Halloween 2016 (hey, that rhymes!)

How about some cheap Halloween-flavored eBooks to scratch your reading itch?

Granny Gruesome: Nursery Rhymes to Terrify Children

Granny Gruesome 2: Thoughts and Observations to Terrify Adults

Camp Chin-up

Night at the Nursing Home

Beware the Blue Hubbard

Midnight Jack

Incubators

30 Minute Run PR

I hit another milestone PR that I was running for this summer. I was gunning for the elusive (to me anyway) 4 miles in 30 minutes or less. I had flirted with it a few times this summer with separate attempts of 3.85 miles and 3.92 miles in 30 minutes. But finally, with my son Bishop riding bike behind me, I ran 4.03 miles in 30 minutes, averaging 7:28/mile. Out of all my PRs this year, I really think this was the hardest one. For me, it is basically a continuous 30 minute sprint. It took a lot of mental determination to keep going during the uncomfortable times and stay focused during the lulls.

August 2016 - Great Month for Running PRs

Well, setting aside the awful humidity, bugs, and rain days, August 2016 was a pretty good running month. I set a PR in each of these races: 1K, 1 Mile, 5K, 10K, and half-marathon. The culmination (and my happiest moment) just happened to come on the last day of the month. I ran my fastest 5K ever and finally made it under 23 minutes.

Here's a screenshot from my Garmin Connect account. These races were all captured with my Garmin Forerunner 10 watch while wearing my Brooks Ghost 9 shoes.

So, when comparing my previous PRs from 2015 and earlier to this year, I have improved my race times by:

1K = 4 seconds

1M = 5 seconds

5K = 1 minute and 23 seconds

10K = 4 minutes and 34 seconds

Half-Marathon = 14 minutes and 49 seconds

New 5K PR

I have been trying to run just about every day this summer. One of my goals was to lower my 5K PR. It has been standing at 24:00 for about three years. Well, I've had success this summer with slowly lowering my time through June, July, and August. Yesterday, I posted my best 5K PR yet. I ended up finishing it in 23:17.

Shattered 10K PR

It was a perfect morning for running. Clouds in the sky, gentle breeze, and 60-ish degrees. My previous 10K PR was set 11 days ago. It was 51:17. Today, I ran hard and was determined to get close to 50:00.

I ended up finishing with 49:04. It completely shattered my old PR. It felt so good when I was done. I was surprised to see that time on my watch. I knew I was running well and going to get a new PR, but I didn't think it would be that dramatic.

My son rode his bike with me. I wore my Batman pajama pants, Superman t-shirt, and Brooks Ghost 9 shoes.

Batman 1966 - Enough Said

We've been watching random episodes of Batman 1966 (TV series) for the last year. I can't remember which episode we watched first, but I remember my initial reaction going something like this:

"What the...? Batman would never say that. Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous. This is so stupid. That's the villain? Oh my gosh...this can't get any worse. Oh, I guess it can. Wow. I'm speechless. Just get him. He's right there. Quit talking to the bad guy. Just punch him. What do the police even do in this show? They call Batman for everything!"

But we hung in there and watched a few more episodes. And then something amazing happened. The magic of the show - the crazy plots, ridiculous villains, and zany dialogue - it suddenly made sense in some strange way. Each episode made us laugh. Instead of laughing at the show. We were laughing with the show.

Now, we thoroughly enjoy watching each episode. We haven't finished the series yet, so the magic is still out there.

If you haven't discovered this show yet, give it a chance and let it grow on you.