Yes, I made this post just for the awful title.
I did a quick survey outside after yesterday’s big dump o’ snow and determined that going for a run today would result in hijinks of an unmerry sort, with slipping and falling and such. By my estimate, there was about two times as much snow on the ground to make jogging viable. I was sad.
Afterwards, I hit the treadmill just long enough to complete my activity rings.
And now, that cat on ice. Yes, the classic, perhaps my favorite gif ever.
Yeah, this month was bad, there is no other way to put it.
But it could have been worse.
I started the month at 158.7 pounds, a mere 8.7 pounds away from my goal of 150. It was within reach! However, my weight inched back up over 160 and in the final week it persistently stayed just over 160 and I ended the month at 161.3 pounds.
I now need to lose 11.3 pounds to hit my goal. If I intend to do it before the end of 2022 I would need to lose an average of 0.376 pounds per day. When I put it that way, it sounds pretty easy. It also translates to 2.82 pounds per week, which makes it sound a lot harder.
So 0.376 pounds per day it is!
The good news is that I have been running regularly, and it’s quite possible that some of the weight gain may be actual muscle mass. Maybe I’ll get a fancy™ scale that can measure that sort of thing, so I have yet another stat to track1UPDATE: The Garmin scale coincidentally went on scale, so I have ordered it. I like stats. And lists.
Actually, looking over the Fitbit stats, there is also some good news on body fat. It was down slightly from October, from 17.5% to 17.1% and my total body fat over the year declined as a result.
Here’s to a Christmas miracle and actual weight loss resuming in the month of December. Ho ho ho!
Stats:
Weight: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds Current: 161.3 pounds Year to date: Down 21.5 pounds November 1: 158.7 pounds November 30: 161.3 pounds (up 2.6 pounds) Body fat: January 1: 23% (42.1 pounds of fat) November 30: 17.1% (27.6 pounds of fat--down 14.5 pounds)
Because I took my fuzzy photo and turned it into a nice crisp drawing!
Apologies for the terrible title.
I knew the people behind HEY’s email service had controversial opinions on running a business, and I mostly ignored them, because I found HEY does some genuinely interesting stuff with email. But after reading the latest piece from co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson I could no longer in good conscience continue to use the service. I’m paid up until April 23, 2023, so I have plenty of time to move stuff over to another email platform, likely Outlook as I already have an active account with the service, but it’s still going to be a big ol’ bother after having already done this once already moving away from Gmail.
But when you throw in with monumentally shitty people like Elon Musk, you are basically telling me you don’t want my business. So I am done with HEY. And I save $100 a year as a bonus. HEY, that’s pretty nice.
Today’s run was going to be chilly, with the temperature only 1ºC at the start, and 3ºC by the end, a difference I did not notice!
I dressed thus:
In the end I feel I could have worn two layers up top and shorts might have been okay. The only problem is the 4 km walk to the lake before. Near-freezing temperatures on my bare legs that long would probably lead to a lot longer warm-up period during the run, and it’s not like I was sweating a lot or something.
It was sunny and once again, the lack of any sort of wind was conspicuous and weird. In anticipation of getting that flickering effect from the sun shining through the now naked trees on the Cottonwood Trail, I opted to stick to a counterclockwise route. I did encounter some strobing on the south shore, but it was a lot more intermittent. There was frost in some shaded areas of the trail, but it wasn’t that bad as far as being slippery goes. Even the boardwalks were decent.
A bigger hazard may have been the Slightly Dim People out walking. Because it was sunny, there were more people out, which is fine, because it still wasn’t exactly crowded. I don’t know if the cold makes it harder to hear, but virtually no one heard me approaching from behind and most people were walking in pairs and hogging the trail, as people do. This didn’t lead to any situations, I just noticed everyone seemed a bit more oblivious today. Maybe it’s a Monday thing.
Unlike Friday, I had no weird heart rate spikes. At around the 7.5 km mark my BPM went up to 157 but it didn’t stay there and within a minute was back to the 150 range, which actually turned out to be my overall average. Nice!
As an experiment, I wore my Apple Watch on my right wrist, but locked the display so it wouldn’t record official workouts. I was hoping it would only track my move stats (steps) as these mysteriously don’t carry over from the Garmin watch, leaving a massive gap in my step total (on a lake run I usually put in about 20,000 steps). I was skeptical, but it actually worked. The Fitness app has my exercise accounted for by the Garmin watch, while the steps were tracked by the Apple Watch. I’m not sure if I want to wear two watches for every workout, but at least I know it does what I hope it would.
This was a solid start to the week, but there are portents of snow in the forecast. We’ll see what happens on Wednesday.
Stats:
Run 736 Average pace: 5:47/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:50 a.m. Distance: 10.04 km Time: 58:08 Weather: Sunny Temp: 1-3ºC Humidity: 56% Wind: light to nil BPM: 150 Weight: 161.5 Total distance to date: 5445 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (117 km)
A photo I took this morning:
The beavers tried to take out this tree on the Brunette River–and another one a short distance away. I wonder why they never finished the job.
It was déjà vu in reverse as I matched Wednesday’s pace of 5:49/km, but running counter-clockwise. This was my second workout with the Forerunner 255, and it worked fine. I adjusted the stats it shows while running to include average pace and active heart rate, which are both useful for me.
The addition of the heart rate allowed me to observe an odd spike where it jumped from an average of around 150 to 171. It then dropped to 165 or so and after a few minutes (and with me only easing up slightly on my pace) it jumped back down to the 150 range. The section where it spiked was near the first boardwalk and I was not running fast, so unsure if this was a glitch with the watch or my heart. I will monitor, obviously! My overall BPM was 152, which is perfectly normal.
Other than the mystery spike, the run actually went well, no other issues. It was raining before I headed out but looked to be easing up, so I went with:
This turned out to be more than I needed, as it was fairly mild and even though I felt AN ACTUAL SLIGHT BREEZE several times, it wasn’t really cold, so a long-sleeved shirt probably would have sufficed.
It’s rather amazing that I completed three runs in the third week of November and did not experience any rain.
The trail did require some minor puddle jumping here and there, and I got my feet briefly tangled up in a few twigs and debris from the rainstorm, but overall it was in pretty decent condition.
Overall, a solid effort and a nice way to end the week.
The view from the dam looking down the river, two gates open after the storm:
Stats:
Run 735 Average pace: 5:49/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:43 a.m. Distance: 10.04 km Time: 58:22 Weather: Overcast Temp: 8ºC Humidity: 86% Wind: light BPM: 152 Weight: 161.1 Total distance to date: 5435 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (107 km)
Previously:
The best and worst running conditions, 2022 edition (November 7, 2022)
The best worst running conditions: 2016 edition (April 27, 2016)
Bad weather running: the list (updated) (July 10, 2012)
Bad running weather: the list (July 13, 2011)
Yes, I’m updating this list mere weeks later because I finally ran in a new weather condition: fog. Let’s see where it ranks!
Reminder: This list is ranked from best to worst conditions. Really, only the top three are what I’d consider ideal for running.
When I got my Canon EOS M50 camera in January 2021, the first place I took it to take bird pictures was Maplewood Flats. Unfortunately, it was a gray, misty day, so I didn’t get a lot of great shots. I did get a photo of a spotted sandpiper, but it wasn’t very close. That photo serves as the basis for this bird drawing. I re-interpreted the log to something more stylized because why not?
Also known as the 1984 run, not because it had an Orwellian feel to it, but because the music was David Gilmour’s About Face and Hall and Oates Big Bam Boom, a pair of albums from 1984. If only I’d had a sweatband and legwarmers with me.
As it was, I wore two layers up top (long and short-sleeve shirt) and shorts, and they were fine for the conditions. It was actually pretty mild and again, virtually no wind at all.
Today was the first day I wore my shiny new Garmin Forerunner 255 running watch. It’s been quite awhile since I wore something other than my Apple Watch for a run, but after the recent glitches and with it not monitoring my heart rate for multiple kilometres, I decided it was time to try something else.
I set up the watch in the morning, connected it to Apple Health and my iPhone so the data from the runs would show up as activity. I set a few preferences, then off I went, tracking my usual walks to and from the lake and the 10K around it. I was originally going to just do a 5K at the river, but talked myself into going for the full deal. Probably residual guilt over all those Pringle pizza-flavoured chips I ate yesterday.
Happily, the watch worked exactly as expected, no hiccups or weirdness. The run synced quickly to the Garmin Connect app on the phone and better yet, I can view the copious details on the Garmin Connect website. Finally, a map that isn’t stupidly small and dark!
The embed doesn’t seem to work in WordPress, so it only shows as a link for now, but I’ll see what I can do.
The only odd part is the BPM was 150–which is good–but my pace was 5:49/km–which is also good!–but normally my BPM would be higher at that pace. We’ll see if it levels out over a few runs. It was milder today, so that may have helped, too.
Garmin embed:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/embed/10026529411
As for the suicidal squirrel, I’ve noticed that the Piper Mill Trail seems to be a popular hangout for squirrels, and today I counted at least four of them. One, a small red squirrel, decided to panic as I approached (the squirrels at the lake tend to be skittish) but instead of diving into the brush, it dove…directly into my path. Thanks to some fancy footwork, I managed to avoid tripping on it. Silly squirrel. That would have been embarrassing, though.
“How did you hurt yourself running?”
“A squirrel.”
“I see.”
The run itself felt good again, no issues at all, other than the two boardwalks being a bit slippery. There was a woman curbing her German Shepherd just past the bridge at Deer Lake Brook, and the dog was sitting obediently beside her, but he had an eye on me. She pulled on the dog slightly as if to draw him closer to her. I knew what was coming. As I ran by, the dog immediately lunged toward me and I deked successfully, keeping myself out of the WSZ (Wet Snout Zone). No other snout incidents occurred.
Overall, another solid effort and I got 11 badges and apparently ascended to Badge Level 2 on Gsrmin Connect. Go me!
View from the dam:
Stats:
Run 734 Average pace: 5:49/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 1:08 p.m. Distance: 10.04 km Time: 58:26 Weather: Overcast Temp: 9ºC Humidity: 93% Wind: light to nil BPM: 150 Weight: 161.0 Total distance to date: 5425 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (97 km)
Yes, I have become obsessed with this silly song. After watching the previously linked video a few times, YouTube sensed I wanted more and presented me with the Australian band Pseudo Echo’s 1986 cover, which features guitar solos and even better, guitar synths!
This is a strange and delightful fusion of rock, and I absolutely adore the chorus with those giant chunky synths that the 80s were known for. And it’s clear the band had great fun covering the song.
Also, tucking your t-shirt into your pants was a big thing in the 80s. Not as big as most of the hair, mind you.