Run 857: Mid-March summer preview

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. 19C and sunny. Very weird!

Today was a weird run day:

  • I don’t normally run on weekends
  • I don’t normally run in the afternoon
  • The temperature was 19C, which is something that would happen more commonly in June than in March
  • For all of the above reasons, the trail was fairly packed full of people

The reason for running today is I missed Friday’s run due to birding and wanted to keep to my usual three-times-a-week cadence, so today was the day to go. I put in over 24,000 steps yesterday while birding and ran on Thursday, so I was starting to push a bit on the ol’ exercise. Sure enough, my training status went from Productive after the run to Overreaching for the walk around the rest of the lake. Whoopsie.

The run started much the same as last time, which an opening pace of 5:36/km, but after that my body began to soak in that 19 degrees and the rest of the way felt a lot harder. My times began edging closer to the six-minute mark, but I found enough reserve to bring my pace in the final km down again to 5:45/km, giving me a respectable 5:50/km overall average. I was definitely feeling more winded than usual at the end.

I also silently cursed two cyclists, who studied a map of the lake loop for some time before deciding they decided to just ignore it and ride around the lake anyway. I told them as they rode by me that bikes weren’t allowed on the trail, but they were wearing their WE CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALA faces and kept going. They were among the million or so people on the trail, though the only ones I encountered on bikes.

And really, even though it felt nice to run in the warm sun again after so many cold morning runs, I would take the cold and attendant solitude of running on a weekday morning over what I experienced today–just without the rain, thanks!

Monday is looking like another unusually warm day, with a forecast high of 20C, but I’ll run in the morning when it will be a more civilized 12-14C.

Overall, this was an odd run, with the combination of the crowds and the surreal weather proving a bit much both mentally and physically. I didn’t encounter any real issues, though I felt what might have been a ghost of a stitch as I neared the 4K mark, but it ultimately didn’t amount to anything.

The skunk cabbage is starting to bloom, but is still pre-stinky.

Stats:

Run 857
Average pace: 5:50/km
Training status: Overreaching
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW
Start: 2:04 p.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 29:21
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19ºC
Humidity: 48-46%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 170.0
Total distance to date: 6170 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (310/573/883 km)

Birding, March 15, 2024: Shoveller? I hardly knew her!

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Iona Beach (Richmond), Piper Spit. Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Mostly sunny 4-12°C

The Outing

Taking advantage of the switch to Daylight Saving Time, we hit four spots today and I ended with over 24,000 steps and am now tired.

First up: Reifel, where even a breeze in the morning didn’t feel too chilly, as the temperature rose fairly quickly. While we did not see owls or the legendary mallard/pintail hybrid, we did get our best shots ever of the night heron, sleeping as always. This is not to say the shots were great, but they were the best we’ve taken! Or the best I’ve taken, at least.

We noticed perhaps a few more shovellers than usual and came to realize that there were dozens of them everywhere, including spots we never usually see them, because there were so many they were crowding themselves out of the usual spots. It had me wondering if their huge numbers and omnipresence may have pushed other waterfowl out. We saw a single wood duck, for example, and normally their numbers are decently represented at Reifel.

We took a bit of a haphazard route through the sanctuary, as there were quite a few more people than you might expect for a Friday, including a tour group from exotic Washington state! This meant we probably missed a few little bits here and there, but we got our shots and had more to do!

Next was the feeders at the Richmond Nature House. The area here was dominated by juncos and to a lesser extent, chickadees. Two squirrels showed up, but neither was quite as dedicated as others we’ve seen when it came to tackling the feeders. The smaller squirrel established a peace treaty with a pair of mallards that arrived (which in itself is unusual). No fancy woodpeckers or jays, though.

We moved onto Iona Beach, where the tide was so far out (how far was it?) we were able to walk the shoreline without getting our feet soaked. Birds were in lesser supply here, though we did see crows, gulls and some others. No yellow-headed blackbirds, alas. I also shot at least eight different boats and ships, which I think is a personal record and will inevitably lead to my first aquatic vehicle gallery, which I may call Holy Ship! With the sun out, we were still able to get plenty of nice scenery shots.

But wait, there’s more! Nic’s phone died while giving us directions from Iona Beach to Piper spit, and it did so while we were on a route we’d never taken before. We switched to my phone and the last update had switched from the sassy Australian voice I know and love to some weird American accent that sounded like, I don’t know, about four regional accents all smushed together. Yuck. I switched back to the Aussie, and we got to Piper spit just in time to wait for the long, long train to go by so we could park.

Songbirds were a bit scarce here, though blackbirds were well-represented. There was also a single pigeon representing all of pigeondom. And also a single seagull. Maybe some bird species were out of town at a convention.

There were again more people than usual here, probably because of the unusually pleasant weather, and several were feeding the waterfowl. Since these people were often at opposite ends of the pier, this had the effect of causing dozens of ducks to move en masse from one end to the other, then back again. They earned their seed today.

And the buffleheads were back! Buffleheads are adorable, as determined by science.

There was some goose drama, but they were reasonably calm today. Maybe it’s because it’s early in mating season, and they need to behave. Behave, relative to being a Canada goose, that is.

By the end I was on my third battery (they are getting old) and I was having intermittent issues with focusing/shutter activation, but I only missed a few shots and no error messages. More importantly, I got some rather nice shots to boot.

Overall, despite a bumpy start1Private joke. You had to be there., it was a good day for birding.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House sparrow
  • Marsh wren
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree sparrow

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada goose
  • Dowitcher
  • Great blue heron
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Night heron
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Sandhill crane
  • Scaup
  • Trumpeteer swan
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Squirrels big and small

Run 856: The warmth of the sun

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. Sunny! Mild!

Today was the latest start to a run in a long time–2:21 p.m.! But I had a reason for this: I was tired of running in the cold. Spring is still officially five days away, but I’m ready now. With a high forecast to be 12C today, I decided to wait and lo, it was indeed 12C and mostly sunny when I went for my run. I wore a single layer! Crazy.

The sun felt nice. Did I have more energy? Maybe a little. Maybe I was just pleased to not be in the cold, with pouring rain. I started out strong, kept going, flagged a bit midway, then kept going again, pushing gently and finishing with a solid 5:44/km. BPM was up there at 157, but still well below what would make me uncomfortable.

Conditions were pleasant. I did a short loop and on the way back to the start, a mild breeze was blowing–and it felt nice, instead of chilling me to my core. Humidity was lower, but not enough to cause DMS1Dry Mouth Syndrome. Overall, it felt good to be out and to be running.

Birding is taking the place of my usual Friday run, but I do plan on going out on Saturday (yes, the weekend). The high temperature is currently forecast to be a whacky 20C, which is not only twice the average high, but would break the previous record by a hefty 5 degrees. I haven’t decided when I will run on Saturday, but 20C might actually feel a bit shocking to my body in mid-March. We’ll see.

Brunette River, post-run. A little more green.
Run 856
Average pace: 5:44/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 2:21 p.m.
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 28:51
Weather: Sunny, with some high cloud
Temp: 12ºC
Humidity: 58-56%
Wind: light
BPM: 157
Weight: 169.8
Total distance to date: 6170 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (305/560/865 km)

A robin, a song sparrow and a crow…

…walk into a bar. Actually, they’d probably fly in.

I went to Sapperton Landing this afternoon and shot some scenery and birds and scenery with birds. It’s getting late as I type this, so full gallery soon (for real, I swear), but here’s one each of the above-mentioned birds.

Robin resting before the bug hunt resumes
Song sparrow doing its thing
A crow contemplating its next move (it was very intrigued by the sign)

Run 855: Bonus calories due to dog

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run (and pre-rain).

My hands are still numb as I type this.

After skipping Friday’s run (my bad), I went out this morning, under threat of rain. It stayed dry on the walk to the lake, and initially on the run, but soon the rain started, a light shower that continued for the rest of the run.

It wasn’t too bad, thanks mainly to little wind. After the run, the rain continued, got heavier, and the wind picked up. And I had a 9 km walk home. I almost wished I’d had gloves with me.

But as mentioned, the run went fine, and I actually improved my pace over last Wednesday. I originally was going to do a short loop, clockwise, but around the 2K mark I passed a couple with a largish dog that was off-leash. The woman grabbed its collar as I ran by, but I thought about how I’d be approaching them by behind a short time later and how I could get tangled up with that off-leash dog. This prompted me to keep going, adding a bonus 5 km of walking to my workout. And that was fine, except for the poopy weather.

The run itself was again blessedly free of incidents. I started and ended strong and while I faded a bit at the 4K mark, I was able to improve my pace without feeling like I was overdoing it.

The environs around the lake are also looking increasingly spring-like. Now we just need that spring-like weather. Soon™.

Still Creek, post-run. A moody late winter scene.
Run 855
Average pace: 5:48/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:28 a.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 29:12
Weather: Light, steady rain
Temp: 6-7ºC
Humidity: 85%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 157
Weight: 170.5
Total distance to date: 6165 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (300/551/851 km)

Wordle #995

Wordle 995 4/6

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I mean, it seems kind of silly to post my Wordle scores, but it’s #2 on this list!

Edit: Hilariously, my blog will not display the block characters due to an ancient database.

Here’s an image, which it can still handle:

P.S. I will not be doing this again.

Weird: March 7, 2024 bird shots are up!

Yes, I actually made a full gallery of bird shots, and only a few days after taking the photos. What wonders! Includes bonus bunnies and planes.

Hooray for more daylight

Photo by Pixabay

It’s my annual post celebrating the arrival of Daylight Saving Time, which should totally be permanent but isn’t because politicians are dum-dums.

I will cherish that extra hour of light this evening by going out and revelling in the lightness of it all. Unless it’s raining, in which case I’ll be inside and hiding.

Posting preposterous proposed precipitation-free prognostication

This is from the 10-day weather forecast. As I post this, it is March 9, 2024.

The normal high on these days, the last of which is the final day of Winter 2023/24, is 11C. As you can see, they are predicting a high up to 20C, which is almost double that and is legitimate t-shirt weather.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/401/347/312.jpg

Even better: Only the first two days would establish new records, as we hit 20C on March 18 five years ago, in 2019.

Anyway, it will make for nice running weather if it happens. Unnerving, weird and unsettling, but nice.

Moving from WordPress, Part 3

I am in a quandary. I thought that researching the supposed finalists would clarify things, but I feel I am no closer now to making a decision.

I looked at what I felt were the two best choices–write.as and blogtastic. They have many broad similarities, not the least of which is an apparent fear of capitalization (or love for e.e. cummings). blogtastic has an advantage in price–at least until April 1, 2024, when their pricing increases.

I was leaning toward blogtastic, partly due to that price advantage, but then I checked its showcase page. And…it’s not good. It’s filled with blogs that have clearly been abandoned, or only ever had a few posts. Only one has a post from 2024. All of them have slow-loading images that draw onto the screen like a JPEG on a Pentium in 1998. blogtastic also features testimonials elsewhere on their site. One writer spoke highly of blogtastic. I click on the link to his site–and it’s very fast! Images load instantly. It’s also running on Ghost. Hmm.

Meanwhile, write.as doesn’t show many examples at all. One is in Japanese, and it looks…OK? It’s hard to get a handle on how sites typically look. To be fair, Matt Baer, who created write.as, does have a link to his own personal blog, and it looks perfectly fine. write.as also lets you have three blogs for its price, which is a nice bonus. The editor is clean, but also very spartan. Maybe a little too spartan. blogtastic leans a little more heavily on what I’d call extra features, like footnotes and things. I love that kind of stuff.

After looking over both, I came away completely unsure on whether either would meet my needs.

Here’s a look at pricing, with Ghost thrown into the mix, as it and blogtastic will be pretty close after blogtastic’s price increase. All prices are per year.

  • Ghost: $108 ($9 per month)
  • write.as: $72 ($6 per month)
  • blogtastic: $49 ($4.08 per month). This changes to $99 if you purchase after April 1st ($8.25 per month)

All three let you do a limited-time trial, so you can test drive each. Since I have no idea how any of these will actually feel in practice, I’m going to do that next.

Part 4 will be my test run on write.as.