Category: Read Run Write

2018 week thirty five

Book Read:
42. Autonomous — Annalee Newitz

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty five — 76.4

To date: 1,868 KM

I don’t know why speculative fiction seems to never get its due respect amongst literary genres. Unless it’s Atwood or Stephen King, though I think even King is relegated to the not-so-serious pile more often than he should be. Which is ever by the way in case you were wondering. What I find the most impressive about speculative fiction is, done well, the seamless creation of fantastic realities that make sense. The book doesn’t even necessarily have to be all that great for the affect to be achieved. And, well, Autonomous is one. The book is okay. The story follows Jack, a pharmaceutical pirate, who is being hunted by Elias and his military robot Paladin. Newitz creates a world that is vivid and interesting, and explores AI morality, gender, sexuality, pharmaceutical and patent ethics but when it’s all smashed together it’s just okay. Okay is better than most, but it’s still okay.

On Wednesday I decided that on Friday I would ease into the Labour Day long weekend by running home from the office. I’ve wanted to do this run for some time but never got around to it last marathon training cycle for the stupid reason that my marathon training schedule called for my long run on Sunday and definitely not on Friday. Friday was to be rest day. And while that was my first marathon and was probably not the time to be fiddling around with training schedule on the freshman attempt, I ignored one of the most important rules of just about any sort of plan, which is to write your plan with a pencil. So I ran home on Friday, and it sucked. About 15 KM into what turned out to be a 35.5 KM run my body said okay that’s enough let’s just read a book for a bit now. So for the next 20 KM it was pure willpower. Which was a great test and I feel like I passed but I also have growing concerns about my knees cooperating come the Victoria Marathon on October 7, and my body not deciding that just over a third to the way through it is time to check out. And maybe probably possible that’s a good thing. With five weeks to go there’s still time for a little under-confidence motivation. Friday sucked. I’ll probably do it again.

2018 week thirty four

Book Read:
No book read

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty four — 61.5

To date: 1,792 KM

A week spend pack and hauling and so many stairs and then cleaning and unpacking and trips to recycling and managing to every now and then squeeze in a run just to maintain my mental health and I was thinking today while out for my run that I wonder if anyone that follows me on Strava is going to notices that I moved three blocks down the street. I did not get much reading done but since I’m on book 42 on here and it is week 34 that I can take a week off but I am very excited about my vastly expanded reading alcove and the gigantic outdoor space I now have. Any outdoor space would beat the nonexistent outdoor space of my last place so this is a plus but it is also really huge and I can’t wait to have a garden but I don’t know what grows in the fall so that will probably have to wait until the spring unless of course I pick up a Vancouver year-round-gardening book if such a book exists. Anyway, my body is wrecked. I ran 15 KM less than I’d wanted to this week and I feel like I ran a century. I’m tired. I could go for a vacation. Even a cruise seems nice right now, and I generally hate the very idea of a cruise. Back to chasing my fall BQ. Then maybe a vacation.

Every time I see a cruise ship I think about that bit Bill Burr does in his stand up about over-population.

2018 week thirty three

Book Read:
41. The Age of Briggs & Stratton — Peter Culley

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty three — 70.2

To date: 1,731 KM

I haven’t read a lot this past week because, well, moving. It’s time consuming. But the other day, I got to kick off my runners and sit in a park on a blanket and sip La Croix lime and I grabbed a book of poems to read and the book I grabbed was a bunch of poems about two-stroke engines and some other stuff. I didn’t know Peter Culley but knew him. I was managing editor when The Capilano Review published a trio of poems he wrote with Elisa Ferrari in the “Languages” issue in 2014. I recall the shock to the Canlit community with his sudden passing in 2015. And I’m reminded of all of this because earlier this week (August 15) was his birthday and it’s weird to have friends of social media that are not longer alive but social media carries on as if they are. It is not an easy collection of poems, but it is great.

Shout out to the best little bookstore in town.

I ran a fair bit but not as far as I would have liked because, well, moving. It’s exhausting. I did not expect to long run this week, but I did have goals to run five-of-seven days and work on marathon pace. Check off five-of-seven days. Pacing focus was a pretty big X. Saturday morning was 10 miles at marathon pace that ended up being 17 KM too quick. It felt really great though. This evening I wanted to run for two hours at goal marathon pace, but after a week of packing and hauling, especially these past two days I am simply out of gas. I managed to get in 14 KM at marathon pace with a 1 KM warm up but I wasn’t going to keep that up any farther, so I tapped out. If there’s one silver lining it’s that hauling crates has forced me to do all the arm and core stuff that I normally avoid. Maybe in the new place I can forge a new routine. I already run in giant circles for hours. Picking stuff up and putting it back down doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.