Edition 196 - up & down, some maths fun, a great read on getting to know people, Gukesh

In my version of heaven, Arun would be curator. Just go thru this post to see why.

From the same post, I found this delightful video by a mathematician whose work I am familiar with

I have had a very up and down week, both physically and mentally (now that’s not common. I rarely have both mental and physical swings. Mental ones are more common). After a difficult race last weekend, I bounced back with a good run on Tue and was quickly brought down to earth this morning, when I abandoned yet another run. It wasn’t a surprise in hindsight.

For about 3 months, I have done running, swimming and strength training. This week, I had already hit close to my weekly average of all 3 and still had 2 hard runs pending. I was attempting to do one of those 2 hard runs this morning when my body just rebelled. Somehow it didn’t strike me to look at this way. Now it has. So some ego damage was suffered and I packed up with an easy run in stead. I went again 24 hrs later, this time with no swimming fatigue in my legs and still managed only 75% of the hard run. Hoping the other hard run is better.

Interestingly I had some dryness in my throat from the 100K attempt a week ago and that developed into a throat infection. So I ended up taking medication for it, since it hadn’t gotten better after 5 days.

I have resumed listening to audiobooks while I workout. Last eve, I was listening to this great new book by David Brooks (How to know a person), when I was struck by a beautiful anecdote. The book discusses among others, how we deal with grief - especially that of others. I have missed at least two opportunities to be better in the past few years. So this was cathartic.

And finally, this was a great week if you are fan of Indian sports - the young Gukesh won the FIDE World Chess Championship. That pretty much overshadowed a lot of events