Exercise

Walk 25: Frozen buns

It’s a Monday and traditionally Monday is a lazy day when it comes to exercise, but with only a handful of days left with good daylight after work, I decided to head out. It was 8ºC, but with little wind it didn’t feel too cold.

Fifteen minutes later and my butt was like ice. It dropped to 6ºC by the end, but I was sufficiently warmed up that it was fine. I wore shorts and had two layers up top–my usual long-sleeved running shirt and a sleeveless underneath. Unlike most times in the past, this did not result in me feeling overdressed. I have finally learned. (I noted only one other runner wore shorts, the rest were wearing sweatpants or some form of spandex/Lycra. Several were also wearing hoodies/jackets and gloves. I feel it would have been too warm for gloves, but still appreciate the extra-long sleeves on my shirt that can act as pseudo-gloves when needed.)

I was a bit slower on the walking portion, likely due to the much colder temperature but moved along at a good pace for the running part. Overall, I was glad I made the effort.

The stats:

Walk 25
Average pace: 7:39/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.54 km
Time: 57:42
Weather: Clear
Temp: 8-6ºC
Humidity: 54%
Wind: light to nil
BPM: 132
Weight: 171.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 192.3 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8

Treadmill walk: Blergh

All day my allergies have been hammering me and I also feel vaguely like I am coming down with a cold, though I’m not sure where I might have picked up a cold from. I hardly ever swipe my fingers across virus-laden surfaces then vigorously rub my eyes afterward.

Maybe I will feel better in the morning.

Anyway, I found tonight’s “must complete all three rings and keep streak going” workout to be, well, a workout. I felt tired and off and here are the stats:

Pace: 9:29/km (9:20 km/h)
Time: 30:04 (30:06)
Distance: 3.17 km (3.22 km)
Calories burned: 280 (282)
BPM: 133 (135)

Treadmill walk: Obligation walk

I was somewhat lazy today, plus it was coming down in proverbial buckets outside and was unseasonably cool, to boot. By early evening I was once again faced with having to either get off my butt and hit the treadmill or fail to meet my daily activity goals.

As has happened more often of late, guilt won out and I did half an hour on the treadmill. Acting a bit in reverse, I finished stronger than I started, mostly, I think, to the music getting peppier toward the end. It was also a faster workout than on Monday, which is nice.

Stats:

Pace: 9:20/km (9:32 km/h)
Time: 30:06 (30:14)
Distance: 3.22 km (3.17 km)
Calories burned: 282 (266)
BPM: 135 (128)

Walk 24: Dark shadows and no dogs

I was a tad slower on the walk out, possibly because it was a bit chillier this afternoon. Once I got warmed up I was fine and even had that “could just keep on going” feeling during the running part. It was nice.

In the areas where there is still decent canopy there was a definite sense of deepening shadows as the days grow shorter. If I was still doing my usual afternoon commute it would already be getting dark too early to run outside after work.

Checking the sunsets that are coming up, it looks like the last day I’ll be able to do a one-hour outdoor workout and still be back before the sun goes down is October 31 when the sun sets at 5:50 p.m. That’s actually twenty minutes early, but we switch back to Standard Time (boo) on November 1, so the sunset suddenly jumps up by one hour to 4:49 p.m., which is only 19 minutes after I’d head out. This makes me sad and makes the yearly switch back to “Standard” time seem all the more dumb and unnecessary.

Also, October 31 is a Saturday, so the real last day would be Friday, October 30, just nine days from now. It’s funny, I had completely forgotten about the time change. Bleah.

Anyway, today’s workout was good and I shall cherish and delight in it.

Stats:

Walk 24
Average pace: 7:40/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.85 km
Time: 60:16
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 65%
Wind: light
BPM: 128
Weight: 170.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 184.76 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8

Treadmill walk: Monday decisions

I had three choices after work today:

  • Go out for a walk/run
  • Do 30 minutes on the treadmill
  • Do nothing, perhaps find some chocolate something to eat

I felt lazy (it is Monday after all), but not that lazy, so I ended up choosing the second option. I was fairly plodding for the first two km, perhaps because of the Mondayness of the situation, but picked it up a little to round out the exercise. Nothing special to report, save for sweating a whole lot less due to that pokiness (BPM was also accordingly down). I went back to listening to music as I couldn’t find an easy way to queue up YouTube videos to watch (also the YouTube app is kind of bad/janky). Maybe I should have watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (I ended up doing that over dinner).

Stats:

Pace: 9:32/km (9:22 km/h)
Time: 30:14 (30:11)
Distance: 3.17 km (3.22 km)
Calories burned: 266 (288)
BPM: 128 (135)

Walk 23: Getting cooler

Eleven days later and the temperature went from 21ºC to 11ºC. That said, there was virtually no breeze, so it didn’t really feel like 11. It was also nice to be outside again after a week and a half, even with all the BDOs (Bad Dog Owners) on the trail.

I’m writing this a day later because I just plain forgot to write about the workout afterward, distracted by shiny objects and other things and it’s surprisingly difficult to remember particular details even a mere 24 hours later.

I felt pretty good throughout and had no issue on the run portion, posting a fairly zippy pace. The dog owners were somewhat annoying, but the dogs themselves stayed out of the way. Although it was the weekend, I was somewhat surprised by the number of people out, as the sky threatened rain (though it didn’t actually come).

Overall, a nice trip back into the outdoors before it gets too dark and cold to do it for another season.

Stats:

Walk 23
Average pace: 7:29/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.87 km
Time: 58:51
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 11ºC
Humidity: 90%
Wind: light
BPM: 132
Weight: 170.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 176.91 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8

Treadmill walk: One of these days I’ll go outside again

Maybe tomorrow! The forecast calls for light rain, which is just the sort of thing to keep people–and maybe even a few dog owners–off the trails. Not that I’m anti-people, I just like having lots of room to run. Yeah.

Tonight’s workout was slightly different in that I started out listening to music, then decided to watch YouTube videos instead, since I’m subbed to a thousand tech and creative channels and only watch any of them sporadically. It worked out well. I watched Snazzy Labs’ longer take on the recent Apple iPhone 12 event and I absolutely adore Quinn Nelson’s delivery. He does deadpan so well. After the video ended I listened to more music (I am still working through my entire song list alphabetically–I’m up to the E’s now) because trying to pull up additional videos while walking very fast on a steeply-inclined treadmill is…tricky. Maybe Siri can help. Or just start pulling up random stuff, which is almost as likely.

One other thing I’ll note is how delightful it was to have my AirPods seamlessly switch from the iPhone to the iPad Pro and back again. This is one of those little things Apple does so well. It’s inspired me to start a Good Design category on the blog to counter the negative of the Bad Design one.

Anyway, the workout itself was fine. I started slow, got very fast, the ended a bit slower, so apparently Snazzy Labs is very motivational for exercise. The stats are pretty similar to what I usually see, as you may observe below (the workout went on slightly longer because I got distracted by the music at the end, which is a pretty rare thing itself):

Pace: 9:22/km (9:27 km/h)
Time: 30:11 (30:06)
Distance: 3.22 km (3.18 km)
Calories burned: 288 (281)
BPM: 135 (133)

Treadmill walk: Less lazy

Tonight I tired to really focus away from the display–both on the treadmill and on the watch, allowing my mind to wander around instead of obsessively checking whatever my current pace was. It mostly worked!

My pace was a little better and my BPM was a little lower, both good things. Distracted walking works. Or at least it did, in a small way, tonight.

Stats:

Pace: 9:27/km (9:30 km/h)
Time: 30:06 (30:03)
Distance: 3.18 km (3.16 km)
Calories burned: 281 (296)
BPM: 133 (139)

Treadmill walk: Payment for lazy

I was slothful today and by evening I had to weigh the guilt of being lazy and failing to reach all but my stand goal vs. having to overcome the laziness and do a treadmill workout.

In the end I did the workout, though the last km I started to plod a little (and sweat a lot). But still, I did not surrender entirely to being lazy, so yay for me.

Stats:

Pace: 9:30/km (9:16 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (40:03)
Distance: 3.16 km (4.32 km)
Calories burned: 296 (358)
BPM: 139 (134)

Treadmill walk: The wind blows

With wind warnings in effect I opted to not go for a walk/run after work because I don’t have being clobbered up the side of the head by flying branches.

And because I had been somewhat slothful today, I worked out for 40 minutes instead of 30, hence the differences in the stats below (though pace was only a little off, really). It was a good workout, though. I wore a muscle shirt and felt macho.

Pace: 9:16/km (9:12 km/h)
Time: 40:03 (30:03)
Distance: 4.32 km (3.26 km)
Calories burned: 358 (297)
BPM: 134 (139)

Treadmill walk: At day’s end

I spent all day inside cleaning and organizing but alas, this was not quite enough to complete my rings, so I contemplated walking outside in the dark or hitting the treadmill and the treadmill won. Not that I’m afraid of walking in the dark, it’s just most of the streets here have poor lighting and I have poor night vision to go along with it.

I was surprisingly spry and for some reason decided to leave my shirt on (I usually take it off indoors where my shocking white flesh won’t blind innocent bystanders). While it did make for a slightly warmer run, the shirt actually kept a lot of the sweat from running all over, so I may have to go topmore (?) again.

As the stats below show, I was in the groove tonight, which kind of surprised me. But I’ll take it.

Pace: 9:12/km (9:29 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:06)
Distance: 3.26 km (3.17 km)
Calories burned: 297 (286)
BPM: 139 (136)

Walk 22: Getting warmer

Early fall weather continues to be weird and summer-like as it was around 21 when I went out this afternoon. The crispness in the air was largely gone, too. It really could have been a day in mid-June.

I had a bit more pep in my stride and only one USI (Untied Shoelace Incident). The running part came in around an average of 5:40/km, which was nice. And every dog (well, the one I saw) was on leash. Yay.

After taking the day off yesterday it was good to get out and aboot again.

Stats:

Walk 22
Average pace: 7:35/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.61 km
Time: 57:40
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 67%
Wind: light
BPM: 129
Weight: 170.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 169.04 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8