Nervous times for world financial markets

I haven't been away over the last couple of weeks, or any more busy than usual, or incapacitated in any other way. Other than for the fact that the world's entire financial system almost came crashing down before our very eyes, I don't really have a good excuse for not updating the blog. What a couple of weeks it has been! Massive Wall street investment banks disappearing like beach houses in a hurricane, the Dow Jones exhibiting more highs and lows than the emotions of an infatuated teenager, and the very people that got us into the mess - the politicians - promising to get us out.

As of Sunday Oct 19 it looks like the center will hold, but who knows what tomorrow and next week will bring. With few exceptions, the mass media have been relentlessly negative, happily acting like cheerleaders on the path of financial self-immolation. Positive developments like the steep decline in the price of oil, which will put billions of dollars back into the pockets of US consumers, are either ignored or dismissed. Hopefully the advent of a Democratic administration will signal a different, more positive tone from 'the powers that be'. And if you've never read David Halberstam's 1979 book by that title about CBS, The Washington Post, Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times, do so by all means. It has aged a bit, is still as long as ever at 1,000 pages or so, but remains a riveting and brilliantly written study of the power of the press.

I'm fully recovered from the recent knee injury and have slowly been getting back into training. For the week of 6 through 12 October, total mileage was 31 miles; longest run being 10 miles at an average pace of 8:36. Since Oct 13 I have been using the heart rate monitor which comes with the Garmin 305. For the week, results were as follows:

Mon Oct 13: 5 miles easy, average HR 127, max HR 141.
Tue Oct 14: 6 miles including 3 X 1600m repeats at 7:22 (avg HR 145); 7:27 (avg HR 149) and 7:10 (avg HR 156). Max HR was 170.
Wed Oct 15: Rained out.
Thu Oct 16: 6 miles including 4 miles at tempo pace (7:41/145; 7:41/154; 7:44/151 and 7:45/154.
Fri Oct 17: Scheduled rest day
Sat Oct 18: 10 miles with Katy Fit starting at 6:35A, temperature around 60F. Easy relaxed run, average HR 137, average pace 8:48. Also full set of weights.
Sun Oct 19: Scheduled rest day; 10km rowing on C-2 in 44:10.
Total mileage for the week: 27