December 2016

[Sweder]

Well into December and I've finally entered the Medio Maraton de Almeria XX - Dorsal 621
That makes it all rather real; a half marathon in little over seven weeks. That's five weeks of training, a week off for Christmas and a week of 'tapering'. 'Tapering' seems a luxury I can live without, as the word suggests I'll have reached the sort of distance and effort one has to in order to row back from. Unlikely at this point.

I have invested in a bike, though. A 'hard tail' off-road beast that will help me to get out a little more regularly to work on general fitness without pounding the joints. As my surgeon suggested post-surgery, the meniscus has not grown back to anything like full compliment. As I run more, so the knee stiffens and complains. I won't stop, so cycling, albeit hilly, off-road mud-plugging, seems a good compromise.

There is also the rowing machine, gathering a fine layer of leaves out back. I really ought to get to grips with that. It would seem that my catalogue of excuses for being unfit is shrinking. Best get on with it, then.

PS. AA Gill, some-time controversial restaurant critic and impassioned writer on a great variety of subjects, passed away this week. He announced that he had 'the full English' of cancers, pretty much in every part of his body. Gill was 62. I enjoyed his writing, as, like HST and Christopher Hitchens, he so often wrote without fear. This landed him in hot water on more than one occasion, most recently with the Twitterati over a perceived attack on the then Queen of Twitter, Clare Balding. As he pointed out himself in interview, it was his unfortunate, uncharacteristically clumsy phrasing that caused offence. He was actually quite a CB fan.

Here's a link to one of my favourite AA Gill pieces. I've posted this before, and, in keeping with Mr Gill's M.O., make no apology for doing so again now. It's a cracking read. Vanity Fair - L'amis Louis