Walks 27, 28, 29 and 30

I started doing run/walks again recently and completely forgot to post about the first three. Whoops. I blame the five-month gap since the last walk.

Overall, they were fine, no injuries or mishaps and the plantar fasciitis was not an issue, though the left foot still feels stiff later on, before recovering.

Today’s walk was under sunny skies and warm temperatures, but a persistent wind with a bit of a bite kept it from feeling too warm. I felt weirdly weary after work (say that three times fast), so I didn’t run quite as much, but I had a strong finish, mostly because I really had to use the bathroom by the end.

Note that while my pace has gotten worse over the four run/walks, my BPM has improved nicely. I’ll take it.

Here are the stats from all four walks:

April 2:

Walk 27
Average pace: 8:00/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.31 km
Time: 58:29
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 53%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 179.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 208.48 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12

April 3:

Walk 28
Average pace: 8:04/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.37 km
Time: 59:32
Weather: Cloudy, some sprinkles
Temp: 8ºC
Humidity: 77%
Wind: light
BPM: 143
Weight: 178.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 215.85 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12

April 5:

Walk 29
Average pace: 8:09/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.29 km
Time: 59:30
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 12ºC
Humidity: 49%
Wind: light
BPM: 140
Weight: 179.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 223.14 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12

April 12:

Walk 30
Average pace: 8:28/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.22 km
Time: 1:01:13
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 16ºC
Humidity: 27%
Wind: moderate to high
BPM: 132
Weight: 179.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 230.36 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12

Daily Drawing 94: Strawberry

Continuing with the theme of seasonal plants (and catching up), a strawberry plant. Not my best strawberry, but it will do.

#makingarteveryday

This blog of mine and a bonus fat update

I’ve decided that it’s time to give the entire site an overhaul. As groovy as the Cooper black logo is, the overall design of the site is stale and a bit cluttered, as some sections have been neglected and others are a bit too buried.

I also need to find a way to make the running posts optional. Or maybe start a running blog. And then start running again.

My current thought is something like this:

  • Come up with a new compact logo that can sit in the top-left
  • Remove the entire set of menu bar items along the top
  • Add a left sidebar with simple links to all the usual stuff (archives, etc.)
  • Have “noteworthy items” in the right sidebar
  • Continue to post the usual nonsense for the actual blog part in the middle
  • Try to allow for a “customized feed” so people can skip stuff of little interest to anyone but me, like my running updates (or maybe post them elsewhere, like in a journal or a private/separate blog)

This is going to take a while, and I’m going to try to make it work with my current theme, GeneratePress, because I have grown so used to it (and it works well). For now, I will be frequently playing around with different fonts and things that are easy to change on the fly.

BONUS FAT UPDATE: I have hit a high of 179.7 pounds. This is ominously close to 180 pounds, which would be a bit devastating to hit psychologically. Today I weighed in almost two hours earlier, which usually results in the weight being higher. I watched the numbers flick past 180 before settling back to…179.7 pounds (again).

This week I have returned to work and I have experienced an odd combination of stress, frustration and simple boredom. I have partaken of crackers, but not excessively so.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten very good at not eating anything after dinner. Yay on that. I am also drinking more water, as I find more than a little (diet) soda now seems to be giving me heartburn.

Further incentive on losing weight: I have a bunch of old t-shirts that still look great but are too snug to wear right now. I tried on a pair of cotton shorts I normally wear in the summer–they are a size 31 waist, which is one size higher than my usual 30–and could not do up the button. It was physically impossible. I was embarrassed. But I vowed not to buy new clothes that would fit–I’m not going to backslide and give myself an out in the battle against fat.

I will lose the weight. Just weight and see (ho ho).

Daily Drawing 92: Cherry blossom

No matter what I did, I could not get this to look the way I wanted. Oh well. Enjoy a cherry blossom floating in a serene blue void.

#makingarteveryday

Daily Drawing 91: Fiddle leaf fig

Another plant I’d never heard of. I originally planned to do this cartoon-style, to hopefully get it done quick. But a few of the leaves looks weirdly realistic, despite the sketch being done entirely with colored pencils. Also, the reference pot was black, but I went with purple just because.

#makingarteveryday

Daily Drawing 90: Cactus

I am falling behind, but I still turned in this prickly effort. I deem it OK. I fixed the wonky pot by copying the better right half over to the left, creating perfect symmetry. Art!

#makingarteveryday

Daily Drawing 89: Pilea plant

I spent more time on this than planned, so I’m still catching up, but it turned out okay. The pot could use a little tweaking, but at least it isn’t non-Euclidien.

#makingarteveryday

Daily Drawing 88: Yucca plant

I cheated a bit after yesterday’s debacle, using Procreate’s line-straightening tool on the pot.

This tuned out a lot better than the other plants. Maybe going back to the old 6B pencil for coloring made me more comfortable or something. Also, Yuccas don’t have freaky/complicated patterns on their leaves.

#makingarteveryday

Daily Drawing 87: Rattlesnake plant

I completely messed up on the layers on this, so it took way longer than it should have. I also got the dimensions of the pot wrong, so it looked almost Picasso-esque at one point. I fixed most of the issues, but meh. I hate potted plants.

#makingarteveryday

Of Easter candies past

As I am still trying to lose weight, I am opting out of indulgences this Easter, but I can still wax nostalgic on the candy I enjoyed in days past. Here is my reminisce, in handy list form:

  • Cadbury Creme Eggs: I used to buy three-packs of these and eat all three eggs at once. Well, one at a time, but one after the other. The thought of doing so now makes me queasy. These were and are super rich. One is enough. For the entire year. Maybe longer. But as a kid, I loved these.
  • Chocolate Easter Bunny: The hollow ones were never as much fun as the solid ones, although the fact that they could make “hollow” chocolate amazed me as a kid. The solid ones, on the other hand, these had some serious heft. Eating one (starting at the ears, of course) was something to be tackled over multiple sessions, gnawing away like a dog with a chew toy. Thinking about it now makes my jaw tired. And to be honest, the chocolate wasn’t great, but I was not a discerning young lad.
  • Cream Half Eggs: I can’t remember the name of these, and today you can probably only get them via established brands, such as Oh Henry, but back in the days of yore, these eggs (flat on the bottom, so shaped like an egg cleaved in two from end to end) had a creamy filling that wasn’t as sickly sweet as the Cadbury eggs, but were still yummo and probably my favorite of the bunch.
  • Marshmallow Eggs: Never a real favorite, but I never turned one down.

You may notice this list does not include Peeps. That is deliberate.

If I do have a snack on Easter, it will probably be a bowl of low sugar cereal. Woo.