Running while Reading

Friday night, my parents kept Ethan overnight so that Jim and I could enjoy a date night. We enjoyed a delicious meal at the newly opened Mexican restaurant in town. The food and service were terrific and I enjoyed a child-free meal with the hubby.

Since Ethan was away at the Grandparent's, I knew I could fit in a nice, relaxed run on Saturday morning. Typically, I have to cram in a shorter run than I would like extra early in the morning so that Jim can leave for work before 7 a.m. and I am back to take over parental duty. This weekend, I got to fuel up and take my time. Bliss!

Before hitting the pavement, I had a waffle with peanut butter and a small cup of coffee.

I had to turn around at mile 3 and make a new course plan as I ran into a very muddy, unpaved road out in the country and was soon sinking in the mud.  We have had some major thunderstorms lately.

The rain has been a huge relief as our temps have been over 100 degrees for the majority of the month. Any break from the scorching heat has been welcome!

I felt like I was running rather slowly, which the above results prove that I was, but it was nice to not worry about speed or distance and just to run for the sake of enjoyment. 6.41 miles total.

What really made this run enjoyable for me though was listening to an audio book during the run.

I listen to a lot of audio books during my two hour daily commuting time for work and find they really help me to pass the time in the car. Recently, I have been getting bored with my standard song playlist for my runs and was inspired by the post on Running Off the Reeses to try listing to a book while running.

I have been wanting to subscribe to Audible.com for some time and finally bit the bullet and signed up. I quickly downloaded The Help, which I have been wanting to read for some time now...along with everyone else in the nation it seems.

I downloaded the book to my phone, which I use while I run for tracking my time/distance using the Run Keeper app.

I LOVED running along with the book! The book kept my interest from the start and provided a great distraction while on a longer run. I'm already looking forward to my next longer distance run so that I can get back into the book, which I'm saving only for runs over three miles as an incentive.

Do you have any book recommendations? I need something that is pretty fast moving and with an interesting story line. It's hard to "read" heavy/detailed material while running or driving, I find.