Treadmill walk: So sore

A day after doing a 5K run and a lot of walking for the first time in more than two months I decided (with it raining outside) to get at least a little exercise by going on the treadmill for a 30 minute workout at the more causal speed setting of 6 (bumped to 6.5 for the last five minutes).

Every muscle that had been worked yesterday screamed. Then they eventually stopped screaming. By the end I was feeling tired (I had been feeling sore and tired all morning and wanted to nap, not work out).

Overall, it was not too bad an effort and shouldn’t contribute much to even more soreness in the days ahead. I am going to try to hit the treadmill more often at noon, either walking or running, when the weather is not nice, to insure I get a little exercise every day. It won’t make me shed pounds, but it will help keep me a little healthier. Plus, it keeps my AirPods from getting lonely.

The stats (previous workout in brackets). As befits my current flabby state, BPM was a bit higher and pace was a bit slower, but nothing too egregious.

Speed: 6.0 km/h (6.5 km/h for last five minutes)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:54/km (9:47 km/h)
Time: 30:04 (30:04)
Distance: 3.04 km (3.07 km)
Calories burned: 272 (251)
BPM: 136 (132)

A brief post about privilege and the impact of social media

Today a lot of media sites are participating in support of an initiative, using the hashtags #TheShowMustBePaused and #BlackLivesMatter (not without some unintended consequences).

Here’s what you’ll see if you access Apple music right now, for example:

This is in response to the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by members of the Minneapolis Police force. Since word of the killing, complete with footage, came out on Monday, protests have formed around the world and particularly across the United States. Most have been peaceful, some have been violent, some have been infiltrated by white interlopers looking to make the peaceful protesters look bad by association with their destructive actions.

These protests against police brutality have been rife with even more police brutality, with people doing nothing at all being attacked, teargassed, and beaten. Journalists are being violently attacked. It is disgusting and lays bare just how perverted the police forces in the U.S. have become, interested more in oppression and violence than actually protecting people, especially when it comes to anyone whose skin color is not white.

I am a white man, about as privileged as can be. I am a member of a minority, but it is an essentially invisible one. Most people won’t know I’m gay unless I specifically mention it, or, I don’t know, wear nothing but Pride-themed clothing. But I am very obviously a white guy. I cannot conceive of the things black people must go through in the U.S.–or even in Canada, which has yet to exorcise its own racist demons. It fills me with anger and despair that people can so thoroughly let themselves be subsumed by hate in service of power and authority, of feeling superior to others.

And in the U.S. they are aided and encouraged by a terrible monster of a man, Donald Trump, who is leading the destruction of the country, lashing out and inciting from the basement of the White House, the windows dark at night as he huddles in safety deep below ground, a fitting place for an unrepentant troll.

The Verge has a story today on how Twitter and Facebook should just ban people like Trump, because their tweets and posts are fomenting hate and division, and getting people killed. I agree. This is just one story of many you can find like it on the web right now, but marvel at how a tech site–a place where you go to read about gadgets and reviews of MacBooks–feels compelled to publish an editorial like this. This is the world we live in now.

Ban them all by T.C. Sottek

Run 648: Holy lack of stamina, Batman

Run 648
Average pace: 6:28/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:53 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 32:33
Weather: Clouds and sun
Temp: 19ºC
Humidity: 53%
Wind: light
BPM: 163
Weight: 175.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 4850 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (210 km)

I would say it’s hard to believe it’s been 70 days since the last time I ran outdoors–March 22, just days after everything started getting locked down in B.C.–but when you look at my stats, it’s actually quite easy to believe, because I was not so much slow as struggling to keep moving over a distance I would in peak condition find trivial to run.

I knew I was in for a challenge when I walked the 4 km to the lake and saw my pace averaged 10:02/km. It would normally be about a full minute faster. And this was just walking.

Undaunted and without madding crowds due to the early afternoon start on a weekday, I made a pit stop at the Jiffy John (no sanitizer–boo, are they trying to give us Covid?) then set off on a five km course counter-clockwise around the lake, setting a steady pace and knowing that the goal was merely to finish.

And finish I did, though at several points it felt like the run was going to finish me instead.

You can see graphically what happened in this map of the run (Apple, please make these maps available on iPads and the web, thanks, and change them back to being light instead of dark. Dark is weird and ugly. Or at least make it a toggle):

The GPS did not fail twice, but my body did!

As you can see, I started out slow and occasionally–such as when the ground slopped downward–got a little faster before going slow again. Partway into the Piper Mill Trail my lungs were ablaze and I had to do something to keep them from scorching from the inside out, so I paused the run, then resumed once my breathing and heartrate settled a bit–before I reached the end of the Piper Mill Trail, at least.

I puttered along until I got about two-thirds of the way down the Cottonwood Trail. Again, I struggled to keep going and paused for a minute before resuming, after which I was abler to keep going through to the end.

My total time was a perhaps worst-ever 32:33, with the average overall pace being 6:28/km. I’m certain that is my slowest average pace ever. It certainly felt like it.

But I did it and while I may be sore as all get-out tomorrow, right now I don’t feel too bad. My BPM was 163, which is actually lower than my previous run, but this was likely due to the fact that my pace was so incredibly sluggish.

I did refill the tank to run a bit on the way back, though, so I have some dim hope that things will improve if I keep getting out there.

The weather was decent–pleasant, but not hot, partial sun and a light breeze. There weren’t a lot of people out, and the majority of those that were made little to no effort at physical distancing, except where it was impossible to avoid, such as on the narrow boardwalks. A surprising number of joggers were out and even more surprising, I passed one of them somehow. They must have been in casual running mode.

Despite some recent heavy rain a few days earlier (which was unusual compared to the weather trends we’ve seen this spring), the trail was in good shape, so puddle jumping was not needed, with one major exception.

This section of trail was completely submerged for some reason. Luckily, it’s right off the fields and you can actually detour around it by heading up the access road and hooking left at the first turn-off to rejoin the main loop.

A river runs through it…but shouldn’t.

Overall, while I am a bit shocked at just how slow I was, I can’t say that I was surprised at being slow and finding the run a bit of a struggle. Seventy days is a long time between runs. I will try not to go another seventy days before the next one.

May 2020 weight loss report: Down 1.5 pounds

A miracle in the plaguelands! While the world struggles to flatten the curve, I have struggled to flatten my own curve and the past few months of working from home have led to me getting dangerously close to my previous high bar on weight (from 2008). Not good.

But for the first time in awhile, my weight has gone down instead of up.

This month was the first real attempt to curb snacking and exercise a bit more. I have been walking more and did a treadmill run, but regular jogging is still not a thing, so I have work to do on exercise, but at least I’ve (re)started.

I have cut snacking, but not enough. Despite being down 1.5 pounds for the month, my actual body fat increased slightly, so I’m in a holding pattern right now.

For June, then, I need to improve my efforts, to break out of the holding pattern and start seeing numbers drop. I’ve done it before; I can do it again.

May 1: 178.5 pounds
May 31: 177 pounds (down 1.5 pounds)

Year to date: From 171.8 to 177 pounds (up 5.2 pounds)

And the body fat:

May 1: 23.2% (41.4 pounds of fat)
May 30: 
23.5% (41.7 pounds of fat) (up 0.3 pounds)

Laziest treadmill workout ever

It was noon, I was waiting for a delivery and didn’t want to go out for a walk and miss it, so I stayed in and thought I could do a workout. But I didn’t want to be in the middle of some hardcore exercise when the delivery showed up, so I got on the treadmill, set it to 5–a leisurely pace of 12 minutes per km–and walked for exactly five minutes. I did not sweat.

But I did burn nineteen calories. Woo. Behold:

I gained more than 19 calories back later just by looking at a container of Goldfish crackers.

The delivery showed up about a minute after my workout was complete, so I like to think I handled the whole thing perfectly.

And lazily.