Well, that’s it. The 20 mile run is done. That’s the last really long training run before the big race in three weeks. Now the taper begins.
The 20 mile run actually went well. It was far better than the 18.5 two weeks ago where my legs bonked. It was better than that hungover half marathon. Some combinaton of massive amounts of food and caffeine and an all Gogol Bordello and MF Doom soundtrack made it go by pretty easily. I’m not in too much pain, mostly because I refuse to leave this couch. I’m just going to be here for a while. The Great Cosmic Joke that is my life has previously resulted in a great 20 mile run, followed by injury on a much shorter run and intense pain starting in mile four of a marathon, so all this means nothing. Nothing!
There is just one thing. Mile 8 today: a dead run at record pace straight to the bathroom. Man, that had better not happen on race day. But it shows I can easily sprint when I really have to. I might win in three weeks if they put the only bathrooms at the end. Best not to speak of it again.
The unstoppable gold tracksuited force that was Iota at Rutgers from around 84-88:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rav4man/IotasFromBackInTheDaze
Ow-Ow!
Some fairly terrifying stuff chronicled over at the Telegraph with Fed’s rescue halted a derivative’s Chernobyl.
Bear Stearns had total positions of $13.4 trillion. This is greater than the US national income, or equal to a quarter of world GDP – at least in “notional” terms. The contracts were described as “swaps”, “swaptions”, “caps”, “collars” and “floors”. This heady edifice of new-fangled instruments was built on an asset base of $80bn at best.
[...]
For now the meltdown panic has subsided. Yet the hottest document flying around the City last week was a paper by Barclays Capital probing what might happen in a counterparty default.
It is not for bedtime reading. Direct losses from a CDS breakdown alone could be $80bn, but the potential risks are much greater.
In theory, the contracts are matching. One sides loses, the other gains, operating through a neutral counterparty (ie Bear Stearns). But if the system seizes up, the mechanism is not neutral at all. It becomes viciously one-sided.
“Upon the default of the counterparty, [traded] derivatives would be immediately repriced, with spreads widening dramatically,” said the Barclays report.
Time to stock up on gold, tuna, flour, water and ammo.
With a month to go before the big race, here are my current running injuries, all self-diagnosed:
1. A heel bruise on my right heel. It feels like part of my heel is missing.
2. A bruised, and scabbed over left ankle cause by kicking it with my right foot once per mile.
3. Chronic sore muscles just below the back of the left knee.
4. A sore right knee.
5. A faint feeling of a muscle strain deep in the right quads that comes out on longer runs.
Alberovich: Bourj Hammoud: the Greatest Armenian Rap Video Ever. Even better than Karreno doing Soulja Boy.