

I liked the 1st half much better than the second half. Sparks tried to write a thriller, but it was very predictable. Overall, I give The Guardian a B-.

Netflix Watch Instantly

I watched a couple of movies recently on the computer thru NetFlix watch instantly service.

WALL-E

Virginia and the kids saw this movie while visiting her mother so I never saw it. I don't know if it was because I watched it on the computer or not, but I did not enjoy it as much as I though I would. I thought it was pretty bland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E

Wall-E was universally well received by movie critics. The only criticism heard about this movie was about it being too preachy regarding pollution. I did not find this to be the case. I just did not think that the story was all that interesting. I am not a Pixar fanatic, but I thought both of the Toy Story movies, Ratatouille and Up were clearly better films.

I give WALL-E a C.

Ira and Abby

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480251/synopsis

This is a romantic comedy about a neurotic man and wacky girl that prove that opposites attract. I am a sucker for a nice romantic story as I admitted on my July 31, 2009 entry. However, the characters in this movie were parodies rather than realistic people. In addition, there were far too many side stories going on concerning their parents and Ira's ex girlfriend. It was not a very good movie.

I give Ira and Abby a D+.

The selection of movies to watch instantly thru Netflix is mixed. There are some decent movies. I was surprised to find WALL-E. There seems to be a lot of good documentaries available and I will focus on them when I have time to watch a movie instantly with Netflix.

First Post in a While

I got away from posting the last few weeks. This is my first post in August. I have a race report and a number of reviews to go over.

My running has been all right, but I am struggling with long runs with the weather being so hot. The following is my running so far in August.

Sat 8/1 9.5 miles
Sun 8/2 14.5 Miles (very hilly run ran thru a fairly big storm)
Tue 8/4 5 miles
Wed 8/5 5 miles
Fri 8/7 5 miles
Sat 8/8 9 miles
Sun 8/9 12.4 miles (race)
Tue 8/11 5 miles
Wed 8/12 6.5 miles
Thu 8/13 5 miles
Sat 8/15 9 miles
Sun 8/16 17.5miles
Tue 8/18 5 miles

My marathon is 6 weeks from Saturday. I was hoping to run 20 miles this past Sunday but could only go 17.5 on a hot day. I am planning to do 15 for my long run this weekend and then shoot for 20 again the following week. I want to get in two runs of at least 20 before the marathon.

I did not run today because I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I am planning to run 7 miles tomorrow, 5 on Friday and 10 on Saturday.

20K Race Report

This is the only race I have done three years in row. Two years ago I did the 10k and last year and this year I ran the 20k. Most of the race is on the W & OD trail with a turnaround. Last year I was very focused on not starting too fast. However, after a couple of miles I was boxed because so many runner doing the 10k had turned around and were running back. I ended up running great after the first three miles. It was the only race where I have had negative splits. I don't think anyone passed me after three miles and I passed quite a few runners. Unfortunately, this year was quite the opposite.

The day of the race was the hottest day so far of the year. I ran the first mile in less that 8 minutes, much faster than I wanted. I should have slowed down more after that, but I did not. I know after about eight miles that I did not have a lot left. The last few miles I walked more than any other race. My time of 1:53:06 was about five minutes more than the same race last year. I was passed by countless runners the last few miles. It was a very humbling race.

My strategy was poor. I did not respect the heat as much as I should. I can take comfort that a veteran runner, Anita Freresin was quoted as saying, "As a veteran of nearly 2,000 races, including a 50 Mile win where I lost 27 pounds due to heat, I state, for the record, "This was the toughest race I have ever raced." Of course she also won her division in the 10k.

The last few miles of this race was not fun at all, but I guess it was a good learning experience.