After a few years of posting book reviews, I stopped in 2022 for a couple reasons. First, no one was interacting with the posts which meant no one cared and I was wasting my time. Second, I found myself trying to reach some arbitrary goal of reading a bunch of books and rushing through them rather than really studying and learning. That was pretty stupid but when everyone is like “man, you read a bunch of books” it gets in your head and you just want to build that ego. Such is being human I guess.

So anyway, I’ll get back on it for a bit and see what happens. Maybe I keep going. Maybe I stop. We’ll see. Hopefully, you find a good book in the process.

That thing I said about reading – doing the thing to build my ego is the same thing that’s happened with my endurance events. I’ve rushed through training and a ton of events without taking the time to enjoy the process. I’ve become exhausted and injured. It’s a dumb way to live.

Tony Riddle talks a lot about sleeping, eating, breathing, and a bunch of stuff you can find in other books like the problems with modern living. But where he really excels is through his advice on getting back in nature, being outdoors, and re-finding our human and even childlike traits. He writes a lot about getting outside and finding joy in movement.

I’m taking that to heart and it’s the way I’m going to approach training in 2023. I’m going to just go out and play. I want to find the love of it again. After months of being laid up with a broken foot, I just want to smile again. I want to dance. And sing. And make fun of my training buddies. And frolick instead of being obsessed with the metrics, the training plan, the competition, and the ego. I want to do what I used to do and find my tribe of crazies and just have fun with them doing dumb uncomfortable shit. So that’s my plan.

This book slapped me in the face when I needed it. Now the foot is feeling better so it’s time to get outside.