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Paul Theroux’s Tempo

by dv March 2, 2007 1 Comment

Tempo yesterday. 25.04, a new PR. I’ve grown fond of tempo, wish it was on the calendar more often, wish it was longer distance. 6.26, 6.16, 6.08, 6.14. i got a stitch on mile 3 and i never get stitches. first mile was fastest i’ve ever run first mile. of course i paid for it at the end. i didn’t intend to run fast, with the race on sunday, and having short-biked and run wednesday. but its funny because when i was so lethargic and sore in warm-ups this morning, i knew i would run fast. don’t know why that is: feel slow, run fast. feel fast, run slow.

it was pretty sparse this morning. tuesday there were about 50+ people, this morning maybe 20 tops. that kid brian went out with jeff, and i tried to stay just behind them, but by 1.25 miles i couldn’t even see them anymore. then around 1.75 i saw brian and it looked like he was jogging and jeff was nowhere in sight. i closed, but i never did catch up to brian (so I guess I was jogging too). finished about 10 seconds behind him. jeff probably did 24.20 or so. sad that i used to run with him. oh well.

Today, 6 miles in 48 minutes. Probably won’t get in a long run this weekend, unless I do it after the 5K on Sunday, so this afternoon will have to suffice. As such, the time of day, waiting obligations, solitude and the upcoming race conspired against speed, but that’s probably a good thing.

Speaking of the 5K, as I told Andre, I have certain goals, but I fear the pain of running fast. Maybe that is holding me back. Or maybe it’s the weak core, bad diet and inconsistent distances. Eh?

Oh, if you like, you can now keep track of my paltry little training log. Now we can all share a good laugh at my training, especially the bike/swim non-training.

By the by, I just finished reading Paul Theroux’s “Sir Vidia’s Shadow”, an account of his 30-year friendship (and ultimate falling-out) with V.S. Naipaul. I’ve been reading Theroux for years, always getting his books as soon as they came out, but I had put off “Shadow” (it was written in 1998) because I thought it was just a disgruntled gossip and revenge narrative, but it turned out to be honest, insightful, funny, reflective of a writer’s life — all that I’ve come to love from Theroux. I also re-read his short travel narrative, “Sailing Through China”. Both confirmed that Theroux is my favorite writer, at least when he’s writing non-fiction. I don’t care much for the novels he’s written (or any fiction for that matter), but I can read his travel books again and again, admiring and laughing and guffawing. Guffaw? Even though some of his books are more than 30 years old, they don’t seem to go out of date.

Re-reading Theroux almost makes me want to try to become a writer again. I say “again”, for didn’t you know I used to write for the local fish-wrap, and I even wrote short stories and a (quite awful) novella. In fact, when I graduated college, I trekked cross country and back, ending up in Boulder, Co, and spent a year doing nothing but writing (and now that I think of it, running). What I learned was that I’m no fiction-writer. Later I learned that I don’t even care to read fiction. Give me Goodbye to a River.

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  1. noel says:
    March 2, 2007 at 11:25 pm

    If you’re upping your distance, be careful about increasing intensity. Like don’t add 20 miles to the weekly total the same week you do 20 Wilkes.

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