Today is the first day I’m back to a regular run schedule. Because my watch claims my HRV is off, I opted to run the river trail, which saves me a bunch of extra walking. My training status is currently Strained, but that should hopefully change soon.
As for the run, it was generally fine. A tendon near my right knee is a bit stiff, but not sore. At one point, I felt like some cramping was imminent, but it never materialized. I plodded a bit in the middle, but thanks to my right shoelace coming untied around the 4.5 km mark, I got a brief breather, which allowed me to post the zippiest km in a while to wrap up–5:26. My overall pace was 5:43/km, BPM was 149. Overall, very average, and acceptable.
There weren’t many people out, and I feel that two layers may have sufficed, but three was not overly warm or anything.
For the first run of 2026, it was Not Bad™.
The river, post-run.
Stats:
Run 997 Average pace: 5:43/km Training status: Strained Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:19 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:48 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 6-7°C Humidity: 88% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 169.4 pounds Total distance to date: 6,815 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (75/121/196)
I have tried adding various dark mode toggles to the site and all have not looked quite right, which keeps me from sticking with them. If you read this site and find it too bright, it actually looks pretty good in the reader mode of most browsers. Reader mode will work on individual posts, but not from the main page.
I’ll continue to look into better light/dark solutions. And I may tweak the colours (again) for 2026. Maybe I’ll go dark mode.
I’m also playing around with how to display categories and such. The dropdown menus are space efficient but look a bit utilitarian. On the other hand, they almost have a retro charm now. Another thing to ponder.
Here is a cat celebrating the new year.
I like the personal touch of it being signed by Cat.
Shoot more photos, get weird with it. But not too weird.
Get back into game design.
Try losing weight again (lol).
Give up soda. I drink sugar-free now, but I want to go back to just water, like I used to years ago. Who knew that one cup of Coke Zero in 2010 would be a kind of gateway drug?
Be more at peace with myself and the world, no matter how screwed up things are. Be calm, be smart, be ready. And keep caring about making things better.
I think that’s enough for now.
Here’s to 2026 being better than 2025, not just for me, but the whole flipping planet.
I’ll have my 2025 review soon, I don’t want to spoil the mood of fragile, tentative hope right now. 😛
I ended the year by going out on a rare sunny afternoon and grabbing some shots in and around Sapperton Landing. Birds, hydrants, berries, a little of everything.
I also didn’t fuss around with the shots. I used the JPEG versions and edited them in the default Windows 11 Photos program. The advantage? The gallery is done, rather than being in-progress for some unspecified length of time.
Male mallard.
Female mallard.
Black and white silo thing near Sapperton Station.
Crow bathing near the river shore.
Black and white, extremely tightly cropped close-up of the bathing crow.
Fish mosaic at Sapperton Landing, with some post-processing.
Female gadwall.
Male gadwall.
Fire hydrant in the sun, Sapperton Landing.
Fire hydrant next to Sapperton station, with instruction behind it.
A rose hip. I don't know where the rest of it is. Thank you, I'll be here all night.
I started the year at 166.8 pounds. It should have been trivially easy to lose weight by year’s end, even just a little. Instead, I gained 2.1 pounds over the past 12 months and 1.8 of them in the past seven days.
BMI is up, body fat is up. These are not good things.
It all came crashing down in the final week of this month, when I began experiencing abdominal aches that made me think my kidney infection had returned (all clear there, fortunately). I sought comfort in food of all sorts, and suddenly my weight began taking great leaps upward and onward.
It’s disappointing. I resolve to do better, but temper my expectations with what I have failed to achieve.
On the plus side, gaining 2.1 pounds over the course of a year is not exactly a ton and if I behave I could shed it and get going on real, actual weight loss soon™. I gotta believe!
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 168.7 pounds Year to date: Up 2.1 pounds
December 1: 166.9 pounds December 31: 168.7 pounds (up 1.8 pounds)
Body fat: December 1: 24.5% December 31: 25.7 (up 1.2%)
Skeletal muscle mass: December 1: 29.7 kg December 31: 29.9 kg (up 0.2 kg)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. It wasn’t as dark and moody as it appears here.
I had been hoping to hit 1,000 official™ runs this year, but then your body makes you go to the ER and things happen, so instead I end with 996 runs and I should hit 1,000 sometimes in the first week or so of the new year. And that’s fine.
Today, a week after my last run–which was also on a Tuesday–I waddled off to the lake (I am a whopping 3.2 pounds heavier than the last run) and…it went decently!
It was a later start because I wasn’t sure I would even run today, but it seemed prudent to go today with the weather being dry, if cool. I saw a decent number of people, including a lot of joggers, though none of the regulars. One guy had the temerity to run past me. But he was wearing gloves, so I was still more manly.
I got to see the aftermath of the windstorm from the other side and it looks like at least one giant tree uprooted itself on the Southshore Trail, along with several smaller ones. The trail was clear today, though the beating it’s taken has left the normally unseen underlay/mesh exposed in multiple places, almost to where it’s a tripping hazard.
Although it was 6C and the weather app said it felt like 6C, it felt colder. The air was damp enough that my minimal facial hair was dripping throughout. I felt clammy and cold walking home, despite three layers. But maybe I added a few more hairs to my chest.
The run yo-yo’d a bit in terms of pace, but I felt fine and finished with an overall pace of 5:47/km and a BPM of 147. My Detraining status has now reverted to Maintaining. Overall, I am pleased and should now resume a more regular run routine.
The view immediately west of the dam, post-run.
Stats:
Run 996 Average pace: 5:47/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop) Start: 1:10 p.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:07 Weather: Partly sunny Temp: 6°C Humidity: 84% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 169.8 pounds Total distance to date: 6,810 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (70/117/187)
tl;dr: Signs of a returning infection led met to take action, which mostly involved sitting.
The Chronology before the ER:
Thursday: Wake up and feel a dull ache in my abdomen, the same area where I had my Big Infection a year ago (this fun guy started in my urinary tract and made its way to my kidney). I make an appointment with my doctor for Monday.
Monday: The symptoms have vanished, so we agree to monitor.
Wednesday: The ache is back, but worse. It continues for several days and is worse when I lay down. No other symptoms.
Saturday: I decide to go to the ER to have it checked out.
Now, Royal Columbian Hospital is a fine facility, but its ER is meant for trauma patients, so people like me tend to have to wait. A lot. I left the condo at 10:28 a.m.
The ER Chronology:
10:28 a.m. I leave for the hospital, which is conveniently next door.
10:45 a.m. I am checked in. The ER is rapidly filling up. No one is fainting or vomiting. Yet.
11:09 a.m. They take my temperature and blood pressure. I can’t see the monitor, but from the expression on the intake person’s face, I’m assuming they are normal.
11:17 a.m. I now begin my wait for blood work. I am sitting next to the gift shop, but even though the entrance with the giant automatic doors in a room over, I still get regular gusts of cold air.
11:40 a.m. The blood work is done. It’s quick and efficient, but I later discover when I remove the cotton ball, that it’s soaked in blood. My blood. The usually nigh-invisible pin prick on my arm is very visible. I am displeased. Photo below.
12:30 p.m. We are now into the afternoon. A guy comes in and sort of collapses on the floor across from me. He might be in pain? He’s wearing sunglasses, so he looks vaguely cool while this is happening. Someone observing this leaves to get help and comes back with three security guards. One of them grabs a nearby wheelchair, they help him into it and park him near the gift shop. He seems OK now> Time will tell. At least there is still no vomiting.
1:15 p.m. I am still waiting. I don’t know precisely what is next, but whatever it is, it is not being rushed.
1:20 p.m. It turns out it’s a CT scan! I’ve gone from no CT scans ever to two just this year. Fun. They apparently have to take you to the CT scan room in a wheelchair, and I feel a little silly in it. The woman pushing me said she was my Uber driver, no charge today.
The scan is quick. I have to hold my breath three times as the machine sends me through and back out. I got a photo! (After I was done, but before they took me back to the waiting area.)
1:30 p.m. I am back near the gift shop, waiting again.
1:35 p.m. I am finally moved to the next waiting area, the inner sanctum: Zone 2 Intake. There is also a Zone 3, but I’m hoping that they are parallel, despite the numbering, and I won’t be shuttled to yet another waiting area. Although the guy sitting next to me is coughing, so maybe moving would be good. He has a mask–but isn’t wearing it. He eventually gets up for some reason and when he returns, sits farther away, which is dandy with me.
2:20 p.m. After the better part of an hour, my blood pressure and temperature are checked again. This time I can see the monitor and my temperature is a perfectly cromulent 36.7C. My pressure is 176/79? I think. I don’t remember the numbers exactly, and I can never remember what’s good or bad, but no one reacts with bulging eyes or anything, so again I assume all is normal. I am told I will need to provide a urine sample.
2:25 p.m. I am given a little bottle and directed to the washroom. I place the sample on a table outside the washroom and return to my seat. This was handy because I really had to go.
2:45 p.m. There is now only one other person here. She came in after me, so hopefully something will happen soon.
2:50 p.m. Success! I am taken to the exam room, where I exchange my t-shirt for a gown and wait on a bed behind a curtain, with others to my left and various employees milling about or walking by. Finally, my long wait is nearly over!
3:42 p.m. I am still in the exam room. My long wait is lengthening.
4:30 p.m. It is now past sunset and dark outside. I can’t see outside because there are no windows here, plus I have blue curtains all around me. It is not as captivating as it sounds.
4:40 p.m. The doctor arrives. Woo. Most of the results seem to be normal. The doctor asks some questions, prods about the abdomen and notes my non-verbal reactions (this time it is my eyes bulging when she hits the sensitive spots). She says they are going to run further analysis on my urine and will have the results in a few days. She asks if I want to start antibiotics in the interim as a precaution. I say yes, remembering the hell I went through earlier this year. She then reminds me it would be IV therapy. I still say yes, grudgingly.
5:04 p.m. The IV guy comes over and talks to me. IVs are also old school to me by now, so I just smile and nod a lot.
5:12 p.m. The worker prods the crook of my left arm. I advise him of my apparently rolling veins. He points one out to me, and demonstrates the rolling. In the end, he opts to put the IV near my left wrist. This is good in that it leaves me with most of my flexibility intact. It’s bad in that my shallow skinny wrist seems to provide less cushioning for the IV than the soft, flabby crook of my arm, meaning I can feel it more. Oh well.
5:21 p.m. The IV drip is started and as before, the process takes about 30 minutes. Another guy comes by when the machine starts to BEEP because I have absorbed a half hour’s worth of cool liquid into my veins. He removes the tube, caps the IV, then swaddles it in bandages. Unlike previous IVs, the swaddling isn’t so massive it looks like my arm has bisected a football. I am forced to wear my watch on my right wrist, and will spend the rest of the evening looking at my left wrist, wondering why my watch isn’t there.
5:56 p.m. I am finally released, nearly 7.5 hours later, with instructions to return at 3 p.m tomorrow for more IV therapy fun. I am very hungry and have to pee again.
Overall, a good test of my patience (hospital joke). I kind of hate my body now. But I do what I must.
When I got home, I ate pizza and kept looking at my left wrist to see what time it was.
And now, photos!
My view for much of the day. The gift shop (closed) is to my left.The CT scanner that scanned me, post-scan. Good ol’ CT2.This was my view for what felt like a hundred years. I eventally moved to the chair next to the bed.A new IV! A new location! Same old drugs.The first time in memory I didn’t have a tiny little hole where the blood was drawn. Ugly! And yes, there are two keyboards in the background.
2025 has been a rough year at both a personal level and, you know, globally. But as I type these words, I remain hopeful that things will actually get better. The road is long, but it doesn’t end with a cliff.
And now, Christmas cat:
Bonus thought: No snow, hooray. I know some people like at least a dusting for the holiday, because it looks pretty, and I don’t disagree with the pretty part, but I like my snow in the mountains, where I can admire it from a safe distance.
I’m a day late with my run because of the timing of yesterday’s doctor’s appointment, the weather, and possibly the alignment of the moon.
The forecast promised rain by early afternoon, but I wanted to run at the lake, so I split the difference and did a short loop, which saves me about 45–50 minutes of walking. Plus, I didn’t really want to do all that extra walking, anyway. 8 km seems like plenty.
Conditions were similar to the last run at the lake, though a smidgen warmer at 4C (the weather app said wind made it feel like 2C, but wind was a non-factor for me). I was a bit slower, but managed to improve my pace throughout and had an average of 5:42/km, which is fine. BPM remained at 146 again and I got a new max HR of 163. I can’t remember if this is higher or lower. I very rarely hit 160, so it’s also fine.
There weren’t many people out, possibly because the chilliness offset the relatively mild conditions, but there was an assortment of joggers, walkers and birders (I could not see what they were looking at, but a few were staring intently in one direction on one part of the trail. I did see a Steller’s Jay myself, though!)
We had another windstorm pass through yesterday, so there were some twigs and small branches scattered about, but nothing like the debris field of the last run here.
Here’s the Spruce Loop from last week:
December 17, 2025: Several ex-trees in the making.
And today:
December 23, 2025: Stumps, we got stumps!
With the trail clear, I was able to complete my run without having to stop, walk, duck or divert. As an extra bonus, I also didn’t have my shoelaces come untied. Nice.
A good start to the week.
Stats:
Run 995 Average pace: 5:42/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop) Start: 9:53 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:41 Weather: Mostly cloudy Temp: 4°C Humidity: 90-87% Wind: light BPM: 146 Weight: 166.6 pounds Total distance to date: 6,805 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (65/109/174)
