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.

Gave up on To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts 66% in. Farthest I've ever gone into one of her books. Big vocabulary. Very stilted interactions. Got sick of the phrase "desert born cur". Bad guys two-dimensional. Really belabors the point. Despite the big vocabulary strangely not descriptive in some ways. Felt like it was always night. But don't think that was a feel she was going for. That, I suppose, isn't remotely a bad thing. Just never really cared about anyone. No one felt like a real person. The way the king would have 2 minutes of lucidity every day or so was just silly. I made it much further than I otherwise would have because read it while running.

The hero being ordered to strip and lie down on a cot while awaiting a massuese (sp) in the middle of an investigation in a cellar was quite strange. Not much else to say. Moved a bit slow but the real problem was just not giving a damn about any of the characters.

Now reading The Lions of Al Rassan. by Guy Gavriel Kay. 35% in. Pretty good. Like the characters. They aren't stilted, strange and undeveloped. Tigana was good. Some viking book he wrote was OK.

Feel like I've been doing that 80/20 with the boring slow running forever. It hasn't even been 20 days.... Get impatient so quick and want to pick up the pace. Have been trying to run an hour on workdays before work. Longer on weekends. And some evenings doing incline walking on treadmill. 8% Heart rate about 130. I so want to jump up to 12%. And on to a weighted backpack. It's walking that I feel very impatient about.

Beat the owner of westview 6-2, 6-4. The 3 previous times I won 6-3, 6-4. Maybe I've improved a little. Seems like my groundstrokes have improved. My serve still needs a lot of work. Was OK against the owner but it was kind of bad 4 days later playing doubles. Maybe when I start trying to jump it starts falling apart. Gets a bit ragged. Lose power. Lost my serve a lot playing doubles. My teammate (Hannah) was ridiculous good and other than my serve I was pretty good. Particularly had a problem with them lobbing it into the corner over her head in the deuce serve and then I have to generate all my own power with a back kind of turned away from the court. I put it right to the net man at least three times.

Trying to make sure to hit the ROS flat and then here and there add topspin for the following shots on both sides. My return of serve is good. My groundstrokes are really doing well. Think the slow running is helping.

Read the free sample of ordered the paperback book (so B can borrow it) of Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. Follow up to Mad in America. Seems like a very important book / subject.