Tag: Mile2Marathon

2020 week fifty two

My year in review

Books Read: 31

Kilometres Ran: 2,591

Kilometres Cycled: 2,644

Times hit by a dumb fuck in a truck cycling: 1

Reading

When I started this blog a few years ago the goal was to read 95 books in the year and write weekly here about what I’d read. Since then I’ve read less and written more, until this year. This year my reading goal was 45 books “and other stuff” and I was doing okay until things went sideways back at the beginning of August. I ended up at 31 for the year, and I’m about half way through number 32, which I guess will be 2021 number one. In the past I’ve broken down my reading list and chosen a few highlights. This year I want to focus on just three. I read three books that, in spite of my biases going in, changed the way I think.

I wish that everyone would read these three books. I also know that the people who most need to read these three books probably won’t, or if they do, their brain will shut off while they read them. One can hope, though. Ordered by author.

Photo ordered by aesthetics.

Bikenomics by Elly Blue
All the anti-cycling greatest hits (and obscure favourites) decimated by facts. Whataboutism doesn’t even survive.

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
It is not easy to casually believe you’re not racist only to be forced to confront all the ways that racism is systemic within society and it’s not enough to simply not be racists but you need to be overtly antiracist. And by you I mean me. But there’s hope.

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
What does “defund the police” actually mean? “Abolish the police” sounds terrifying. Read this and remap your brain. Also, ACAB.

Running (& Cycling)

It was quite the year, hey? Normally my year in review recaps accomplishments and sets goals for the year that follows. I did accomplish a few things this year worth noting. My top three:

I have raced the 5K with Courtney McEwan twice. Both times we finished seconds apart. This time over a minute faster than the first. This Dave Mallari photo is one of my favourite race photos all time.

1. Ran a new fastest 5K in 19:04 at West Van Run in March, then another in 19:02 in a solo time trial for the Mile2Marathon Virtual Race Series in May.

Staring down (hill) my fastest mile (so far).

2. Ran a new fastest Mile in 5:18 and then two days later tried again and ran 5:16 for the June leg of the Mile2Marathon Virtual Race Series. Unofficial, of course. Also, gloriously downhill all the way. Think you can do better? Here’s the Strava segment (hint: you definitely can).

For Halloween, I stitched back together the stinky, bloody (unwashed) jersey paramedics had cut off me, and went for a ride. Bit of a metaphor for 2020.

3. Didn’t die. If you’re new here and want to get caught up start here and just work your way forward.

This blog started as a public diary of sorts for my running (and reading) life, but then a couple people started actually reading along so I added a Subscribe plugin and a bunch of people (bunch is generous) actually subscribed. Feeling obliged helped keep me posting mostly weekly (weakly?) per my self-imposed social contract. Then I went for a bike ride and got hit by a truck. I’ve written about my experience and subsequent recovery trials four times in the twenty weeks since August 3. And I’m sure my lawyer is going to have fits about all four, plus this one. In B.C. you don’t sue the driver, you make a claim against their insurance, and the Insurance Corp of B.C. has a monopoly. And they’re awful (hence the need for a lawyer). They also have a well established propensity to troll the internet looking for reasons to limit or diminish a claim. It’s unlikely they have read this or my other post-crash posts, but it is absolutely certain that they will.

On December 19 – 139 days since I was clobbered cycling the Sea to Sky highway – I ran my first half marathon. It was a very big deal to me, and apparently to a few people who follow me on Instagram, Strava and Twitter. Normally I would have written about it here. I guess I am now. A journalist from Global News asked to do a story. I asked my lawyer all the while already knowing his reply. “No good will come of this,” he said. And he’s right, because Global would have wanted to turn it into a good news story, and it’s not a good news story. People on social media heaped congratulations upon my accomplishment and it felt really great but it was also fucking awful. I went deep to the well on that Saturday morning and came out with a half marathon that was nearly ten minutes slower than it *should have* been. It took me nearly three days to recover. I had a headache for over 48 hours. It sucked, and the whole time I was thinking fuck that guy (I’m so tempted to type his name) and also fuck ICBC who will try to turn this into some sort of win “for rate payers.” Meanwhile, I have gotten addicted to pain meds only to kick the addiction and then come out the other end with the realization that I now have chronic pain. As in all the time. I still can’t reach my armpit with the soap in the shower without (painfully) using the wall for leverage. So, yeah, I’m doing really great (ICBC stopped reading back at “fuck ICBC”).

Hurray for fast fashion. The other kind of fast fashion.

Stephanie and I were talking the other day and she commented that probably the weirdest thing to lose in all of this is this stupid vanity blog and I used to so enjoy writing, and apparently, shockingly, people enjoyed reading. But I’m not allowed to anymore. At least not until the dust settles from 2020, and I’ve been told to expect it’s going to take years. So is this the end of this? I don’t know, to be honest. I could continue writing about reading and running stuff sans anything personal but I’m not sure that’s all that interesting. I haven’t figured that out yet. Wait and see? I guess you could subscribe to see what I come up with (if you’re not a subscriber already). Really zero chance I’m going to spam you. Happy new year, and thanks for all your support so far.

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.