Two books, two plans

However, the books have nothing to do with the plans.

The first book I'm reading is A Conspiracy of Tall Men, buy Noah Hawley. He had me at the title. I like conspiracy theories, and I aspire to be a tall men. I've just started. The protagonist, a professor of conspiracy theories, is told that his wife, who he thought was in Chicago visiting her mother, died in a plane crash, traveling under a ticket bought by the man in the seat next to her, on a trip to Brazil.

The other book is The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt. This is a bit more serious reading. I have always wondered why and how the Renaissance happened in Florence. How there was such a huge surge of talent in so many fields that quite literally changed the world in a human lifetime. This book undertakes to explain why, leading back to a single book found in a German monastery.

Work stuff doesn't normally make it's way in here, but I've been marinating in some really odd data. All kinds of exceptions to the general rule. The query to get it all is still being built, but is full of "is not null" and "I" OR "O", is not "N?A", is not "MISSING", and I'm still going to have to scrub it in XL. Some things are easier there. What happens is that I get lost in it, and I forget to get up and walk, leading to desk hunch. I may well have to set an alarm on my phone and hope I don't drive my office roomie crazy.

The plans have to do with setting a running goal for next year. I'm seriously considering signing up for a marathon, perhaps even the Calgary Marathon a year from now. So far, I'm not even thinking about the running. I'm working hard on fully recovering from cranky legs, and building core strength. I've got any number of exercises, and found a few more last night. For this week I'm just working on range of motion stuff, getting used to the movements. Which is good for dealing with desk hunch.

Tonight was a short easy spin, then a good core and stretch session. I went into it feeling cranky legged and sciaticaish, and came out feeling pretty good.

Yesterday I'd asked about two schools of thought on running. The two schools of thought seem to be 1 - Run lots, with periodization, and a variety of speeds and stuff, while trying to stave off overuse injury. 2 Run little but with great intensity along with a variety of other workout stuff. What are your thoughts?

I realize most people probably land somewhere between these two extremes. I especially want to allow for proper recovery, as I'm an old guy, and I can tell I'm not recovering as well as even a few years ago. I've had a couple comments so far (Thanks Darryl and Janice!) and I really am curious about your thoughts on this. Your comments please!