Here's my thoughts…

Now in many European countries a next wave of Corona-virus infection seems inevitable, it becomes unlikely my marathon on November 28, 2021, will go through. I'm not angry or bitter about it, just saddened that there's a part of the population who couldn't be convinced to get vaccinated, while they probably aren't against it, just haven't done it yet, for whatever reason. 80% against 90% of a population vaccinated makes a big difference, see Portugal.

Anyway, it seems likely my marathon will be cancelled by the local authorities, and I need to consider what to do in case this happens. Rather than running a marathon on my own, I'll probably keep training to get into a better marathon shape. At the moment, long runs are still too much of a problem for me (I'm exhausted afterwards), while that shouldn't be the case.

I guess the best course of action is to reduce my training volume in week 12, and then, in December 2021 start from week 1 until week 9, then keep repeating weeks 6 through 9 until there's another marathon to run, after which I can continue to week 12.

My only hope now is that the event will go through, with a mandatory proof of vaccination or a recent negative test result, using the CoronaCheck app. I rather not have my training efforts go to waste, but realize that it's just a hobby, so if push comes to shove, I should do as I'm told. People not doing that have caused most of the problems we're in right now.

Freedom comes with a price, so it seems.

In the age of hardware-accelerated artificial intelligence based on large datasets, why are there still bespoke algorithms being developed and deployed by lone, opinionated developers?

Steve Jobs famously said, that our society and its rules were made by people not smarter than you, which means you can break the rules, and, thusly, change society for the better.

I think this applies to smaller contexts as well. In marathon training there's the belief (without solid proof) that the long run should never exceed the marathon distance, since it would take too long to recover. I've seen instances to the contrary, where people ran a marathon or ultramarathon in preparation of a marathon, only a few weeks before.

I suppose everyone is different, and different rules apply to different people, or even to the same people in other stages of their running career. There's clearly a lot of armchair coaching going on, based on “anecdotal evidence,” which isn't proof of anything, as we should know by now. It's highly susceptible to bias.

After yesterday's race, I had run a distance of 49 km in two days, and my watch demanded 3 days (72 hours) of recovery. Today I can confirm that I'm pretty tired.

I can now see how my marathon training schedule is working. It lets you exert yourself beyond what's comfortable, then recover from it, and do it again, relying on the training effect. It should be in the range 3.0 – 3.9 optimally, most of the time, 4.0 – 4.9 once a week. The only exception is the training session before an important race event, in which the training effect should be between 2.0 and 2.9, to recover.

Here are the values of my previous training weeks:

• week 1: 3.6 + 3.6 + 3.4 + 2.3 + 4.4 → ℮ 3.5
• week 2: 3.4 + 3.7 + 3.7 + 4.0 + 2.6 → ℮ 3.5
• week 3: 3.2 + 3.7 + 3.7 + 3.0 → ℮ 3.4
• week 4: 3.4 + 4.1 + 3.7 + 3.0 → ℮ 3.6

As long as the average value remains between 3.0 and 3.9 I'm on the right track. Of course, this is just an approximation, as my EPOC is estimated, and I didn't include my rest days, since I haven't measured those.

Since I haven't done any intense sessions this week, and those in the weekend won't be either, I guess today's session should reach beyond 3.9. It's a 10 km tempo run, in which I clearly should push myself. That's good to know.

It turns out a challenge is worthless if one is just taking part in it without enthusiasm. There's no habit-forming, no real benefit, other than passing time.

Why do we need challenges in our lives? I believe it's because we learn most when the unexpected happens, or when we need to toughen up to deal with setbacks. So, it's about enriching the stories of our lives.

Before I even consider participating in national novel writing month, I think I should do my own challenge of reading as many novels, good or bad, as feasible in a month, and write a little review. This place (write.as) is as good as any to do just that. My big challenge, taking precedence, is still running a marathon in November.

Perhaps I should rephrase this. Since reading seems to be so atrophied in me, I probably should take much longer to develop a taste for reading. A challenge is probably not the best means to encourage a reading habit, since it's so easy to fail. I suppose finding a source (sources) of book will be my first priority.

My local library sucks, because of budget cuts. You need a subscription, even to use their reading tables to read the newspapers. You can visit for free, but only for looking, not reading. Next up, is the local pawn shops, which are actually used goods shops, where people have donated their goods (including books), to be sold for cheap, or, at least, cheaper than buying new. There are even community-driven free micro-libraries, but those are meant for children of underprivileged families, who can't afford a yearly library subscription. I can afford the latter, but think it's a rip-off, not worth my money for what's offered.

So, that's what should be my focus for the upcoming month, where to find somewhat affordable books.

😒 Every time I want to do some home improvement chore, it turns out I only have some of the stuff necessary to complete the task 💔 I suppose that's how DIY shops stay in business. 💰🕸