Finished reading: Blood Meridian, Or, The Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy is bleak, nihilistic, and compelling 📚
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Because Anson Mount saved Star Trek. And I’m not afraid to say so. In fact, I’m here to shout it from the rooftops: thank you, Anson Mount. You were just what we needed.
I endorse this claim
As usual, against my better judgement, I’ve installed the public betas. I’m mostly interested in the new fitness features of watchOS 11. Although I already have something like Training Load in the HealthFit app, Apple’s take is intriguing. For me it is the simple things, like structured swim workouts and being able to see what the next interval is in a custom workout that will make the biggest differences.
To get watchOS, I had to install iOS 18. Overall, some nice incremental improvements with nothing too significant (at least until some of the Apple Intelligence features get added).
Finished reading: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte is a comprehensive and detailed tour of all of the mammals, past and present, that stays engaging. Such tremendous diversity and curious lifestyles 📚
Finished reading: The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson is a good ending to The Wax and Wayne series. Although the Cosmere hints were intriguing, they also got a bit confusing. Presumably to be clarified in later books 📚
🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️ 2024 Muskoka Ironman 70.3
Well that was “fun”! The Muskoka Ironman 70.3 was very well organized with great volunteers and an excited crowd of spectators.
I was within a few minutes of last year which I’m very happy with, considering the interruptions to my training with a trip to Portugal and introduction of a new puppy (neither of which I regret).
Not much new to report, relative to last year, in terms of the course. Still super hilly and challenging with some great views of the Canadian Shield. Given the challenges of the run, in particular, I don’t think I’d recommend this as a first 70.3. Definitely should be on anyone’s list that is looking for additional courses though.
As always, a huge thank you to my wife for her continued support and excellent race crewing. And thanks to the One Academy crew for all of the training hours together. These races are not a solo effort.
Finished reading: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson is a fun continuation of the series. Intriguing to see the world of Elendel open up to a wider perspective 📚
Finished reading: Justin Trudeau on the Ropes by Paul Wells is a short, informative, entertaining, and timely look at Justin Trudeau’s tenure as Prime Minister 📚
Finished reading: As Gods by Matthew Cobb is a really good look at the science, politics, and ethics of genetic engineering 📚
🎧 I’ve been enjoying The Universe podcast: a fun conversation about astrophysics. Katie Mack is great at explanation and John Green is a good audience stand in
Finished reading: Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee contains lots of fun stories. Only make sense though if you’ve read the series 📚
Training load and rest days on the Apple Watch are nice improvements. I’m curious to explore the Vitals App too
Finished reading: Witch King by Martha Wells is good. I enjoyed the clever interweaving of the two time periods and the vivid world building 📚
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I’m not here this week to tell a story of despair. I was impressed by what I saw of the Alberta government reponse to the opioid crisis, which reflects a level of ambition and concerted effort over time that I rarely see in government action anywhere.
I’m glad to see this getting pragmatic attention, rather than rhetoric
🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️ 2024 Milton Sprint Triathlon
My third year in a row for this one and, despite pouring rain for the entire race, it was still fun and well organized.
My times across the three have been within minutes of each other. Although this one was slowest of the three, given the conditions, I’m happy with the overall results and ended up 12th in my age group.
At least in the swim, it didn’t matter that it was raining. I think they had less time between heats though and swimmers really bunched up for the last 200m.
As usual the trip up the escarpment is still a brutal climb and trip down terrifying. I maxed out at 70km/h coming down this time. With the poor visibility and slippery conditions from the rain that was more than fast enough.
Plenty of mud through the back half of the run. I almost lost a shoe!
Overall the conditions made for a good test of mental resilience which is always useful.
My only real problem was in T2. I couldn’t find my stuff! The area available for my age group was full. So, I put everything elsewhere and then couldn’t find it 🤣. The 3 minute transition was an embarrassment.