Pigeon line art. Coo, coo.
Month: September 2022
Run 717: The wind and the spike
I looked at the soles of my shoes before heading out. I think I need new shoes. Time to read a billion reviews, then buy something on sale and regret it later!
This was an odd and unsatisfying run. My goal was to run at a pace of 150 BPM, so I expected a slower time. My first km, during which I did my best not to run fast at all, came in at 5:35/km, which is pretty zippy. Annoyingly, the Apple Watch did not show my heart rate during this first km, a problem that seems to be happening more often lately (possibly a bug with the watchOS 9 update?). It didn’t silently record it, either–there is no data in the summary of the run. As I started the second km, I could see the heart symbol spinning, trying to determine heart rate, but it was still getting nothing. I was pretty sure my heart was still beating.
I then paused the workout and opened the heart rate app. This app does a single thing: it shows your heart rate (weird, I know). After a few moments, it said my BPM was 148, which seemed about right. I then went back to the workout app and sure enough, this managed to get the heart rate showing in my workout. I resumed running.
Then something strange happened. Even though I was maintaining a moderate pace, my BPM kept going up. It went from 148 to 151 to 158, then 161 and at this point I started mildly freaking out, because there is no way my heart should have suddenly started beating that much harder. I slowed my pace even more and eventually saw the BPM drop down to around 153 and settle. I have no idea if this was actually happening (as it’s never happened before, that I’ve noticed) or if the watch was just glitching out. You can see the spike here:
It was also much windier than normal so for the first half of the run, I was running into the wind, which slowed me down a little. Temperature and humidity were fine–21C and 46%–and there was only a modest increase in sweating. But I did feel kind of blah. There were also more people on the trail than expected for the middle of the week, though it is admittedly a gorgeous day for the last day of summer.
I suppose I can’t complain too much. I did finish with a pace under 6:00/km despite things. Friday is looking cooler and a bit soggy, which is perhaps appropriate for the first run of fall. We’ll see how it goes.
Stats:
Run 717 Average pace: 5:58/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 11451 a.m. Distance: 10.03 km Time: 59:55 Weather: Sunny Temp: 21ºC Humidity: 46% Wind: moderate BPM: 152 Weight: 160.3 Total distance to date: 5272 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (380 km)
The newsletter/subscription purge continues (I swear)
Today I cancelled a Substack newsletter and a streaming service:
- Sweary History (after not quite a year)
- Netflix (after being subbed for many years)
The reasons were a bit different for each, but both are part of my ongoing digital decluttering process.
For Sweary History, I actually quite like James Fell’s foul-mouthed writing style, and his personal posts (which require a paid sub) were especially enjoyable and informative. But as someone who chronicles human history, and given how dark and awful so much of human history is, Fell often wrote about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things. And in the same way that actively seeking out current news was making me generally unhappy, I found getting a dose of daily “look how terrible people have been throughout history” started having the same effect. This morning I started to read the latest newsletter and just stopped partway through, like a little switch in my brain flipped. I unsubscribed.
Netflix was different. I found that I just wasn’t compelled to watch any of the current stuff on it (Archer has grown stale, Stranger Things is something I want to catch up on, but it seems the season four episodes are long, and it’s more of a commitment than I’m willing to make right now), plus Netflix seems to think they can keep raising their prices and make up declining subs by squeezing their most loyal subscribers that much harder.
Didn’t work for me! I checked “too expensive” as my main reason for dropping the sub, and it’s true. If Netflix was cheaper, I’d probably just keep it, but it’s $18.47/month after taxes and that is too much for the very minimal use it gets.
For streaming, I still have Prime Video (as part of Prime), Disney+ and Apple TV+ (as part of Apple One), so depending on how things go, I could potentially get down to just a single service. And more time to draw.
Photo of the day: Grasshopper
These things are currently everywhere. This one was at Sapperton Landing, by the Fraser River.
Wood duck line art
Like the title says. Male, non-breeding colours.
Run 716: Birthday run with bonus ex-tree and plenty o’ people
Today is my birthday, and Mother Nature gave me the gift of nice weather for my run. Thank you, Mom!
Although the temperature rose rapidly this morning from 10C to 18C, it stabilized for the run and remained 18C throughout. Sweating was minimal.
I was hoping the bridge construction on the trails would be complete and set off counter-clockwise, only to encounter…no detours. Yay! I originally planned on a more mellow run but my first km came in at 5:50/km and I just went with it, tying my Friday (and year’s best) pace of 5:48/km. My BPM was down slightly to 153. I suspect I could get nearly the same results with less effort (ie. a lower BPM). If conditions are similar on Wednesday, I shall try this!
Today is kind of a weird day, because it’s a quasi-stat holiday with the Queen’s funeral and government workers off. There were a lot more people on the trail than usual, including multiple families. Most people were good about making room, save for one family who clearly saw me, stopped, then just stood there, arrayed in a way that made it difficult for me to get by. People are weird (and sometimes strangely dumb).
I also saw the spitfire. I am amazed at how often we choose to run opposite directions and pass each other. It’s like we somehow know.
The ex-tree was on the Piper Mill Trail, neatly fallen across the width of the trail. Fortunately, it wasn’t a monster sequoia, so I was able to easily hop over it.
I did sweat a little, but mostly around the forehead. It’s so weird to come home and my t-shirt is dry. Dry!
Overall, this was a nice start to the week and a solid nearly-end-of-summer run.
Stats:
Run 716 Average pace: 5:48/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:51 a.m. Distance: 10.06 km Time: 58:20 Weather: Sunny Temp: 18ºC Humidity: 59% Wind: light BPM: 153 Weight: 160.2 Total distance to date: 5262 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (370 km)
Caspian tern line art
When I was shooting this on Saturday, I thought it was a seagull (it was quite far off). The Merlin bird app tells me it is actually rare!
An interesting and possibly unfortunate confluence of events
Tomorrow–Monday, September 19–is going to be a strange day. Here are just a few of the things happening:
- Fire alarm repairs. Per the memo for our condo, “repairs of the fire protection equipment” are needed, somehow. Not testing, repairs. The memo contains no details on what this means.
- My birthday. Self-explanatory (I hope).
- Queen’s funeral. This is kind of an official holiday in Canada, but with mourning instead of partying (for most, anyway). Schools (including post-secondary) are closed, so my partner has the day off.
- Talk Like a Pirate Day. It has always bothered me that this utterly stupid thing falls on my birthday, just because. Check your history books, kids (the good ones, anyway)! Pirates were not fun-loving rascals, they were murderers and thieves. It doesn’t matter how many Monkey Island games you played, it’s still true! Maybe if they called it Talk Like a Pirate as Romanticized in Movies and Video Games Day.
So basically, I get annoyed by fire alarm testing/repairs, don’t have the day to myself (I’m selfish, I admit!), have to put up with every stupid pirate joke conceivable and someone will probably blend those with Queen Elizabeth’s funeral into something like, “Yarr, the Queen be dead. Love live the King. Yarr.”
Basically, I am ready for Tuesday.
Photo of the Day, September 17, 2022
I’ll have more posted from our birding today, but for now, fungus! At Burnaby Lake.
Great Blue Heron line art
Based on one of my photographs.
Run 715: Park people perplexingly poor planning
Today is September 16, which means we are one day past the replacement of the foot bridges at Burnaby Lake, so I should have been able to run a full loop. However, I noted that the first six days of the scheduled work saw no evidence at all of any work, equipment or anything else that could be considered work-related in this matter. Therefore, I was prepared to see detours still in place today.
I still held out some optimism as I headed out, so chose counter-clockwise, hoping I might be able to do a full loop. Alas, no. The main and side trails were both blocked off, leaving only the Spruce Loop open on the north side. I could have done 10K there, but would have had to circle the Spruce Loop about 15 times. Which would have been interesting. And dumb.
(In reference to the title of the post, I’m unsure why they are working on both the side and main trails simultaneously, because they could easily keep the loop open by working on one, then the other. It’s not like they are replacing a dozen bridges that will take months to do. Also, the detour signs are placed where the main and side trails intersect, so a lot of people will walk the 500 m or so and then realize they have to turn around. If there was a sign at the dam saying the loop was closed, people could choose which way to go accordingly.)
I backtracked and went clockwise, choosing my turnaround point where the trail intersects with the path to the Glencarin parking lot, just west of the rickety old bridge over Deer Lake Brook, a distance that Google Maps tells me is about 275 m:
I maintained a pace very similar to Tuesday’s run, but conditions were quite different.
For one, it was only 13C when I started (and ended), marking the coolest run in a while. I should note that it didn’t actually feel cool–13C is still pretty mild. But it showered on the way to the lake and once I arrived, there was a brief actual downpour, so I was pretty much drenched to start. After that, it showered intermittently, but eventually eased off. It brightened a little, but remained overcast, which is what I was hoping for. There is something strangely awful about running in the rain, then having the sky suddenly clear, the sun comes out, the temperature shoots up, and the humidity remains sky-high (and ground-low). But this did not happen, it stayed cloudy until after I got home.
As I type this, it’s sunny, 18C and the humidity is 52%.
I was reminded of two semi-annoying things about running in the rain:
- My glasses get speckled with drops of water. There is really no good solution to this, other than not wearing the glasses (which I need). I can fudge it by looking over the top of the rims if it gets really bad.
- The Apple Watch is clearly not suited to rainy day activities. I locked the display early on, which means you can’t really interact with it during the run. Normally I only glance at it to check BPM or intervals, but sometimes I want to change the music or do something else, and you simply can’t. What happens if you don’t lock an Apple Watch in the rain? Fun (?) and weird things! When water drops hit the watch face, it will make the watch do utterly random stuff–launch apps, switch faces, things that would never seem possible from a few errant drops of water, but do, in fact, happen. It’s one of the leading reasons I am eyeballing a Garmin watch, which conspicuously lacks any touch controls.
I felt pretty good for the run and actually kept a fairly zippy pace, save for two km– at the 5K mark I had a pace of 6:00/km even, then inexplicably slipped to 6:17/km for the 6th km. I have no idea what happened here. I swear I wasn’t running this slow! Maybe the watch GPS went a bit crazy. After that, my pace picked back up, and I managed my fastest 10K for the year at 5:48/km. Overall BPM was a bit higher at 154 BPM, which is fine. I will probably ease up a little next week and stick to 150 BPM.
Overall, a fine run to end the week.
Fun Fact: If I take the total run distance I’ve tracked and drew a straight line across the country, I’d end up…somewhere in the water off Newfoundland.
Stats:
Run 715 Average pace: 5:48/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW and CW) Start: 10:17 a.m. Distance: 10.06 km Time: 58:17 Weather: Intermittent showers Temp: 13ºC Humidity: 87% Wind: light BPM: 154 Weight: 159.4 Total distance to date: 5252 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (360 km)
Walk 84: Shy little drizzle
I wore my long-sleeve Nike shirt today as there had been actual, if slight, precipitation in the morning. And indeed, as I headed out, the sky looked very gray, holding the promise of more to come.
The sullen sky meant the river trail was gloriously quiet–not a single dog owner in sight! In fact, I only saw two people in total, one walking down and one when I turned around and walked back.
I also popped over to the lake, walking up to the turtle nesting area, and saw not a single person while there. It was weird and kind of nice. Quiet. Peaceful.
Unlike my condo. 😛
A couple of oddities, possibly related to the watchOS 9 update? My distance at 8.03 seems a bit low. Based on my route, I was expecting something closer to 8.5 km. This will bear watching (no pun intended). Also, my pace and BPM seem a bit out of whack, with the BPM being higher than what I would expect given the pace (I only ran for a few moments). Perhaps the cooler temperature and rainy conditions made my body work slightly harder. Perhaps I’m not used to this after months of insane heat and humidity!
I shall learn more when I run tomorrow under what looks to be similar weather conditions.
Stats:
Walk 84 Average pace: 9:22/km Location: Brunette River trail Distance: 8.03 km Time: 75:14 Weather: Cloudy with drizzle Temp: 17 °C Humidity: 76% Wind: light BPM: 111 Weight: 159.6 pounds Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12 Total distance to date: 641.05 km