I was originally going to go outside and run out there today and indeed, the weather would have been great for it, as it’s partly sunny right now and 13C. But late this morning I found myself with a bad headache, so I took some Tylenol, laid down on the bed and dozed away an hour or so of the day. When I woke up, I felt fuzzy-brained and the headache was not fully gone, so I had some soup and took more Tylenol.
By mid-afternoon the idea of going out had little appeal but my guilty conscience told me I should do something–and the headache was successfully muted–so I got on the treadmill.
The workout went better today, with no weird slowdowns, and my BPM was I think the lowest it’s ever been, so that was nice.
As per usual, I loaded up a bunch of videos for the workout and despite a somewhat slow start, was humming along after that. When I hit the 5K mark I was astonished to see a pace of 9:18/km–this is actually slower than the speed of the treadmill, which is set to a pace of 9:13/km. How did I defy physics?
I did lean down to scratch a leg a few times, but that couldn’t be it. I also leaned forward to scrub through the sponsored segment section of a Corridor Crew video. Now, I get it, these people need to pay the bills, but there are right ways and wrong ways to include sponsored segments if you insist on doing them.
The right way:
Ryan George puts them at the end of his videos and actually makes them into little sketches unto themselves. He does the weird trick of making you want to watch the ads.
Brad Colbow puts the ads in mind-video, but he keeps them short and tends to stick to stuff he actually uses/endorses.
The wrong way:
A previously mentioned Let’s Game It Out featured a 2+ minute long ad that was a bored-sounding Josh reading boilerplate about the game Genshin Impact. It was literally unwatchable (I scrubbed through it).
Every Corridor Crew sponsored segment uses the same guy, so I now associate him negatively with advertising. I see him and the urge to scrub goes through the roof. Also, his segments are too long, consistently fail at being amusing, and constantly push products of dubious value (enough with the VPN ads, people).
Anyway, back to the workout. I am still a bit puzzled over the weirdly slow pace of that fifth km, which brought my overall pace down, but what can you do? Machines don’t lie. Well, they totally do, sometimes, but I don’t think that’s happening here.
I was pleasantly surprised to find myself not feeling stiff or sore after the run on the treadmill yesterday, but still opted to return to a walk today. Friday is looking cloudy and mild (14C!), so I may try running in the great outside then.
In the meantime, I was slightly slower today for reasons unknown. I sweated more than usual, too. Maybe I was a little more tired than I realized after yesterday’s workout.
On the plus side, my BPM was pretty low, so maybe I was being secretly lazy. Lazy or not, this was still my 22nd workout of the month. I am a workout machine! If only my weight dropped as much as my workouts climbed. Maybe it will all...work out in the end. Ho ho.
FYI, I have done more than six runs on a treadmill, but this was the sixth on my own treadmill. Even though I’ve used the treadmill a lot (especially in 2022) it’s been mostly for fast walks, not actual runs. But today I ran!
Most of the time.
Looking over the precious few previous runs, I opted for a speed of 9, which works out to 6:40/km–a slow running pace for outdoors, but not bad for a treadmill. I expected my legs to catch fire because running and walking use quite different muscles, but to my surprise and delight that did not happen.
But my stamina for jogging is not quite there yet and a few times, maybe for about three minutes total, I slowed the pace down to 7 or 6.5 (my usual; treadmill walking pace until I recovered enough to ramp back up. I went 30 minutes instead of trying for 5 km, but the ultimate goal will be to push on for at least 5 km. until I recovered enough to ramp back up. I went 30 minutes instead of trying for 5 km, but the ultimate goal will be to push on for at least 5 km.
A couple of observations:
I listened to music, figuring it might be difficult to watch videos, with the head bobbing and all. This meant my eyes naturally fell to the treadmill display. This was bad because staring at the time made it feel like it was passing very slowly. I’m going back to videos or covering the display next time with a towel.
As noted, the legs held up fine. I guess all the slow burn walking workouts have helped!
I sweated a lot more.
At about the 28-minute mark, I suddenly felt I might throw up. I slowed to a walking pace for a minute, then switched back to running for the last 60 seconds.I think this happened due to an excessive amount of phlegm clogging my throat and getting jiggled around (yeah, gross). I am going to talk to my doctor about this, as this much phlegm seems strange and weird.
Other than the relative lack of stamina and the near-hurling right at the end, I thought it went fairly well. It is showery today, otherwise I might have tried outside. Maybe next time!
Actually, the weather today was pretty miserable–cooler than normal and heavy rain. But I don’t care, because it’s spring! The second-best season of the year!
Have a dancing duck to celebrate (captured on camera at Reifel Bird Sanctuary yesterday, when the weather was much more spring-like than today):
A mid-evening workout tonight, but I did get a smidgen of exercise earlier in the day, too, when we went to IKEA. It was crowded and kind of yucky, for the record. I’d say about 60% of people were wearing masks (they became optional nine days ago) and while I hate wearing a mask, I was happy to keep one on in there.
But we did get some containers for the kitchen.
As for the workout, it was fine. I had a slower first km due to having to stop and re-tie my shoelaces. This always throws off my rhythm. Still, the slower pace and shorter distance also meant a lower BPM, so I have no complaints. Yet!
Will people care what’s inside this slab? Photo by Martin Sanchez on Pexels.com
Mark Gurman on Apple re-using the A15 chip in the base model iPhone 14 this year:
Giving the 14 Pro a speedier chip also adds another bullet point to the list of reasons consumers might choose the $1,000 model over a $700 one. An extra camera lens, ProMotion and a stainless-steel frame instead of aluminum probably aren’t actually worth an extra $300 to a lot of people.
I agree with his take regarding ProMotion (I’d bet most people don’t even know what it is) and the stainless steel frame (it’s a fingerprint magnet, so it never looks nice and if you have a case, you’ll never see it, and it also adds even more weight to an already heavier phone), but I think the better/extra cameras are one of two main reasons people buy the “Pro” models, with the other being that if you want the biggest phone, you have to get the Pro model, there is no other alternative (rumor also has it that Apple will feature a “regular” iPhone model in the larger size this year, so this may change).
But I disagree that making the A16 exclusive to Pro models will move the needle on sales in any measurable way, save for tech nerds who can’t fathom not having the best of the best with their tech, and the reason is that all iPhones have SoCs that are already fast enough with room to spare. The A16 might offer a better specs page than the A15, but in actual use, I would bet virtually no one would be able to tell which is which when using an iPhone.
This is just another way for Apple to save money without passing it onto the consumer–one of the key ways the company has grown so massively big. I submit it will also be a factor in its downfall, though that will happen much more slowly than its near-collapse in the 1990s–but it will happen. I may scratch out some more thoughts on this later.
On the one hand, I think most people won’t care if Apple re-uses the A15 in their base iPhone 14 (they should lose the numbers to describe the phones, too, but that’s another discussion). On the other hand, if the phone has the same design, same A15 and little else in the way of hardware changes, is it even an iPhone 14 at all? Why would someone buy one over the iPhone 13? (Apple will likely take care of this by discontinuing the iPhone 13, so there is no choice to be made). I suspect what Apple will do is present the base model as kind of an “oh, and we still have the great iPhone 14” while quickly glossing over its mostly not-new specs, then spend most of their presentation time lavishing praise on everything the “Pro” models have, and you should totes buy one, or you’re missing out!
And yes, I am putting “Pro” in quotes because of the reason addressed in The Verge article–it’s a meaningless term for a smartphone. It’s just the more expensive, feature-laden model. There’s no “pro” way to use a phone.
Anyway, that’s my long, rambling warm take on the possibility of the iPhone 14 re-using the A15 chip. Why ramble on this at all? I’ve decided if I have thoughts on these things, I’m just going to throw them out there. It keeps me writing and my keyboard makes a pleasant clack when I type.
And good riddance! We got more snow than was needed to be delighted by the general concept of snowfall, and we got way more rain than needed, resulting in historic flooding. We also got some record-breaking cold, though that at least didn’t accompany the historic flooding.
Winter remains #4 on my list of favorite seasons, and I’m tempted to add blank spots for #4-9 just to put it in tenth place.
A decent workout, but I’m really running out of things to say. I stopped about 3/4 of the way through a Solar Sands video because I had to use the loo. Curse my tiny bladder.
