Author: Todd Nickel

2020 week twenty four

Books Read(-ing)
24. How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
25. The End of Policing – Alex S. Vitale

Kilometres Ran
week twenty four – 51.5

2020 to date: 1,492 KM

It did feel a bit weird that in the midst of listening to all the calls to amplify BIPOC voices the book that everyone is turning to is by a white woman and I was one of them too. So this week I tried to correct my wrong while I continue to try to correct all my wrongs with Ibram Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist and while I did not get nearly as far through it as I had hoped to it is excellent and I think far better than that other one that everyone is reading. I mean, read them both, I guess. But if you’ve decided that you only have time for one or the other I suggest this one instead. I also started into Alex Vitale’s End of Policing because ACAB but also I’d like to be educated ACAB and while I think a lot of “defund the police” is just pain common sense it has because rather apparent through my interactions online amongst mine own circle that I have a rather different notion of common sense. Plus I want to really understand where I stand. I’ve heard people question what “defund” means but I also think that most of the time they’re just doing the typical white person devil advocate nonsense when they know exactly what “defund” means. (It means stop giving public money to law enforcement and put that money into public programs instead.) But for gawd’s sake “defund” doesn’t mean “abolish” does it? Maybe! I’m still trying to sort that out, and Vitale’s book is going to help force me to come to terms with that and that’s a good thing that everyone should come to terms with. We should at least all agree that “I know this one cop and they’re okay” is a pretty shitty argument for why, for instance, the Vancouver Police Department needs 21 per cent of the entire City of Vancouver budget. Anyway, you can currently get a free digital copy of The End of Policing on the Verso website. Link at the top of the page.

I took it easy this week to give my right foot / achilles / calf a bit of a break. At least I thought that I did until I sat down to start typing this drivel. I backed off to three runs but still managed over 50 KM and added in another 83 KM on the bike for a weekly Relative Effort score of 603 versus 561 the week before and 446 back in week twenty two. What does that mean? I have no idea! But apparently Strava thinks I’m still hitting it pretty hard. My fancy new watch, however, still tells me at the end of every single activity that what I just did was “unproductive.” My foot feels a bit better but not better-better, but better enough that I decided to cancel my physiotherapist appointment for tomorrow since it’s not getting worse, there’s no swelling, and it hasn’t caused me to limp nor change my running stride. Sure, there’s something unhappy going on in the tendons on top of my foot and at the point where my achilles attaches to my heel, but it’s either plateaued or it’s healing. So with fingers crossed for crisis averted, we’re going to cautiously put a bit of load back onto it on Workout Wednesday and see what happens.

2020 week twenty three

Book Read
23. White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo

Kilometres Ran
week twenty three – 50.4

2020 to date: 1,441

I had to start somewhere so I went with the book that every white person seems to be reading right now thinking that it must be written by a BIPOC but no and it almost made me stop before I really got started plus a few voices online saying don’t read White Fragility read this instead (but I read it anyway). And it was good (and you should read it too if you haven’t already read it) but then maybe I should read something else *too* (and you should too probably). A friend suggest White Rage by Carol Anderson; another suggested How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. I’ve added both to my list.

Birthday Stanley Park loop.

I passed a semi-milestone birthday this week, which means that I’m in a new age group if we ever get to race again (for those races that have five-year age groups) and also means that my Boston Marathon qualifying time is now slower than my current personal best. In case we ever get to race again. Boston was cancelled this week. I think it was this week. Who can keep track anymore? One race series that still going on is the Mile2Marathon Virtual Race Series. Results from May were (rather quietly, ahem) posted online and I was right where I expected to be after my 5 KM performance – in the middle somewhere (but not the middle as in the middle prize winner, of course). Next up is the mile at the end of June and I’d like to see how close I can get to 5:20 so coach and I have been working on speed quite a bit and my body has said no. Specifically my right achilles and calf have said no. It’s not dire but it’s enough to make me pick up Chris Napier’s Science of Running from the coffee table and flip though and self diagnose and not be happy with the diagnosis so I’ll be contacting my physiotherapist this week and dialling back on the running (at least on the speed work) for a few days. Injury free since February 2019. I guess the streak had to end sometime.

2020 week twenty one + twenty two

Books Read
21. All This Burning Earth – Sean Bonney
22. Our Death – Sean Bonney

Kilometres Ran
week twenty one – 54.4
week twenty two – 55.6

2020 to date: 1,390 KM

I guess if you’re going to read a dead white dude in the midst of the violence erupting over yet another PoC getting murdered in cold blood, in broad daylight, by a white police officer while his police officer colleagues stood by and watched, then Sean Bonney is an okay pick. I am so tired of white people clutching their pearls on the sidelines lamenting the violent response. I want to burn down TELUS when my internet fails. Hell, I want to smash my computer when the internet takes too long to load. I cannot image my rage over something that actually matters. I utterly, completely take it for granted that I will not get murdered for being white. I am horrified that anyone doesn’t share that privilege. I’m horrified that it’s a privilege. Sean Bonney was an English poet whom I was unfamiliar with until friends were lamenting online at his untimely death in November last year. His voice is radical left and it resonates so loudly right now it is deafening. All This Burning Earth collects some of his short and long poems as well as a few essays and letters. Our Death is his most recent collection published by the anarcho-publishers AK Press published under Commune Editions. It is currently available on their website for free as a PDF here –>

communeeditions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bonney_Our_Death_digital_galley.pdf

Or you can buy a physical copy through the link at the top of this page. PDF of All This Burning Earth linked above too. (I don’t think there’s another format, but correct me if I’m wrong because I want a physical copy and cannot find one anywhere.) I am still reading and rereading. You should too. But now I’m going to read some PoC for the next bit. You should too.

On Wednesday I took a shot at running a new personal best 5K on the rolling hills of Big Aus up at UBC for the first of the Mile2Marathon Virtual Race Series. That wasn’t the plan. The plan was to run 5K on the flats around the Stanley Park Seawall. I had drawn up a few options for out-and-back or point-to-point and I asked Coach Kevin which he suggest, and he replied Big Aus. I am better on rolling hills than on flat, but I had never done the UBC loop. Rob Watson posted a modified route and I set out on bicycle Tuesday at lunch to scope it out so that I wouldn’t be going into it completely green. There’s a bit of a climb for the first mile, then it rolls through the following two with the last more down than up. Wednesday morning was calm and clear and I wanted to get ahead of the heat however my stomach did not want to cooperate, which delayed my start. So thank gawd for virtual races, I guess? At about 8:30 I was off and the first mile to the crest went according to plan, then the second one too. I knew the last section from Allison down onto Chancellor should be the fastest but by now I was really feeling the pace. I slogged through the last half kilometre and clicked off my watch at 5.02 KM. Strava and Garmin awarded me 19:02 (3:48 / km pace) for 5 K and a new fastest one yet. I had wanted to go under 19 minutes but overall I’m pretty please with a new, albeit unofficial, personal best. Just barely. My previous best was 19:03 chip time (19:04 gun) on the WestVanRun 5K at the beginning of March, but Strava and Garmin both said that course was short. Regardless, I’m pretty confident that Wednesday is the fastest 5K I’ve run yet, official or not. It was fun to finish up early and watch the results from others roll in through the rest of the week and this weekend. I had a bit of taste in my mouth for the 3K option but decided against it. That is until this morning about 1 KM into my Sunday recovery run after a pretty hard 20 KM progression workout yesterday I though that I would just hammer three and see what happens. So as I paused just past Brockton Lighthouse on the Stanley Park Seawall, did a couple warm-up drills, and went out hard for 3K finishing a bit past Lions Gate Bridge, then jogged the rest of the way around and back home. Checked my watch; I ran those 3K in 11:12.9 (3:44 / km pace) and a few new segment PRs on the Seawall, and wondering what if…. Maybe next time.