Month: July 2019

Run 622: Like a speeding bullet, then like a regular bullet

Run 622
Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:02 am
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:39
Weather: Sunny, veiled cloud
Temp: 23ºC
Humidity: 57%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 159
Weight: 166.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 4690 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (45 km)

When I got to the lake this morning, I was planning another counter-clockwise run, but knowing I’d have to skip the first two side trails, I planned to start on the other side of the dam, near the 0K marker, for that all-important psychological boost of finishing the 5K at or before the 5K marker. Then I thought, “Why stop there?” and opted to start at the 10K marker, giving myself an extra 300 meters to play with.

But as I walked to my start point, I thought about the noise and stink of the work around the dam, and the torn-up main trail that I would have to navigate right at the start, then decided to run clockwise, so I made my way back to the fountain near the dam (still ahead of the 5K marker, but not by as much) and set off.

Conditions were nearly as humid as Monday and it was a little warmer, so I was sweating even before the run started. Then I sweated a whole lot more. I didn’t push hard at the start, but I also didn’t hold back or try to set a steady pace, I just ran at whatever speed I felt comfortable with, then slowed down after.

As it turned out, my first km was a relatively blazing 5:14/km–this is the closest I’ve come to breaking the 5:00/km mark in a long time (and is something I doubt I will break, unless I specifically set out to do so). I’m not sure why I was so zippy, but that first km is why I ended up with an overall improvement of five seconds on my average pace, because every other km ranged between 5:41 and up to 5:58. My slowest km was the third and to be fair, I did improve in the following two km, so after burning hard and fast to start, I found some reserves to pick the pace up a bit for the back half of the run.

There were no issues otherwise, and the trail was relatively quiet, just a few other joggers and walkers, not even many people out walking their dogs. I managed to run a good bit after, even beating my average walk pace (8:02 vs. 8:28) vs. Monday.

I did actually rest after the run on the bed for about 20 minutes or so, because did I mention it was humid? I felt a little more tuckered, as a result, though I am up and aboot now.

I’ll probably run clockwise again on Friday, but we’ll see. They are predicting light rain, so that would be a relative novelty for a summer run. It might be refreshing, or horrible. Hard to say.

Weight loss report, July 2019: Down 0.6 pounds

Despite going up on the last day of the month (I hate when that happens), I managed to defy the odds and come out with my weight down for the month, marking the fifth month my weight has either declined or at least stayed the same (I was up in February and May).

And yet for the year to date, I am still down less than a pound, so what’s going on? How can I keep losing weight and not really lose weight?

I think there are a few factors at play:

  1. I am exercising more. Specifically, I am running more often, back to my normal three times per week, and regular exercise is a good way to help control weight–but not lose weight.
  2. I have cut down on snacking, but my total calorie intake has not shifted dramatically.

These two factors combined mean a couple of things will happen:

  1. I will lose weight, but slowly.
  2. The slowness is partly due to a change in body composition. As I run more, I burn fat and replace it with hunky, sexy muscle. But hunky, sexy muscle is denser than fat and weighs more.

My theory is that my body fat should be down over the year to date, even if it it is essentially unchanged this month. Let’s see if it is!

January 1, 2019 body fat: 32.2 pounds, 19.2%
July 31, 2019 body fat: 30.9 pounds, 18.6%

Although still not dramatic, there is more change here, as I’ve shed 1.3 pounds of fat, but only dropped 0.8 pounds in actual weight. So this is good news, albeit not exactly the blistering pace of weight loss/fast loss I was hoping for. But if I keep running regularly (we’re tentatively planning on getting a treadmill for the spare bedroom, so running will be easy ‘n convenient, even when the weather is bad or it’s dark out and you might run into a werewolf) and do a bit better on snacking (it’s getting there), I should see more rapid declines. I’m trending in the right direction, at least, so I’ll take it.

Also, I managed to lose weight during vacation, something that is the opposite for most people, so I offer some self-kudos for that. Woo, I say.

And the stats:

July 1: 166.9 pounds
July 31: 166.3 pounds (down 0.6 pounds)

Year to date: From 167.5 to 166.3 pounds (down 0.8 pounds)

And the body fat:

July 1: 18.4% (30.8 pounds of fat)
July 31: 18.6% (30.9 pounds of fat) (up 0.1 pounds)

Run 621: Sweaty, tricky feet, snakes, gravel in shoes

Run 621
Average pace: 5:47/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:30 am
Distance: 5.02 km
Time: 29:07
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 61%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 159
Weight: 165.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4685 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (40 km)

It turned out that since smoothing down the damaged part of the main trail leading to the Spruce Loop, still being resurfaced, the park workers have since resumed work and have re-damaged the main trail again, which made the first minute or so of today’s run a bit tricky, given that the trail was filled with unexpected ruts, piles of dirt and was also in one of those sun/shade areas where your eyes don’t have time to adjust to the ever-changing lighting.

But my tricky feet somehow got me through and I completed a counter-clockwise 5K today, surprising myself by coming in six seconds faster than Saturday’s run and proving that I am not as freakishly consistent as I could be. My pace was 5:47/km and this time the only issue I had was sweat and plenty of it. It was 21ºC, so actually a bit cooler than the last few runs, but humidity was way up, so I sweated early and often. No real dry mouth, the one benefit to a sticky, humid run.

My BPM was up, but only slightly, and I had a very steady pace, save for the second km, where I dipped a little before resuming my previous pace. Overall, I felt good, and managed to do a fair bit of running post-run as well.

I saw a snake ahead of me on the second boardwalk and as I approached, the snake slithered between the boards and out of sight. I wonder if the snake had any idea where it was going or was just confident that anywhere but under my approaching foot would be a better place to be. I saw another snake on the previous run, doing that “slither across the path in a panic as a human approaches” thing. I have not seen any pythons so far this year.

As for the gravel in shoes, it appears the new Sauconys share the same property the Brooks Cascadia 12s have in how they can effortlessly scoop gravel up and deposit it into the shoes. Like the Brooks, it happens almost exclusively while walking, so clearly there is something about my exercise walking gait that makes this a lot more likely to happen than when I run, which is preferable if it has to happen at all.

But today I stopped and emptied gravel and grit out of my right shoe three times post-run. It’s getting a bit silly. I still like the shoes, though.

I’m starting to think about trying a 10K soon, maybe before my vacation ends. I’ll see how the next few runs go before committing, as any 10K will have a horrible long time and will leave me a little depressed, even if it goes as well as can be expected. Basically, my body is probably ready now, I’m just not sure if my mind is.

Run 620: The consistency is getting strange

Run 620
Average pace: 5:53/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 2:20 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:35
Weather: Sunny with some cloud, windy
Temp: 24ºC
Humidity: 45%
Wind: light to high
BPM: 157
Weight: 165.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 4680 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (35 km)

Thanks to running on Thursday instead of the planned Wednesday, I ended up running today–a Saturday–when I didn’t want to. I prefer weekday runs because of the smaller crowds on the trail. Weirdly, crowds were not an issue on the trail today, as it was not that busy, despite quite nice weather.

Although temperature was similar to Thursday, it was quite windy at times, but generally in a good way, with the breeze feeling cool and pleasant, not something I was fighting against. My mouth didn’t even feel particularly dry, something that’s generally been the case so far this summer.

I felt a bit of a stitch in my lower left abdomen early on, but kept steady and it went away. No other issues during the run, with the knees again fine and the sore left foot feeling better.

My energy level was also the best of the last three runs, and I did not feel tired even during the final km. This was reflected in my BPM, which dropped from 161 to 157, a nice improvement and a sign that my stamina is improving at last.

What was weird was my pace–5:53/km. This is identical to my previous run and only one second off the run before that. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a set of eerily consistent runs. The total time of today’s run and the previous is separated by three seconds. I could never be this precise on purpose. Think about it. If you break the run down to seconds, this is how they compare:

Run 1: 1772
Run 2: 1775

That is a 0.17% difference, which is ridiculous.

Although I am tempted to do a fourth clockwise run around the lake just to see if this would freakily happen again, I am leaning toward counter-clockwise, as they have done a bit of remedial work on the section of the main trail that got trashed as they resurfaced the side trails (which is still ongoing). It’s been quite awhile since I’ve run counter-clockwise and bypassed the side trails, so it will feel a bit different and I’m all over the novelty factor.

Overall, today’s run was solid. The pace was unchanged, but I felt better, my BPM was lower and I had enough energy to run multiple km afterward, even coming close to matching my 5K pace.

Run 619: The same but different

Run 619
Average pace: 5:53/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:25 pm
Distance: 5.02 km
Time: 29:32
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Humidity: 51%
Wind: light
BPM: 161
Weight: 166.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4675 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (30 km)

It was not quite as warm today as Monday, but I ended up sweating more because the heat/humidity mix was leaning a little more to the “you’re going to sweat” side of things.

Today’s run was interesting in how much it was the same, yet different, than the previous one.

BPM was identical at 161. Average pace differed by a mere second, and total time by only 10 seconds. Spread over 5 km, that’s pretty tiny.

The difference today was in how the overall run played out. I started faster and ended faster, but found a steadier, but slower pace in-between the two. This made for a run that felt a lot more comfortable. I felt perfectly fine until heading into the final km. At this point when running clockwise at the lake, the trail is pretty open, meaning the sun is beating down on you most of the time. I was also starting to get a wee bit tired, and the extra exertion to maintain pace was being felt. It still wasn’t bad, though, and certainly not like Monday’s run.

And yes, I meant to run yesterday, but I had an intense bout of vacation laziness I could not overcome.

The left foot was again a bit sore starting out, but not too bad after. I wonder if the orthotic is starting to just get old and I’m feeling the True Foot Experience more now. Maybe I’ll follow up on that next week.

Conditions were otherwise good. A few runners, some walkers, one over-exuberant and unleashed lab (I called out to the owner my favorite three words for dog owners: Leash your dog. I did this twice, to make sure she heard. I don’t think she did, if you know what I mean.)

Another difference with today’s run vs. Monday’s is how I felt after. Monday I was pooped and made a few token efforts to run after finishing the 5K. Today I walked the first post-run km, then ran almost the entire length of what would have been the 7th km of the run. I repeated this a few times, running for longer stretches than normal. I felt positively zippy, which bodes well for the eventual tackling of a full 10K (possibly soon™).

Overall, a good run, despite the deceptively minimal change in performance.

Run 618: Post-camping, with fewer people

Run 618
Average pace: 5:54/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 1:27 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:42
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 26ºC
Humidity: 40%
Wind: light
BPM: 161
Weight: 165.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4670 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (25 km)

On the first full day back from camping, I did some tidying up, put away the clean dishes, swept and then looked around and thought, “What can I do on this beautiful sunny day that involves being outside and such?” and lo the answer came. Run!

Because I am still on vacation, I can not only do lake runs for every run, I can do them during the week, when there are fewer people, so just after 12:30 this afternoon, I set out to do just that.

Arriving at the lake, I saw that my usual way in was now blocked off due to construction at the dam, as expected, so I went the short length up the road and came in through Avalon Avenue. Because I was already on the south side and didn’t know the state of the side trails, I opted to go clockwise for the heck of it.

It was quite warm, but not quite Africa hot. The humidity level was just high enough to keep my mouth from badly drying out, but not so high that I sweated profusely. I set off, hoping that with a week off, I’d at least beat the 6:00 minute mark for my pace. I did that and was only two seconds slower than my previous lake run, coming in at 5:54/km vs. 5:52/km. Not bad, considering I felt pretty out of gas for the last two km.

Although I experienced no issues other than being a bit tired toward the end, I did experience some after the run, namely a weird sort of cramp/gas that kept me from doing much post-run running along the trail on the way out. It wasn’t terrible or anything, but it was mildly annoying.

Around the 4K mark, when I noted that I was feeling a bit tuckered, I did a quick checklist and found that not only were my knees not hurting, I wasn’t feeling them at all. I don’t mean they were suddenly and alarmingly paralyzed, but that they were not sore, aching, cranky or anything other than just knees. It’s been quite awhile since the knees have felt so nothing on a run, and it is probably the highlight of today’s run.

Another highlight was the delightful lack of people as it was early afternoon on a weekday.

It turned out that the Spruce Loop is officially closed for maintenance and the tracks of the machinery taking gravel to it were all over the main trail leading up to it. In some places the machinery had so badly damaged the main trail they may need to do work on it when they are finished on the Spruce Loop. It seemed a bit like curing one patient by taking the medicine away from another. Here’s hoping they have enough medicine (gravel) to go around. The initial work on the Spruce Loop looks promising, though, so it should be quite an improvement when it’s done.

I should note here that the new Saucony shoes are still working well, though it seems they are almost as adept at scooping gravel as my Cascadias. This seems to happen more when I’m walking than running, so maybe I’m walking wrong. I don’t know. I also think I had the laces dialed in a bit too tight this time or my feet were retaining water or something, because the tops of my feet were getting just ever-so-slightly sore by the end.

Also, I have to be fair and say the left foot was hurting a bit for the run. I don’t consider it an issue, per se, as it was already hurting and I don’t think the run had any effect on it, it just underlined it. And it didn’t bother me so much as provide a background irritation.

My next run should be Wednesday. The weather is supposed to be 23ºC (nice) and light rain (less nice), so it seems the inconsistent July weather will be back after two days of actual summer-like weather. At least I won’t have to worry about getting a sunburn.

Run 617: Trail work, ho!

Run 617
Average pace: 5:52/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:57 am
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:31
Weather: Intermittent sun
Temp: 18ºC
Humidity: 73%
Wind: light
BPM: 161
Weight: 167.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 4665 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (20 km)

This was my first run at the lake with the new shoes and they were fine. My pace was slower–which I expected in switching back to the lake–and I chalk that up to being a bit tired by week’s end, the somewhat more technical aspect of the lake trail and the much higher humidity. I sweated early, often and copiously.

The dam area is filled with a lot more equipment as they start work on repairing and replacing the gates, but fortunately the top of the dam will stay open during the three month project. The equipment is neatly tucked out of the way for now, so it also didn’t interfere with the start of the run, which began at the official 0K marker, since I had to use the Jiffy John® first.

As I passed the picnic area I spied large piles of gravel, in two distinct varieties. At first I thought it had to do with the dam project–which makes no sense, really, so I blame that on runner’s brain–then put it out of my mind as I focused on where my feet were going.

The explanation for the piles o’ gravel became clear as I hot the Spruce Loop. The trail had obviously been gone over with equipment and some fresh dirt/gravel had been smooshed about in spots, perhaps in an attempt to smooth out holes, but the actual effect was to make the trail a lot trickier to run on, because it was now lumpy and covered in soft patches your feet could slide around in. A good test for the new shoes.

This continued on through the Conifer Loop and even onto the main trail. There’s a huge pipe just short of the 3K marker that is almost completely exposed. When I’m running I have to time my jump over it–yes, it’s that big. But today it was completely covered in the fine gravel that serves as the top layer when trails are resurfaced. It’s the darker stuff in the above photo.

All of this means they are in the beginning stages of finally resurfacing the side trail, which have long needed some love, and it looks like they are getting close to the Cottonwood Trail, which is currently the worst part of the main loop, festooned with numerous exposed tree roots. Even if they just do the side trails, it will be a great improvement, so yay for that.

The run itself started with me matching the overall pace of 5:52/km during the first km. While a full 10 seconds slower than the previous river trail run, it still handily beat my last lake run a few weeks back, when I came in at 6:11/km. I clearly flagged in the second km. My BPM was was hitting around 169 at that point, but it dropped after and came out to 161 overall, a little higher, but still well within the comfortable range.

There were no issues in terms of cramps or other discomfort, other than just feeling the humidity sucking the life force from me. I did pick up the pace toward the end and finished before the 5K marker, always a nice psychological victory. The walk out of the lake I found myself running more than walking (my average pace was 8:27/km, which is impossible for a walking pace unless I find a way to grow my legs to be twice as tall as they are now), even getting as low as 6:24/km at one point, nearly matching a slower run pace).

Overall, a decent effort. It’ll be interesting to see how the next lake run goes, especially if humidity is lower and the side trails are freshly resurfaced.

Run 616: Stinky and warm, with a dash of deja vu

Run 616
Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:28 pm
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:48
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25ºC
Humidity: 43%
Wind: light
BPM: 157
Weight: 167.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4660 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (15 km)

Today’s run (delayed by one day mainly due to laziness) was essentially a duplicate of Tuesday’s. My average pace was the same, though BPM was a bit lower. My overall time was an entire one second faster, 28:48 vs. 28:49.

That’s the kind of thing I could never deliberately do and it weirds me out every time it happens. Having it happen on back to back runs is maybe even weirder still.

It was warmer today, mainly due to the sun being out, but I experienced no issues other than feeling a bit of a burn in the first km while establishing my pace. The stinky part was the sewer line that runs under the trail being extra ripe and producing a lingering odor that could be smelled at both ends of the run and for a good bit in-between. It wasn’t so bad to really affect me, except to make me note how much stinkier this run was compared to most.

There’s not much more to add. The Sauconys continue to perform well and I am totally grooving on wearing shoes that are genuinely light again. As I was expecting to be a bit slower today, matching Tuesday’s run is a nice surprise.

Next up will be a lake run. I’ll see how the new shoes hold up there.

Disney live action remakes you probably won’t see

Disney has been cranking out remakes of their classic animated films in zany live action form. Why? To make buckets of money, of course. There is no other reason. Artistry is a byproduct of this, not part of the design. Cynical? Yes! True? Pretty much.

And so far the buckets of money part has been pretty good for them. The only real disappointment so far has been the live action version of Dumbo, which suffered from a couple of things:

  • too old to benefit much from nostalgia
  • being old, it was also never a mega-success in its original, which is what Disney wants these days–there was not enough to build on
  • Tim Burton. He’s also flitted between brilliant and pedestrian as a director, and of late he’s done a lot of walking, if you know what I mean
  • flying elephants are kind of dumb

The Lion King is next and will probably be a huge hit, but to me the photo-realistic animals kind of kills the point of the whole thing. Photo-realistic animals can’t emote like humans, so they just kind of stand there and look like they’re part of as nature documentary. Also you get a weird animal version of uncanny valley when they start talking.

Nevertheless, The Lion King is beloved by modern audiences in a way Dumbo isn’t, so creepy animals shouldn’t keep it from making hundreds of millions of dollars.

On the other hand, even Disney might hesitate before committing to live action versions of the following:

  • Song of the South. Okay, this is a mix of live action and animated, but yeah, not gonna happen. Would be very interesting to see how they’d handle it, though. Very interesting.

Actually, Song of the South is the only one I think Disney would never touch. I mean, they won’t do a live action version of their WWII animated documentary Victory Through Air Power because it’s obscure and not something people think of when they think of Disney. People don’t think of Disney as being hilariously racist, either, hence Song of the South remaining firmly a thing of the past.

Book review: 5,000 Writing Prompts

5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More

5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More by Bryn Donovan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I did not read all 5,000 prompts.

But I did read most of them, actually, not just to get the inspiration, but to get an overall feel for how Donovan puts together her lists. Quite often you can see her riffing on a theme or flipping a prompt to generate another (“Write why you like scrambled eggs. Or why you hate scrambled eggs with the fire of a thousand suns.”)

There are a few things Donovan does that elevates this above so many other writing prompt books or websites:

  • Quantity. Yes, sometimes size does matter! The sheer volume of prompts means you’re bound to find some that appeal to you, even if you use her method of randomly picking one.
  • Speaking of randomly picking one, Donovan directly tackles the purpose of the prompts and suggest picking one to write every day for two weeks, to rekindle your interest in writing if it’s faded. This is an entirely sensible plan, but a lot of prompt books don’t address this at all, they just pile on the lists.
  • Speaking of lists, Donovan provides a great deal of variety and even the groupings that might seem marginal to you (for me it would be the poetry prompts) actually offer a lot of good ideas that can be applied to other types of writing.

Donovan offers commentary and background on some of her ideas, especially those that have cultural or historical significance.

Really, this is just a solid all-around collection. I expect to use a bunch of these prompts as I seek to re-ignite my own fiction writing (and if you don’t write fiction, there’s lots of material here for blogs and other forms of non-fiction writing). Recommended.

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