John Le Carre

I've only recently discovered the masterful trilogy about George Smiley's "circus" of British intelligence. I bought the books after reading a review of the Gary Oldman version of Tinker Tailor, and though I enjoyed the movie, nothing is quite like these books. They are true spy thrillers without any cheap action sequences, the hero is fat, balding and cuckolded, the other players are lecherous, alcoholic and semi-untrustworthy. The circus accomplishes its spying through painstaking research and very little else. It's just marvelous.

Barefoot Running

Paul Kedrosky posted this short satirical video, which I find hilarious. So here it is.

A Year Ago

There was 28 inches of snow on the ground.  Today it was high 40s and sunny.  So I went running ...in shorts.

One of the Greatest Individual Athletic Performances

I did something I almost never do, which is watch a Comcast Sports Classic broadcast, which is a fancy marketing term for a rerun.  It was Game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals between the Bulls and the Utah Jazz. It wasn't the Bulls last championship which was the following year or even the last game of the '97 finals.

But what made it special and awe inspiring was Michael.  Jordan had the flu, looked terrible, appeared to feel worse, and was throwing up before the game and during half time.  During the various timeouts he slumped on the bench with ice packs on his neck, a towel over his head, often too weak to drink anything.  Some how he managed to play 44 of the 48 minutes, score in the high thirties, rebound and defend with intensity, and even shake off the defender to score the game winning three pointer before collapsing into the arms of Scottie Pippin as the Bulls left the floor.  He could barely talk in the interview after the game but said it was all about will.  Indeed.  I want to be like Mike.  Even a little.

Hanging with the leader pack

The nice weather is back so this weekend I went outside for a change.  I did one of my usual 6 mile loops.  On the way back, I noticed I was being passed by an inordinately large number of very fast runners.  Eventually I figured out I was on the early part of the course for the Frozen Half, the first long distance race of the year.  They were fast and on mile 1-2, while I am slow and on mile 4-5.  The true leader pack streaked by but I was able to hold it together after the first 20 runners or so and stay up with the second wave.  Decent weather but a bit icy if you are doing this for real.  Glad I could make the right turn by my apartment, catch my breath and jog it in.

7. Don't forget the off-season

Was talking with a friend this weekend. He had a hard year, finishing at the end of November. Like me, he planned to start January 1 preparing for Boston, but has found it slow getting going this month. He is just now getting in the swing of training hard. It's only an N of 2, but this guy needed about 2 months to get over last year, and that's about what I had from the end of October to 1/1. My lesson from this is that 2 months off is a without which not of getting a good start on the next year's program.

Ever run Thoedore Roosevelt Island?

I was staying at the Hotel Palomar in beautiful downtown Roslyn and look a look at the running map that the hotel had at the front desk.  The combination of a head cold and an early morning symposium at George Mason prevented me from going out on Thursday morning but I realized that I have never run on Teddy Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac.  Run by it on both sides of the river but never focused on the fact that you can go on it and around it.  Is there anything there?  Should it be part of the course for the Race for Competition given his trust busting fame?