Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I know that the whole Internet has been pressing their browser's ”refresh” button repeatedly since yesterday to see if I've updated my blog with news about my achy calf.

You can all breathe a sigh of relief. The wait is over. Christmas is not ruined. You don't have to drown your sorrows in a box of chocolates. The update is here.

I skipped the AIK-session this morning, thinking that it would suck if my calf started hurting halfway and I had to stop running in the middle of nowhere, in -12 degrees Celsius. So I ran on my own, keeping close to home, in case I had to stop and walk back. My calf was speechless. Not a word, no complaints. Not much to report then, except that the planned long run was only 8 measly kilometres long. But sometimes you need to play it safe. Maybe that achy calf is not well, not really. Maybe it's mentally deranged and it's hiding in a closet waiting for you to walk past so that it can jump out and give you a heart attack when you least expect it. Like in the middle of a long run.

I kept by the river but, unlike in the picture above, the sun did not make an appearance today

But that's not the only news for you today. Under the headline: WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? you can read all about how I entered Cannonball Read again. For those of you who might be reading this blog for the first time, an explanation is in order. Cannonball Read is an annual challenge, an initiative by cool film and tv review site Pajiba. Participants choose to read either 52, 26 or 13 books per year (whichever books they wish), review them and upload their reviews on the Cannonball Read blog. Everyone can participate. For more details, visit the CBR blog.

Last year I chose to read and review 26 books, which I finished sometime in October. On one hand, the challenge ”pushed” me to both read more books than I otherwise would have and choose books that I normally wouldn't have picked up. On the other hand, it put pressure on me to finish books that I might have given up on otherwise, and it was a bit stressful at times when there was a lot going on in my life. I couldn't just relax and enjoy a book without putting my reviewer hat on. But I didn't hesitate for a minute to enter it again. I have a very long list of books I want to read next year. It shouldn't be a problem to choose 26 of them.