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

Inktober 2020 #19: Dizzy

When I read that they accidentally put dizzy back in the prompt list for 2020 (it was also in the 2019 list) and then decided to go with it because it would be funny and nutty to see what different things people would do this year, I was disappointed. First, if you’re going to do an event only once a year, how on earth do you accidentally repeat the same word? There are a lot of words out there to choose from. Second, because there are a lot of words out there to choose from, choose new and different words, instead of asking people to do the same prompt again.

Anyway, here’s my 2020 version of dizzy, which was nice ‘n quick. THAT’S ALL YOU GET FOR REPEATING A PROMPT, LAZY INKTOBER PEOPLE.

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

Book review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, I want to express my relief that the trend of every other novel in the last five years having “girl” in the title has not merged with the newer trend of every non-fiction book having “f*ck” in the title.

Mark Manson is a guy with a potty mouth who found himself, started a blog and now has a few books like this one detailing his philosophy for living a better life. At its simplest level, it boils down to (with cursing) letting go of all the things that hold you back, because a) we’re all going to die and b) better to trey something and maybe find what you really want than to not try and muddle along, vaguely unhappy.

It’s not a bad philosophy.

He frames happiness–or rather, the misguided pursuit of what we think will make us happy–as a central problem in our lives. Don’t try to be like a celebrity, don’t just aim to make a lot of money doing whatever, think about what you enjoy, then pursue it as best you can. He uses his own misguided youth as an example of what not to do, and how the sobering, unexpected death of a friend woke him up and put him on a new path. Don’t worry, his advice does not rely on the sobering, unexpected death of a friend to work. Or at least I assume not. A lot of what Manson talks about is not particularly new–he advises against holding “shitty” values, and “rock star problems” (basically not appreciating what you have by unrealistically comparing yourself to levels of success that may be rare or unattainable to most). What makes The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck unique is Manson’s voice. As I said, he has a potty mouth, and there are passages in this book that made me chuckle or even laugh aloud. It helps the presentation a lot–if you’re into a somewhat blue version of getting what is essentially timeless advice on living.

F*cking recommended if you’re not averse to a little salty language mixed in with sensible advice.

View all my reviews

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)