1776

My running results has been mixed. Last weekend was very cold, but I still got my runs in though both were slightly shorter than I planned.  On Saturday, I went about 7.5 miles instead of 8.5 and on Sunday I went about 11.5 instead of 13 miles.   I ran on the C & O Canal both days, although there was some ice. 

During the week at the gym, after working on the rowing machine on Monday, I had a good 5 mile run on Tuesday. However, after a bad night sleep (rough Maryland loss) I only did a slow 5 miles on Wednesday instead of my planned 7 miles. I was planning to do the 7 miles on Thursday as a make up. However, Thursday was a discouraging day.  My legs were tired and I only got thru 4.5 miles before I gave up.

I have today off for MLK day so my original plan was to do 9 on Saturday and Monday and to do 14 on Sunday.  Saturday was a very nice day and I got the 9 miles in without a problem on the C & O canal.  Yesterday was Alex's  birthday and we ended up going out for breakfast. I tried to eat less than normal.  It was also a cold, nasty, very rainy day.  I started out about 10:30 but quickly determined it was not going to be a good day for my running and stopped after only 2 miles.  Today was much nicer and I did 13 miles going after a hilly loop in the neighborhood.

This week I am planning to do 5 miles tomorrow and Thursday. I will work out on the rowing machine on Wednesday. For the weekend I am planning to do 9 miles on Saturday and get my long run up to 15 miles on Sunday.

1776

After enjoying the Abraham Lincoln book that I read over the summer, I vowed to read more history books.

Abraham Lincoln book review

Virginia and I spent a day at Mount Vernon in October and I wanted to learn more about the revolutionary era so when I saw this book fairly cheap at Costco, I went ahead and bought it. 1776 is by David McCullough. It was written in 2005 and is about the first full year of the Revolutionary War. I had not previously read a book by McCullough, but I did watch and enjoy the John Adams miniseries.

1776

This book was not as interesting or as easy to read as the Lincoln book. This is likely because the book is primarily about the battles rather than politics which don't interest me as much. However, there were several interesting things that I learned from reading this book.

• The main point of the book was how the American Army was a ragtag group of men with no military experience and that George Washington was very frustrated with the number of troop and the shape that they were in.
• Washington was an inexperienced leader that struggled with indecision, but grew into the job.
• Charles Lee was second in command of the US army.  He was arrogant and very critical of Washington. Lee was captured by the British while in a tavern away from his troops.
• Henry Knox, who I never heard of previously, was a book store owner who became a big hero for transporting weapons to battles.
• The British under General Howe made a major mistake by stopping for the winter late in 1776.
• The winters of  1775-1776 and 1776-1777 seemed to have especially bad weather compared to today. Global Warning?
• The Battle of Trenton around Christmas in 1776 was probably the turning point for the US. They were in very bad shape until that point.
• The British was a well trained army but had little experience in battle.
• The British employed German mercenaries that seemed to help them quite a bit until Trenton.  The Germans were call Hessians in the book.
• The French were not assisting Washington at this point.
• The Americans caught the Hessian Gereral Rall by surprise at Trenton.

I would like to read another book by McCullough since he obviously does a great job researching. However, I would not have read this book if I knew it was so much about military strategy.  I give 1776 a C.