I little less today
I got out and put in some more miles. Did a little less mileage, but kept a good pace. I probably could have done more, but I was just tired and was really struggling to focus. I’m already well over 40 miles for the week, which is a lot for me.
Meanwhile, instead of anything else, let’s talk about OSIRIS-REx. It’s a NASA mission to launch a satellite today, send it to the asteroid Bennu, land, take a sample, and return to Earth with it. Now, it will meet up with Bennu in 2018, and then it will be sometime in 2023 when the mission returns. I think people tend to not understand the vast distances we have to cover in space, and how slow we are with that.
I think that’s why so many people believe in “aliens” visiting. They don’t get the major investment it takes by a society to travel these distances, and how there needs to be very good reason if you are going to go to other worlds. In our mistaken belief that we are somehow “special” we think we would be special to some alien species. Got news for you, if we had something they wanted, they come, take it, and leave, and they wouldn’t mince about in the shadows, working with our governments against us, or whatever. They have no need for that shit, they can travel vast distances in short times, or they have the resources to build generational ships, either way, we are insignificant to them. You don’t like that idea, too bad.
There’s a certain balance that must be struck with humanity. We work on a philosophy that believes nature is inherently heartless, cold, greedy, cruel. Extending from that, being humans are natural beings, then we are entitled, and in fact programmed for this. In some ways nature is this way, but there is also an amazing order to it, there is an incredible complexity that makes it impossible to boil it down to some simplistic view of what it is. Then the argument must also be made, have we transcended nature as a species? We are not subject to the whims of weather, environmental changes, predators, drought, as we once were. These things can still impact us, but mostly they impact us because we set up a system of scarcity, and we are led to believe we can be uncaring to the plight of others.
But we are not natural anymore, we can launch ourselves off our world, control a ship, land it on another celestial body and return. We build houses and make clothing, we have tools and implements, we cultivate the land, and make things grow to suit our needs.
This being the case, we need to abandon our philosophies based on what someone’s divination of “nature” or “human nature” is or was. We need to look at things from a different perspective and the systems built upon these philosophies must be torn down. Stop lying to yourselves, stop telling yourselves the lies that make you comfortable. I see it all the time. People take words to mean what they want them to, they surround themselves with the ideas that bring them solace. But the world is not supposed to be comfortable. We’re here to improve, to make things better than they were, and being comfortable means you’re never going to move from where you are. Because when you are comfortable, why move?
Anyway, go OSIRIS-REx! We can do great things, if we decide to do it. We could be so much further along in science and exploration, if we realized those things are the only real things we can do in this world.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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I’m amazing myself
I went out today, and again I thought a couple miles and call it a day. But I just kept going! No idea where it’s coming from. It’s not the distance, it’s the ability to keep the pace going. I really don’t know what’s happening. I am sore, for sure, but I have enough to just keep going. Tomorrow I will take it a little easier I think.
Meanwhile, I have to find an apartment by next Thursday and things are getting a little dicey. Extra stress, it’s just one of those things that’s so much easier in the US. It’s funny, because in many ways living in Europe is better, but sometimes, things are just really messed up and backwards. Like everything is set up to try and be fool proof, and you know what they say about fool proof systems. That causes problems for everyone.
So I ran and ran and really mostly focused on the fact my legs were in pain. Thought a bit about how weird everything seems right now, and then thought about how I need an apartment, I need a place to live. Nothing amazing today. No great epiphanies, no deep philosophical triumphs. Just me and the road and stuff. Although I did think about how much I really enjoy my music mix when I’m running, and how I need to get the new De La Soul album and load that up. Funny thing that my best marathon was run without any music, but I just feel lost without it. It seems to me I have a song in my head all the time.
It’s part of the reason I tend to share music here. The fact I always have a song stuck in my head. Sometimes it has something to do with what I’m writing, other times, it’s just the shit that’s bouncing around up there. It’s probably the best way I have to express myself, because I’m not always confident in the words I use. So when I hear a message in a song, and I think it is something other people should hear, I share.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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The Sun rose, and so did I
I figured I’d get a couple miles in, then call it a day because I am sore. But I managed to just keep going today. I was really happy with my run. At one point there was a tractor mowing a field, and I ended up racing it a little. Hit a max of 16.67 kmh (about 10.3 mph). Now, while I’m hugely excited about that, let’s put it in perspective. Let’s say I was trained to hold that pace through a marathon. That’s still only a 2:35 marathon, or about 25-30 minutes slower than the people winning the marathon (if we’re talking elites). It’s a full 30 kmh slower than Usain Bolt, at his fastest recorded speed. Now, was I running as fast as I could run? No. My legs are massively tired and sore, and I just wanted to beat the tractor. But still, even my fastest isn’t all that fast.
So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow and decide how I’ll run, how far, how fast, when I get to that point. This is definitely a week to take as it comes. There is a fair amount of soreness and I have to be careful to not injure myself. But I’m also trying to increase my endurance, and yes speed as well. So it’s a balancing act. But when you think of it, isn’t that true of most everything in life? So we will see what September brings. There are going to be challenges, but I think the rest of the month is shaping up to go pretty well.
I think staying focused on the numbers helps me from getting distracted or overwhelmed by what I do. I mean, I know people that put on many more miles, but for me, going from a few years ago of not running any miles, to staying consistent as I do now, is a lot.
So it seems over the weekend, at another pipeline protest in the Dakotas, the Native people peacefully protesting were set upon by dogs brought in by a private “security” company, hired by the pipeline company. America has a long history of doing this. Outsourcing “security” forces to put down peaceful protests. The Pinkertons made a nae for themselves by going to worker’s strike camps and opening fire, sending in instigators to justify the murder of otherwise peaceful protesters. On the run today, Anti-Flag came on, they have a great song specifically about how horrible we’ve always been to the Native population of the continent. I’m just gonna leave this right here, do with it what you will, but remember, this song is much older than you might think.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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A Rainy Long Run
I’m actually really happy with myself today. 21.7 mi (34.9 km), and kept a pretty good pace, in the rain, all the way to the end. The last mile and a half I just walked it mostly. Calves started cramping a bit, so I figured I should just take it easy the rest of the way. Didn’t use any s-caps or slo-mag. It was a cold rainy day. In fact there was rain the whole way. Not too heavy, only twice, once around mile 5 it started to come down pretty heavy and again right for the last 3/4 of a mile.
So I haven’t had my usual Clif Bar Minis for a long run since April. I’ve just been using what I can find locally. Today I used these “Free Soft Bars”, that’s what they’re called, yes they cost money, they’re alright. A company named ISIS makes them, seriously. They’re tasty though and they seemed to keep me going. I can’t complain. It was the best long run I’ve had in a while.
I hurt a bit right now, I’m going to hurt bad tomorrow. I’m glad there aren’t many stairs in Denmark. I really can’t wait until I’m used to this mess again and these runs aren’t a big deal. One or two more of these and I should be good to go. If things keep progressing as they have I should be ready for a return to marathons in December.
But today was nice, woke up, got out, hit my goals. Even with walking most of the last mile, mile and a half, I hit my overall pace goal of 10 mins/mi. Which means I was doing much better than that for the first 20 miles. As I recall I was actually right around a 9:45/mi when I hit mile 2o. Yes, it’s 20 minutes slower than my marathon PR, but considering I was completely out of marathon shape I will take it. Next long run should be first week of October.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you! (Happy Birthday Mom!)
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A Saturday warmup
Long run tomorrow, so I shook out everything today on a little 10k jaunt. I feel pretty good. I little soreness and stiffness, but nothing out of the ordinary. So after lunch I will go provision for tomorrow. Need something to eat along the way, some bananas would be nice for after and that should do it.
While mapping out a loop for tomorrow, I noticed something, a name of a village, Gilbjerg. Well, really looks just like a couple of farm houses. I guess I really am Norman, haha! And the pronunciation would go something like Gil-b-yah (or jah). I don’t think it’s any mistake that the names are so close though. Total coolness!
Meanwhile, just going to have a lazy Saturday here, nothing major going on. Play some Kerbal Space Program, last night I got a satellite into orbit around the Mun. It’s a fun game, basically they take real world physics and you build rockets, spaceplanes, and regular planes to hit goals and build your space program. You can add modifications to the program other people have written to make it more realistic. People have even built themselves cockpits, and some mod packs even let you have others play and you can create your own mission control. It’s like model rockets, only on a program. You always have to worry about delta v, center of mass, center of lift, center of thrust and all that good stuff. But you can experiment and see what works and what doesn’t.
For some it doesn’t sound like a fun day at all. But it’s interesting and challenging and helps teach engineering and science concepts, a great little game. I would highly recommend for all ages! Because these are the things all people should be learning and doing. Arts, Humanities, Sciences, they’re what will bring us through, they’re what will take us forward. The rest is just window dressing. Learning what the Universe is, what being us means, and expressing that, Science, Humanities, Arts. That’s it. In science we learn all about the whole of the natural world, in humanities we learn all about what it is to be a human being, and in art we let all that out! What could be better? So let’s make it happen, the new world is waiting for us, what are we waiting for? There’s no better time than now.
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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September is here!
First miles of the month done! I felt stiff, sore, and slow. But I kept a decent pace. Kept in mind the whole time, tomorrow is an off-day! I really should plan out a long run for Saturday or Sunday. I haven’t figured it out yet. It is time for another long run though. And with that, I just checked in on the Puglia Marathon site to see what the deal was. Looks like December 18th! Come January I’ll start planning out and budgeting out Summer marathons. I need to get Asia done at least.
So running today, a song came on the walkman mp3 player. Yes, I use Sony, always counterculture with me. You buy an iPod, I buy a walkman. Anyway, I started thinking. I’m not any better, or any worse than the very best or the very worst human beings on the planet. That’s where all this comes from. It dawned on me. Even many of my friends who are very good, well-meaning people, still at some level think they are better or worse than others.
Think of the very worst person in the history of humanity. Maybe it’s a famous person, maybe it’s someone from your past. No matter what horrible thing they did, no matter how heinous it may have been, or they may continue to be, they are still a human being. They are capable (but they haven’t been) just as good and decent as you are. Now think of the very best person you can think of (assuming the best and worst people you can think of aren’t you). Yep, no matter how awesome that person is, you have the same ability to be that great!
That’s the thing, no matter how we’re raised, what our ability level in the sense of the common, modern system is, we are all equal, and equally capable of being as great, or as terrible as any human has ever been. When I think about the historical bad people, when I think about the current bad people, when I think about the people in jail for horrible crimes, I honestly sit and think, “I am capable of that too, but I don’t do it.” Because I have empathy, because I have good ethics, because I’ve decided doing those things are wrong. Pretty much, I have this voice inside my head that says some things are wrong. Some people don’t, and some people’s voices are stronger than mine. But we’re all equal, in that we are all capable of the same.
I think we need to find a way to bring out the best in everyone. I think staying positive is the only way the world gets “solved”. And I put that in quotes because I don’t think there is anything to solve. We’ve created systems over the millenia that create these conditions we’re in. I’m sure that some people will never understand empathy and having a conscience. I think those people are truly rare and could be dealt with if we weren’t making so many sick with this twisted way we have of looking at things. The whole system has to change though and it has to start inside us, and we can’t hold anything sacred as we look for the answers. But before we act, we must examine, we must find the truths. Science can help us greatly with that. We have learned, rather recently, that we are wired to learn through empathy when we are young, that many creatures do this. There is so much more inside ourselves that science will unlock. I truly believe when it comes down to it, they will find that the old Enlightenment way of thinking about Human nature is absolutely wrong.
We still use that way to think about Humans. Are you aware of that? Everything we have, all the modern systems, all the modern thoughts on education, socio-economic issues, relationships, love, families, every aspect of human interaction is modeled to fit into a structure that was created around philosophies from 300 years ago! Even the most modern of ideas, still are forced into these systems that were set up. And they were wrong! We’re not these beasts only concerned with what is mine. Not even the supposed “animals” are like that. Don’t get me wrong, nature is a dick. The natural world is a completely uncaring place, a leopard will rip your fucking face off and shit down your neck (quiet literally if it feels it needs to to protect its kill, because you would be a meal to it). But we’re not much part of the natural world anymore, now are we? But even when we were, our survival was dependent upon working together, collectively. It’s possible we had hierarchies for mating and such, like other primates, but we still had to work together. We had to learn from each other, and gather food for each other. Were people dicks? Yeah, but from the best we can see in antiquity, it seems like if you were too much of a dick, you got kicked the hell out.
Yeah, we have some feelings we have to deal with, but I think in a healthy society, these things are not nearly as problematic as they are now. Being so focused on the self, being so focused on winning, being “Alpha”, whatever it may be, we take everything so seriously. This causes a major over-reaction whenever we feel we’ve “lost”. As you think more collectively, when you start to see that you are just as good or bad as everyone else, you start to realize that you can’t take things so seriously. Where does this train of thought get me?
In the end, when a cop beats a guy, kills a guy, when a criminal robs, or whatever. When a soldier kills someone, when a “terrorist” kills, whatever it is, I realize that it’s me. It’s my buying into this sick system, that’s allowing this. The more I buy in, the more culpable I am. Because no matter how much I’m looking for a solution, by participating, I am lending to the problem. I am supporting this behavior, and by judging these people so harshly and dismissing them as somehow “less-than” I am falling back into that Enlightenment thinking that “some folks are just no good”. It’s counter-productive. Do some people need to be removed from society until we can sort our shit out? Absolutely, we have to keep a certain amount of safety, but we also have to figure out how to rehabilitate people. How to heal them. It’s not that they are “bad”, it’s that they are ill. We have to figure this out before it’s gone too far.
But we are all equal, we are all brothers and sisters, and we need to start acting like it. Hope this one made sense, I jumped around a little at the end. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired, if anyone needs help with what I’m saying, just ask.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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