Tag: Victoria Marathon 2018

2018 week thirty six

Book Read:
43. Katerina — James Frey

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty six — 80.2

To date: 1,949 KM

Oh hey look another book about a self-destructive struggling author. I’ve never read any James Frey before. I had a copy of Million Little Pieces on my book shelf for many years, though I think it was because someone left it at my house or I picked it up from a free pile somewhere because I saw the Oprah’s Book Club sticker on the cover, obviously. Katerina is that sort of banal, masculine romance novel where the romance is mostly narcissistic. But I was entertained, so there’s that. The most interesting part for me was noticing that past me would not have been able to read this without drinking along with Jay, whereas if present me woke up with a headache it was from all the eye-rolling the night before. This book felt out of time. It felt like what Chuck Palahniuk or Irvine Welsh were writing twenty years ago. Maybe my age is showing. I felt a bit guilty liking this book. Perhaps it was the nostalgia for a more self-destructive time. Regardless, I appreciate the advanced, review copy from Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books.

I broke 80 KM in a week for the first time since April without doing an especially long run this week. My knees have been less than happy with the effort of late, which is a huge concern with just a month to go before the Victoria Marathon. So I’m trying to balance workout and rest, and trying and doing a not very good job of self care before and after running. So I bought a TENS/EMS unit to shock my knees and thighs. I don’t know if it’s helping but I like it. I do really need to stretch and use the roller more often. And now this has taken a banal turn towards confessional. Next week I run the Eastside 10K and I was hoping to sub-40 minutes and I am not terribly confident since my focus has been so dialled on 42.2. Right now I’ll be surprised to run a new personal best, but I’ve said that a couple times already this year and ended up surprising myself. So we’ll see which me shows up at the start/finish line on Saturday.

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.