Training Log Archive: PG

I think we're both falling apart....

C • All things considered, 2

Spent a couple hours awake in the middle of the night. First, quite pissed at my sister, doing my best to just let it dissipate though that didn't really happen until I got up at a normal hour.

And then finished Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, a wonderful book.

I've been doing a lot of reading the last couple of months. Started with easy stuff -- my attention span when reading is very short, usually 15 minutes at most -- so I read maybe half a dozen books by Elmore Leonard, master of the enjoyable easy read.

And then I heard someone on the radio praising Lehane and his gritty stories about Boston. Read three, really enjoyed them (though maybe not quite so much for Shutter Island). And then picked up The Given Day, historical fiction set in Boston in 1918-19, superb.

Among the various themes, the one that struck me most forcefully was the staggering racism. And while that was almost 100 years ago, I couldn't help but think a good bit about how racism is still very much a part of our culture and most surely always will be, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle. Witness, for an easy example, the recent presidential campaign.

And it got me thinking on my drive to Litchfield what grade I'd give myself. I think I'd give myself a pretty good grade, but it is really hard to know, because what I might perceive as good behavior might be perceived by an outside observer as not so good. Very hard to know.

A book that gets you thinking about such things, and lots of other things too, is a very good book indeed. Even at 700 pages.

And then on the way home I stopped briefly at a supermarket, purchased about $5 worth of stuff, and noticed a sign that said 10% off this week for Veterans. So, what the hell, I asked for my 10% off. No problem, they just needed to see some military ID.

I haven't carried a military ID for 42 years. No discount....

Stopped on the way home at George's favorite training area. A good job had been done on clearing downed trees from the trails so the the users (20% runners, 80% dog walkers based on today's survey) could enjoy the place. Seemed like all the dogs were on leashes, don't know if that was pure chance or not but it suited me fine.

Legs not too bad, especially compared to yesterday. But then running on trails is so much easier than running in the woods. The obvious remedy is to run in the woods more, but that is a lot easier said than done.

Entertainment from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, first time I've listened to them in a while, still very amusing, perfect for when you'd rather laugh than think.

Event: NEOC: Baldwin Hill
 

NEOC meet at Baldwin Hill, excellent course by J-J. Ran/walked Blue course, 5.4 beeline.

No energy. Or at least not enough to deal with the forest which is a little worse for wear after storms in the last 3 years. But the topography is still wonderful. One bad control, #4, a couple other very minor bobbles, mainly just moving really slowly.

My route (click on map for larger version) --

Picking up 7 controls. Actually did this a little quicker than anticipated, and ran some. Also no mistakes. :-)

My route (click on map for larger version) --

Blue - Splits

Around town, virtually flat, easy pace, rather pleasant.

One of my regular loops on Mt Toby many years ago, meaning 15 or 20 or 25 years ago, but haven't done it for a long time. Used to do it in about 65 minutes, think I broke 60 once, figured I'd be more like 80 this time and I wasn't far off.

Legs like crap for the first 50 minutes, better the rest of the way though I suspect that was because the rest of the way was mostly downhill. Just one of those days. Walked a couple of short stretches out on the loop, the spirit wasn't willing.

But still, a good workout, you put in a few days that feel like this and then maybe you get a day where you can keep a decent pace for an hour. At least that is the hope.

Entertainment was Fresh Air interviews with Norm Ornstein about the state of politics, interesting and depressing, and Oliver Saks, just plain interesting. Read one of his books once, Wife/Hat or whatever the title was, though of course I can hardly remember it.

C • BHT 4

At Earl's Trails, starting at Dave;s and over Tinker and Little Tinker hills. Windy and a bit raw, storm coming but not here yet. Pretty good run, got up the first hill without croaking and then the rest is easy.

Enjoyed watching the results last night. Amazing how good the polls were this time (and especially Nate Silver's analysis of them in the NY Times), and how it seems so many on the right didn't believe them. Stayed up to watch the speeches. Romney's was excellent, just what it needed to be. And then Obama was masterful. But now comes the hard part, getting something done in Washington, because the dynamics are pretty much the same.

Best scene of the evening was Karl Rove's meltdown on Fox. Over the years I have found it useful to pay attention to media on both sides of the political spectrum -- I really think people who get all their news from either Fox or NPR, to use two common examples, are really doing themselves a disservice. They forget how to think. So I try to tune into different sources.

Last night I turned on Fox for a while to see how they were spinning what was developing into a very bad night for their side. And they were doing a decent job for the most part, not as much in a state of denial as I expected. But then their analysis group called Ohio for Obama, right about the same time the other networks did, and Rove went nuts.

How could they do that! Why, he had just talked to someone who was getting the real numbers right from the Ohio Secretary of State's office, and with 80% of the votes counted, it was a dead heat. How could Fox call it for Obama! Outrageous! Take it back! And it went on for 10 or 15 minutes, during which time Nevada and Colorado got called for Obama, so it no longer even mattered what happened in Ohio, the election was over anyways.

And Rove demanded they have the analysis group withdraw their call. Which, to their credit, they refused to do. Because they knew that most of the outstanding votes were from Obama strongholds. Which Rove could have known, and should have known, and probably did know, but it seemed like he just couldn't believe that his boy was going down. And he had a very public tantrum.

It was very fun to watch. Though not near as much fun as watching Obama's speech.

By the way, the almost final results from Ohio show Obama up by 100,000 votes. The analysis guys at Fox knew what they were doing.

C • MSNBC... 17

At the track for the first time in a long time, just to get started. A mile warm-up. Cool (40F) and a little breezy, but still in shorts.

A set of Bricker intervals, intended to do 4 x 1000m, 200 jog, did 3 and decided that was enough. 4:30, 1:03, 4:30, 1:04, 4:27. Just for reference, roughly 13:46 for 3K and 14:44 for 2 miles. Reasonably content with the effort and the time, and for just getting started in the first place.