Finished The Lions of Al Rassan. Meh. OK. Virtually no magic. Had it's moments. Think the third person didn't help. Didn't feel real close to anyone. And a bit too happily ever after. Felt like no major character had any chance of actually dying. They made a big deal about a servant dying who barely spoke a word the whole story. Also they tried to make the two guys amazing but it was more of telling than showing.

Changed my running and tennis. Trying to make the switch to dominant hand on top of the racquet for groundstrokes. I guess for volleys too though not as sure about that. Better in theory. In practice don't hit on the right side as hard. Harder to get topspin so far. And on the left side it feels a little awkward, but there is more access to power and I can hit it good. Actually on the right side (the left handed two hand backhand) I hit it very good flat and as a two hand slice.

Was up on Chi 6-2, 4-1 this way. Doesn't work quite as well with doubles because have to hit a bit harder then. But OK still. Making this change why? Just get sick on my standard two hand backhand. Feel like it's immediately better on my right side than my left. Played the owner last week when not feeling well was up 7-6, 0-3. Had a game where I hit 4 backhand errors in a row. Just suspect I can become better with dominant hand on top. Gene Mayer is only one I know of who did this.

Also changed ball toss. Turned hand palm down so I don't roll the ball off my fingers at the release.

For running I'm trying to first do the easy running followed by the hard running every workout about 80/20. So 36 easy then 9 hard. Or 40/10 or 30/8, etc. I think longer intervals are better but I figured one can get overtrained easily. Also doing hard running every day, I may get overtrained. BUT, I'm still following 80/20, so possibly not. The very first day I had trouble doing 7.1 mph for 7 minutes. The next day it felt very easy and after a minute or so I went up to 7.2 and did 8 minutes. According to Fitzgerald just teaching your mind to handle the pain of this kind of running is important. With shorter faster intervals, your muscles simply give out. With tempo runs, you simply can't do them too often. But running for 7 to 10 minutes... Possibly I can do them often and just get my body used to flowing along for an extended period at a decent speed...

Reading Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. Also gave a copy to B. She thinks she's close to mania. Book says long term outcomes are much worse with medications. That's the message. Extremely well written. Also reading her journals around back when she went manic in 2008. Very beautiful sentiments. Was trying to get closer to god. Sounds like she just pushed herself too hard. I don't believe that hardly anyone (if anyone) has a "broken brain". I think people go through too much in life and breakdown. I think it could have been just a one time thing but now with the anti-psychotic, etc medications she probably has some tardive psychosis possibly. Or in other words, the drugs have made relapse far more likely, along with leaving her fatigued and sometimes snowed under.