Tag: Victoria Marathon

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 two

Book Read:
40. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle — Stuart Turton

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty two — 76.7

To date: 1,660 KM

I received a review copy of this book back in June, which was followed by a note a bit later in a Fight Club like tone that I was not to talk about the book until a month before publication. Which is in about a month from now. More or less. Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life is one of my favourite novels. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are two favourite philosophers. Groundhog Day is one of my favourite films. But enough about me. In 7½ Deaths Aiden Bishop is stuck in a loop he cannot escape until he solves the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. The twist is that he lives the same day seven times from seven points of view and if he cannot solve the murder then he has to start all over again, with no memory of the previous attempt. It’s a new twist on an old idea. Why 7½ deaths? It seems the half was added due to some confusion in the US around this and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because I know how simple it is to confuse husband with death…. I liked this book’s gothic elements and its relatively fresh take on the repetition concept. Unfortunately, I just did not like Aiden Bishop very much for no particular reasons I can give without spoilers, and I found the conclusion a bit dissatisfying. That said, it a pretty great debut novel from Stuart Turton, and I will look forward to more work from him.

There’s this park in Hastings Sunrise that has, I think, one of the nicest views in the city. This photo doesn’t do it justice obviously.

Yesterday was long run number three on the road to my BQ at the Victoria Marathon in October. I set out to run 32KM and decided to mix it up a bit; rather than a long, slow, slog I would run 5KM easy and then 5KM at race pace and repeat that three times, then finish with a 1KM sprint and a 1KM jog home. But by 30KM there was nothing left to sprint 1KM so the final jog ended up being a little less under a mile. Afterwards analysis and all in all it went pretty well. My goal race pace for Victoria is 4:37/KM. My first five at race pace I managed to average 4:38/KM, second at 4:31, and the third was right on 4:37. I had no idea at the time; I felt like my pacing was all over the place. And it was to a degree, but it all averaged out in the end. So that felt good, even if not much else did. I spent a few hours afterwards thinking about my long runs last year while training for my first marathon and trying to remember if at the end of them I wanted to die then, too. If that’s the case, and I’m sure [hopeful] that it is, I seem to have blocked that part out. Eight weeks to go.

2018 week thirty one

Book Read:
39. We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Shirley Jackson

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty one — 69.1

To date: 1,584 KM

Another title from my pile of shorter works that took me a bit too long to read and then I forgot to write about it so here it is. Considered Jackson’s masterpiece, it was published a couple years before her death in 1965. I was surprised to find that it’s being made into a movie. Not surprised because Hollywood is out of ideas, but because it’s been out of ideas for a while and I wonder what’s taken so long. The story is unreliably narrated by Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, whom I thought for much of the book was a lot younger. A few years before the timeline of the book, the entire family is poisoned with only three surviving: Merricat, her sister Constance, and their uncle Julian. Constance was tied and acquitted, and the town believes she got away with murder, and generally hate them. Constance and Julian never leave the property. I liked this book quite a bit, with it’s gothic style, gloomy foreboding and curious ending. I haven’t added sugar to anything years. Don’t touch my salt.

Has a Grouse Grind ascent ever been accurately measured on a GPS device because I’ve never seen it. Actual time 59:03. Actual distance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With an extra long weekend I decided to overdo it a bit on Thursday with a bicycle commute from my office in Port Coquitlam through New West then Burnaby to the edge of Vancouver, then a sharp right turn north over the Iron Workers bridge into North Van and down to Lonsdale Quay to hop on a bus up to Grouse Mountain because I’ve done that ride up that hill once before and I’m never going to attempt that on a single speed bicycle again. Grouse Grind number three and my slowest yet, at 59 minutes and change. I could credit the 32 KM pedal to get there, but the time I actually pedalled all the way up Capilano Road and Nancy Greene Way I finished the Grind around five minutes quicker. Nine weeks to go before the Victoria Marathon and I’m having to remind myself that my first marathon I started training eight weeks out and then got sick and took all of week seven off and didn’t die. My head is further ahead than my body, or my head thinks my body is way behind. Or something. So I’m trying to trust the training plan that I made up based upon the plan I made up from the internet last time around plus some new stuff like going for long bike rides and walking up mountains. Trust is a funny thing.