- The Victoria version of Gunner Shaw went well. This was the race that I wanted to refocus on after breaking my foot in July and I glad that some friends kicked my butt and made me go over as I was balking at the idea. It was a new and tougher course, but running around Thetis Lake never gets tiring.
- The Vancouver Gunner Shaw is this weekend and I will be participating in that one as well. A very different style of race but same atmosphere. This will be the last race of my season and I am looking forward to just running around.
- Jay MacDonald, of whom I speak often on the blog, raced at the National Cross Country championships this past weekend and acquitted himself quite well in the process. What is scary is that he has come back with a renewed since of dedication and motivation to improve even more than last year, when, you know, he dropped about 2 minutes from his 10k time. And not the "easy" two minutes going from 54 to 52 minutes, but from 33 to 31 minutes. We are all in for a world of hurt!
- If you have ever played Mario Kart, please watch this video. I almost cried.
- The next five weeks are my "down time" according to Coach John. Although I am only about 2 months back into training, the combination of work, darkness, and training has me a little worn out, so I am welcoming the time to run freely. The proposed schedule is to run when I want, as hard as I want, for as long as I want (and the converse being true as well - as easy as I want, as short as I want).
- I had the chance to walk out of Thetis Lake holding one hand of PK's while her Dad held her other one. Honestly, that was cooler than the race. She is one cool kid. And her Mom raced very well.
- Sonja and I have been IN LOVE with 30 Rock of late. If you haven't given the show a chance, you REALLY need to. I am not sure if I have said this before in this forum, but Sarah Palin is the best thing to happen to NBC in a long time. Tina Fey is brilliant, as is the rest of the cast, including, surprisingly, Alec Baldwin. I mean, what other show can get AL GORE to come on an parody himself!?!?
- I may or may not be partially distracted by Guitar Hero World Tour. It is empirically demonstrating to me that I have no drumming ability. Maybe not quite none, but if I was filling out a survey, which I am wont to do, in the ability section I would be ticking off the slim to none box.
- My last two longer workouts with VFAC have been the better than they were at this time last year. My 2 x 3 miles in 16:09 and 16:05 and the 4 miles, 1 mile, 1 mile in 21:30, 5:03, 4:54 was a bit of a breakthrough for this time of year.
- I am forcing myself to read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I am not sure how I made it through high school and a minor in English without ever having to read Atwood, but I figure I have to do it to legitimize myself as a consumer of Canadian literature. I would rather be reading the new Joseph Boyden novel, Through Black Spruce, which just won the Giller Prize. If you haven't read Three Day Road, and you are at all interested in WWI, you need to read it - beautiful and devastating.
- I am enjoying my new iPhone. I use it to read Kafka on the bus to work. And listen to music. And get directions. And sometimes, I use it to talk to people. Sometimes.
- And lastly, if what is occurring in Ottawa of late isn't a call to become more involved in our democratic process, I don't know what is. For the record, I support the coalition, but mostly because of the arrogance of the Prime Minister in playing partisan games in these times. I am not sure that the coalition is the best thing at this juncture, but it is better than the about-face that Harper pulled just after delivering speeches in which he said he would work with the other parties in the best interest of Canada. It is that hypocrisy that really fires me up. If he were to step down and allow someone else to lead the Conservatives, someone who would truly offer a more diplomatic approach to governance, then I would support that, but as The Dude said in The Big Lebowski - "I do mind, the Dude minds. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man."
No comments:
Post a Comment