Tag: George Saunders

forty two by forty two week two

Books Read:
10. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil — George Saunders

Kilometres Ran:
week eleven — 12

To date: 575 km

If I was going to make it to 95 books in 2017 I would need to be currently read my twenty-first right now to be on pace. I am not going to make it to 95 books. I realize that there are still forty-one weeks to go and there are a lot of poetry books out there that really deserve to be read. I have a couple that still are on the to-read. I’ve been reading a lot about running (duh) and one thing that came up a few times is that training plans should be written in pencil. I think that extends to life in general. Set goals in pen. Make plans in pencil. Phil kept bringing to mind the guy with the flowers in the banned Appetite for Destruction album cover art. So thanks for that George.

And then I got really sick, which really sucks. A chest cold like nothing that I’ve ever experienced before and hope to never experience again. I spend a while trying to appease my confirmation bias searching fruitlessly on Google for a reputable-sounding article that said that it was fine for me to run with the kind of sick symptoms that I had and I couldn’t find anything. And I really tried. But everything just said don’t be an idiot just rest and recover or you’re going to make it worse. So I did. And hence I ran 12 kilometres this week. My training plan called for 80-something. I’m concerned about missing a whole week with only six weeks to go until BMO.

persuasion

Books Read:
9. In Persuasion Nation — George Saunders

Kilometres Ran:
week seven — 53.4
week eight — 68.3

To date: 434 km

I lent someone my copy of Tenth of December and I cannot for the life of me remember who. I thought that I remembered who but I asked her and she does not remember borrowing it, which doesn’t necessarily mean that she didn’t or and that I didn’t but it also got me to thinking that maybe I didn’t lend it to anyone and maybe my copy was an epub copy and not a physical copy at all. My copy of Persuasion Nation is an epub copy. I really liked Tenth so I thought that I would really like Persuasion but I didn’t really like I just liked it. It was good. It didn’t make me want to stop reading Saunders or anything. Yet I’ve been having trouble finding motivation to read much of anything lately. I do spend a lot of time on the sofa listening to music and just thinking about stuff. And the clock just seems to spin.

Strava says third best half at 1:45:14. Doppelgänger says that’s what you get for being social.

I am not bored with running, though I still only run three or four days per week. But I’ve been running longer on those three or four days. In lieu of the canceled Vancouver First Half, Forerunners hosted a social half marathon on February 18. It took a little bit of sitting on the sofa listening to [probably Underworld] and pondering the mysteries of the universe to persuade me to participate. I’ve written many times about my solitary-itude when it comes to running. But I did it, and I’m glad that I did. I even *gasp* talked to people while I was running. I blame being social (though it could have very well been the stopping for water around kilometre 15) that I failed to post a new PR, but I had a good time and I ran a route that I’ve only sort of run once before — the route follows parts of the Scotiabank Half route. And I learned that running down hill (obviously forgot after last year’s Scotiabank) absolutely destroys my quads and maybe I need to do some hill training or something. I’ve been saying that for about a year now…. So I didn’t post a new PR, but I learned something and had a good time. Also, beat my Scotiabank time, so there’s that too. So now the lingering thought, do I persuade myself to up my BMO Half to the full marathon. I turn 42 in June, and I’ve been thinking that running 42 the year that I turn 42 would be, I dunno, interesting? I checked the other days, and I have until mid-April to persuade myself, and put down the $70 race registration change fee. I think I need to decide sooner than that.