Tag: Knee Pain

2019 week forty two

Book Read
40. Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan

Kilometres Ran
week forty two – 40.6

2019 to date: 2,149

I think that this book was a book that I was “supposed to” read before I went and spent eight days in Paris back in the spring and I hope that’s not the case because it has nothing to do with Paris and while I recognize that it is “good” it really did nothing for me and if it had been longer I am sure that I would have put it down long before finishing. Cécile is the seventeen-year-old narrator of a summer spent in the Riviera with her rather care-free (hedonist) father. She is about as reliable a narrator as a you might imagine from a teenage narrator with a father who behaves much like he’s a teenager still too. And good for him, but then along comes Anne and she does her best to straighten out both of them, which also goes about as well as you might imagine. I had to remind myself a few times that the ideas in the book seem rather juvenile but that might be because Sagan wrote it when she was eighteen. I didn’t particularly like it but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a decent novella, just not to my liking. Moving on.

As should come as a surprise to no one who’s been following along, my Marathon Photos from the Victoria Half Marathon on Thanksgiving were terrible. But here’s a pretty great photo by Matt Cecill featuring me in full float coming up Dallas Road a little past 16 km. Thanks Matt!

I’ve been biking a lot and in the course of that developed a bit of a weird stiffness in my right leg that I’ve been going to physio about, which is nothing that concerns me because it has had zero effect on my running but lately as my running has ramped up I’ve done less cycling and I’ve noticed that my knees have started to bother me again. I swear that the cycling kept them in check so it makes sense that less cycling would mean a recurrence of some knee niggles but i had also hoped that we were past that by now. Last Sunday I raced pretty hard at the Victoria Half Marathon and I took Monday off completely and then went for a long bike ride on Tuesday after not biking for over a week and then followed that in the evening with a pretty casual 10 km around the park and my right calf and knee were a bit of a bother but nothing of concern. Wednesday was regular physio for aforementioned leg thing and I mentioned the calf and knee and my physiotherapist, bless her, is an amateur poker player at best and suggested that I take it easy for a few days. She expressed more concern about my calf than my knee, but she put the ultrasound on my knee for a best and then told me no Wednesday night workout with the crew so I took the rest of the day off. Thursday and Friday I spun on the cycle trainer and I was feeling pretty good on Saturday morning so I went out for my scheduled 30 km training run. The run went fine, and the calf issue is gone, but holyshit my knee is not very happy with me and now I’m more than a bit concerned about the fact that I am pacing the 1:45 half marathon at the Fall Classic this weekend and then following that with the 10 km race at goal marathon pace and then following that with the 5 km race at easy pace for the first official Fall Classic Hat Trick – a dude did it a few years ago but back then you had to hammer the half because the 10 km gun went just 90 minutes after the half gun. This year RunVan adjusted the start times to make it a bit easier for us hackers – 10 km two hours after the half start, and 90 minutes before the 5 km start. Suffice it to say, knee better get its shit together, and not just because of the Fall Classic, but far more importantly I’m just 50 days away from toeing the line at the California International Marathon.

week seventeen

Books Read:
27. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running — Haruki Murakami
28. The Hatch — Colin Brown

Kilometres Ran:
this week — 34.21
to date — 515.63

Alright so I’m in a bad mood. I’ll get to that later. Anyway, Murakami. I think that the first thing that I heard about this book was, “Not his best work.” Suffice it to say that Murakami fans seem to dislike What I Talk About When I Talk About Running; however, I am not a Murakami fan. That sounds bad so let me qualify. I’m reminded of being much younger and person X asks me if I like band Y and I have never heard band Y and therefore I have no opinion of band Y so I reply, “No, I do not like them.” Which is then interpreted as I hate band Y when in fact I simply do not like band Y because I have never heard [of] band Y. I neither dislike nor like band Y. I have no opinion. But the question was, do you like band Y. To which the only answer is, “Nope, I do not like them.” So I digress. I cannot tell you much about Murakami, or if this book is any good within the context of his catalogue, but I can honestly say it is my favourite book of his that I’ve read. I will even go so far as to say that I found this book, not inspirational, but motivating, and I can see myself going back to it from time to time. I didn’t like all of it, for instance I found the bit in the last third or so where he posits some doubt about global warming and tries to imply that the scientific consensus on the matter is not really a consensus, and really, really makes himself look like an ignorant ass, a bit trying given his massive influence and readership. But there it is. Maybe that’s why it’s not his best work. I should read some more and decide for myself. As far as books about running go, it was pretty good. Yesterday on the bus and Skytrain I read The Hatch and then last night I went to the 2016 Talonbooks spring launch and last year Colin Brown headlines the launch with readings from The Hatch and all that is to say that it took me a year to get around to reading Brown’s book. I think I need to revisit it and explore more of the Surrealist themes, but I probably won’t because there’s a lot of other stuff to read. But I liked it. Brown is one of those interesting characters in my life. We all know people that we mostly only know from social media and seeing them in the real world is sometimes weird. I especially like to make it weird because I have zero qualms about saying hello and trying to have a conversation with someone that I “only” know on social media. The results vary. Brown is in a different category, though, because he is an active member of the board of The Capilano Review society for which I was the managing editor for over two years, and yet interacting with him outside of a Capilano Review context always seems to inspire the “social media friend” reaction. “Hi Colin.” But in all honesty it could just be that he has no idea who I am. His book is good though. You should read it.
week seventeen
So I mentioned that I’m in a bad mood and the reason I’m in a bad mood is because I went for a run today for what was supposed to be me last or second-to-last run before the BMO Half Marathon on Sunday and at around kilometre six my knee started saying, “Nope” and by seven-and-a-half it was definitively NOPE and for the first time since I started running seriously I had to stop and walk. I ended up walking about two kilometres of my 12.5 km route and I’m not happy and I’m really concerned that Sunday is going to be ruined by this stupid knee. So I’m in a bad mood. Oh but I broke 500 km so far this year this week.