Category Archives: Book Review

75 Hard – Read

I love reading. Last year I read over 60 books. I always try to read a mixture of genres, authors, etc so I end up reading quite a bit of non-fiction books. So the idea of reading 10 pages daily of non-fiction wasn’t completely outlandish!

Though some days it would’ve been easier not to read. Or it would’ve been more enjoyable to spend my reading time caught up in a fictional world. I was able to get this part done relatively easily.

At the beginning of the challenge I would read my 10 pages and stop. At some point I realized that I could read more than that and actually needed to so that I could keep up with returning the books to the library on time! 

By the end of my 75 days I’ve finished 16 books total and finished my 17th on the 76th day. And 7 of those were non-fiction, finishing the 8th the day after. I’m also about half way through a big 700 page book too.

I’ll follow up with a list of my non-fiction books soon.

Day 64

The storm was about as bad as expected! We ended up with about 8 inches of wet heavy snow! And a snow day off from school due to the ice and timing of the storm!

By the afternoon it was sunny, though still very windy! And a great afternoon to walk or sled! The wind made a lot of cool designs in the snow! I realized about half way through my walk that I should’ve counted some of my shoveling towards my 2nd workout! And that I could’ve used snow shoes to make the walk a little different!

With the snow day I also finished my next book. Adrift, is the story about a sailor whose boat sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He was able to make into his his life boat and floated for 76 days until finally being saved.

The book chronicles his journey and the many peaks and valleys throughout. Including multiple equipment failures, catching fish, and getting fresh water.

The book was part of Go Ruck’s Tribe n Training group. But really anyone doing 75 Hard should read it! The connection of the number of days is real. A few times I thought about parallels to his experience and mine. Though ultimately 75 Hard is much easier!

Day 53

I went out for a ski this morning. I decided to go with my Skate Skis. The hills were a little bit of a challenge, but it felt faster than my classic skis! It was a beautiful morning and the trails were kind of empty since it’s Birkie weekend.

Walked to the post office for my second workout. It was so nice and sunny and above freezing!

I also finished my next book Resilient by Brooke Wells. It was about her crazy comeback after dislocating elbow during the 2021 CrossFit games. She came back and got 5th in the 2022 Games after a major reconstruction surgery. The book shares her story of that incredible year and her ups and downs throughout the recovery and season. It’s a well told story and is easy to read.

Day 48

We are in the depths of a deep freeze again,  but the sun is bright which made the afternoon walk not quite as bad.

I went to V3 again this morning since there was no school! It’s felt good to use some barbell instead of just my dumbbells at home.

Yesterday I forgot to say I finished another nonfiction book. Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron. Another CrossFit adjacent book but this one was all about mindset as Ben is big on character development of his athletes.

This book highlights Mat Fraser, Katrin Davisdotter, and Cole Sager from 2015 which is the same year discussed in Mat’s book. I enjoyed the stories but also the traits that Ben shared.

Day 37

Finished another nonfiction book today. Another CrossFit related one. The Heart is the Strongest Muscle by Tia Claire Toomey.

I’ve not read her other book yet, but this one was more about mindset and also some of her stories about decision points she had throughout her life. It’s easy to forget her origin story from rural Australia to the Fittest Woman on Earth!

She offers some workout advice throughout but that wasn’t the main point of the book.