It’s apparently an effect of the COVID-19 virus’s effect on the body, which may be the cause of victims’ lungs filling up with gel-like fluid, “covid toes” and more. The good news is this research will help make treatment of COVID-19 symptoms more effective. Although the various sympyoms and side effects of the virus are frightening to read about, this is really a story of hope and how something as simple as Vitamin D may help those affected by the virus.
(This story was linked in Dave Pell’s daily Next Draft newsletter, which is great (if often depressing) source of news on the pandemic and other stories.)
I only had a slice of toast for lunch and some pizza (mmm, pizza) for dinner, so technically no cheating.
Bad news: I also didn’t exercise today because Nic and I went to a bird sanctuary in Delta to check out…birds. Then we watched Hamilton (not at the sanctuary).
But I did complete all of the activity rings on my watch, so that’s good.
In better news, my weight was down to 171.1 pounds this morning. So for today at least I was gloriously less in weight than I was on January 1st of this year, when I came in at 171.5 pounds. I am cautiously optimistic that I can finally get down below 170 before the end of the month.
As terrible as 2020 has been, we still have modern conveniences, like toasters, washing machines and keyboard shortcuts for formatting when writing text on the web.
Unless you use Goodreads’ “What did you think?” text box to add a review of a book you’ve read. In this case what you get is a text box that could have existed in 1998, unchanged.
Here’s the set of formatting tips it includes, which could have been cribbed from Learning HTML for Dummies, 1999 edition:
They do have a few concessions to the 21st century, mostly related to allowing easier linking to content on its own site (a coincidence, to be sure), and if you use a proper link, it will automatically make it clickable, a true miracle of modern web magic.
But looking at the warning about improperly nesting tags really does take me back to when I was building websites in HTML by hand and yes, it really was in 1999.
Given how trivially simple it is to offer simple and easy formatting controls (keyboard shortcuts and a formatting bar, both of which are available to me as I write this post in WordPress), the only reason I can think for a massive site like Goodreads to not offer the same is sheer laziness. And that’s not a good reason. It’s bad design.
David Gaughran’s latest on helping writers is a short volume on creating an author platform. With his usual wit, Gaughran cuts away the marketing hype and reassures the reader that an author platform is basically having an established presence online, not some great convoluted thing that would require a team of experts to assemble (though he does suggest outsourcing some aspects). He offers a mix of general and specific advice on what to do, ranging from what social media to focus on (to no surprise, he says Facebook is the one essential due to its reach, even if you may dislike Facebook as a company) to recommendations for hosting and content management systems (CMS)–and again, he not surprisingly recommends WordPress, which is to CMS as Facebook is to social media, though perhaps with less imperiling of modern democracy.
Much like his fourth (and now free) edition of Let’s Get Digital, Following also comes with a link to online resources that Gaughran promises to keep updated, extending the book’s usability beyond what is contained in the text.
For a beginning author, this is a welcome and even gentle way to introduce the idea of establishing yourself on the internet as a writer, even before you have completed your first book. Gauhgran’s advice is sensible and much of it is based on his own experience–learn from his mistakes so you don’t make them yourself! I especially like the tips that seem small or simple, but could have a profound effect (and may come as a relief to the starting writer), particularly in debunking some common beliefs, such as needing a robust presence on every social media platform, or needing to keep an active blog going. For those who have read Gaughran’s other books on writing, it will be no surprise that he pushes hard on building a mailing list.
Gaughran teases the possibility that Following could be expanded in the future (and this would not surprise me, he has an admirable devotion to this set of books), but as is, it is still an excellent and recommended resource to the aspiring author.
My original thought today was to do my first full loop around Burnaby Lake after The Heel Incident, but as I headed out I began thinking it might be too much too soon and I could have another Heel Incident or some other random part of my body could act up.
So I did my usual 7.5ish walk/run along the river. I might try the lake loop for real on Sunday.
It was warmer but less humid today, so I was faster, which I guess makes sense because humidity bad. I thought on the return back up the trail I wouldn’t be able to run the full length, but it ended up going fairly well and I beat yesterday’s pace by two seconds. My BPM was also down a bit, but the overall numbers are pretty close. I’m just glad I could keep my stamina up when it was starting to approach 30ºC.
Stats:
Walk 7Average pace: 7:42/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.67 km
Time: 59:03
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 28ºC
Humidity: 45%
Wind: light
BPM: 126
Weight: 172 pounds
Total distance to date: 53.78 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Actually, let’s not. The reality is I cheated a bit today. It was Friday, I was stressed out and had some snacks I shouldn’t have. I felt bad. I was bad. But I also had another good workout, so that absolves me a little.
I expect the weekend, oddly enough, to be better.
My weight was down 0.6 pounds, so I almost erased yesterday’s gain. Given my water consumption today, I won’t be surprised to see it go back up tomorrow, but bodies are weird, so you never know.
I did come under my calorie goal unless I ate an entire pie and blanked it from my mind after, so that also helps overcome the cheating.
It sounds like porn, but it’s true! Despite being hotter today, I actually found it cooler during the walk, especially the running part where I sweated far less. This was due to that whole “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” thing, as it was noticeably less muggy.
I ended up running the entire back half of the trail, which was nice. The lace on my right shoe came untied, which was less nice, but it was really my fault. I’m not used to having to tie my running shoes after using the lacing system on the Saucony shoes for so long.
Overall, I was faster, with attendant increase in BPM, but still perfectly normal for the activity.
It occurred to me today that I am now, to some degree, running every day, something I’ve never actually done in 11 years of running. I don’t know if I will ever start doing full runs every day, but I can dream of the impressive calves that would result.
Stats:
Walk 6Average pace: 7:44/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.58 km
Time: 58:36
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 26ºC
Humidity: 50%
Wind: light
BPM: 129
Weight: 172.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 46.11 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Yes, today my snacking consisted of a single chocolate-covered almond. The no-snacking thing must be working because I didn’t immediately want to scarf down the entire bag (I did not procure said almonds).
I did another good walk/run, as well, so my daily exercise is also continuing to roll along.
In neutral news, my weight remained unchanged at 171.8 pounds. I’m kind of excited to see it drop some more, because dipping below 170 will be a nice psychological boost.
Too bad work sucks corn dogs, it’s the one real blotch in my life right now. Oh well. At least I’ll be physically fit.
The day after my first 5K in three months I was expecting to be sore/achy and all that. To my surprise and delight, I was not!
But I am still taking at least a day off before doing another 5K. A day off from running, that is, because I am still sticking to my daily 30 minute exercise minimum.
The weather was pleasantly warm, but it was also rather humid, which meant a lot of sweating and energy depletion. I didn’t run as much, but I still ran for good stretches.
My pace was 7:56/km vs. 7:43/km on the previous walk, so a bit slower, but still generally speedy.
Overall, a solid effort.
Stats:
Walk 5Average pace: 7:56/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.57 km
Time: 1:00:07
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Humidity: 59%
Wind: light
BPM: 122
Weight: 171.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 38.53 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
In a way it’s both hard yet easy to believe this is only the third time I’ve been on a run since the pandemic took hold here, which was in mid-March (about five and a half months ago).
At first, the park trails were super-crowded because everything was closed and there was nowhere else to go. I said, “Nope!” to jogging among crowds of potential virus carriers and for awhile I just avoided running outside out of that fear of catching COVID-19 (and to a lesser degree being asymptomatic and spreading it to others).
But as I continued on my daily walks and those walks began morphing into walk/runs I knew I would eventually decide to do an actual run again.
That day was today.
I had a 70 day gap between my previous two runs. This time it was an impressive three months, as my last run was on June 1–92 days ago.
That last run saw my pace drag to a slothful 6:28/km, but while I was slow today as well (the splits reveal that I really ran out of gas on the final km), my time was actually much better, due to all those daily walk/runs. Perhaps the most impressive change was my BPM. Despite three months between runs, it fell from 163 to 151.
6:04/km still ranks as Pretty Slow, though, so I am eager to see that pace improve.
Overall I felt pretty good. I felt a bit of a burn, but it was mild. I took it relatively easy, knowing that this was going to be tougher than the 2 km stretches I’d been doing lately.
Pace-wise I started out fine, then immediately saw a big drop in the second km. The next two saw my pace improve back to where I started before my energy reserves magically floated away. I did not commit to a heroic burst of speed at the end, I just keep going until my watch blissfully informed me it was all over.
The heel was fine. I mean, fine in that I can feel it, but it doesn’t hurt at all to run on. The new Caldera 4 shoes are nice so far. They are lighter than my Cascadia 12’s, yet have more cushioning and so far have done a much better job of keeping debris out.
I’m not sure when I’ll do my next run, but I suspect tomorrow will be a return to the walk/runs, as I have a feeling my legs are going to be a wee bit sore in the morning.
Below I’ve included the previous stats in brackets for comparison. I’ve omitted a few stats that aren’t especially relevant for comparison.
Run 649Average pace: 6:04 km (6:04/km)
Location: Brunette River Trail (Burnaby Lake, CCW)
Start: 4:49 p.m.
Distance: 5.02 km (5:03 km)
Time: 30:29 (32:33)
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Humidity: 54%
Wind: light
BPM: 151 (163)
Weight: 171.8 pounds (175.1 pounds)
Total distance to date: 4855 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 4 (5 km)
I cheated again a bit today, basically the same as yesterday, with a few crackers and a Clif Bar.
But I also went on my first 5K run in awhile, so I burned a few calories there. I’m calling it even because I can.
Somewhat to my surprise, my weight was down 0.3 pounds this morning. I am close once again to where I was at the start of the year, so here’s hoping tomorrow continues the downward trend.
You may have noticed that the last two days of cheating have also been the start of the work week. This is not a coincidence, as I am not particularly enjoying my work these days. I am trying to be positive and research other careers and look into other job opportunities instead of just being perpetually frustrated and enduring where I am now. Having the self-awareness that I am doing that snacking-as-comfort-food thing will hopefully make it easier to slap my hand away from the box of crackers that calls to me with its sweet and crunchy voice.
