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March 29, 2005
ultra dude, the reading. 
Art at Powells
A bad pic of the author autographing books
Right now I am procrastinating. In an hour, I go for more fillings. I just got a bill from my dental insurance (thank g-d I have dental insurance), and $288 from the last fillings were not covered! Oh boy! If today goes as expected, I'll owe a thousand dollars by the time everything is done and said. Oh, I hate that.
Yesterday, I ended up right in front of the instructor in pilates. Ugh. My upperbody seems permanently sore, and my belly was sore going in. I guess I was holding my transverse nice and wide (ie, holding my gut in) during the coaches' meeting on Saturday—ouch!
It surprises me sometimes what slow going this is. I'd think, after 4 months of doing pilates at least once a week, that this would be getting substantially easier. Yes, I can do more, yes, I can do it better, but it's still hard, hard, hard.
Afterwards, I did 20 easy minutes on the elliptical. I don't know that I've done more than a couple minutes at a time, but it felt good. Today, I have a little ache, very small, in my hamstrings and calves, which, well, who knows where it came from. There it is.
Last night, we went to Powells to see Dean Karnazes read. We got there about 20 minutes before the reading, and the room was almost full—yikes! I immediately recognized Hollie and one of the coaches.
The readings at Powells are held in the Pearl Room, where they have an art gallery. The exhibit this time was primitivist circus posters—very cool.
The reading: not so much of a reading. Basically, Karnazes gets up, says this editor said that his readings were all over the place, gives us a quote, and then opens the floor for questions. Dude, don't you want to sell the book? It's all about the sizzle, man!
Anyways, the questions and answers were interesting, and about what you would expect. He is so damn pollyanna, so optimistic, hey, you can do this too. Bill asked about his VO2 max, and it's 70. Hello!!! This man is a genetic freak. Him and Lance Armstrong. Average person: 50. Yow.
I was ready, and let's be honest, hoping, for the unchecked ego. Which was not displayed. He seemed like your normal overenthusiastic ultrarunner who doesn't sleep.
Oh. And he's done Hood to Coast, 195 miles,by himself. Sheesh.
It was all over, well, within a halfhour. What a disappointment! I did end up buying the book in a moment of weakness. Well, that and Brent's review made it sound like it might be a laffriot.
Posted at March 29, 2005
Comments
I realized a while ago that (despite our wishes) these workouts never get easier. We do, however, get faster, stronger, leaner, and are able to push ourselves closer to our limits with each successive workout. So I gave up on wishing it would be easier. Everything truly worthwhile takes hard work to accomplish, I'm learning again and again. That makes the victory all the sweeter, though!
Posted by: Nancy Toby at March 29, 2005 5:57 PM