Another day of no snacks, go me!
Stranger still, I not only was not up in weight this morning, I was down 1.7 pounds, putting me even lower than before yesterday’s 1.6 point gain. This may be the biggest 24 hour gain/drop ever. It’s weird, but I’ll take it. I weighed exactly 171 pounds, so I’m now just over one pound away from dipping below 170 (not counting flu-related weight loss) for the first time in 2020.
Given that it is 2020, it’s also possible I may gain five pounds overnight.
For the second day in a row, my walking pace was curiously slow, never dipping below 9:00/km on the way down the river trail. On the other hand, when I did the run back, both km that I clocked came in at very respectable times of 5:50 and 5:38 (side note: I am noticing multi-second discrepancies between what my watch reports on the fly vs. what the app on the phone later reports, with the phone usually reporting longer times. This makes no sense as the phone GPS is doing the tracking, but oh well. Software!)
In the end my overall pace was a bit slower but still respectable. It was quite warm but humidity was actually quote low, so sweating was minimal and I was able to maintain pace without any difficulty.
Based on the results, I don’t feel yesterday’s loop around the lake had any negative impact. The heel still feels no worse for wear and so far everything else is holding together.
Stats:
Walk 8 Average pace: 7:54/km Location: Brunette River trail Distance: 7.55 km Time: 59:40 Weather: Sunny Temp: 28ºC Humidity: 25% Wind: light BPM: 127 Weight: 171 pounds Total distance to date: 61.33 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Seconds, written by Bryan Lee O’Malley, author of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, is a graphic novel that delights in throwing unintended consequences at its protagonist, an ambitious young chef named Katie Clay.
Katie discovers a notebook and some mushrooms in a secret compartment in a dresser that resides in her suite above the restaurant she works in, called Seconds. The notebook offers the promise to undo something if you write it in the notebook, eat a mushroom, and sleep on it.
Feeling guilt over an accident that causes a waitress to burn her arms in the kitchen, Katie tries out the notebook and mushroom. The next morning the accident has never happened.
From there a spiraling set of complications sets in as Katie tries to fix more and more problems in her life–perceived and otherwise–unaware that there are other forces at work, not the least of which is a very odd girl who seems to roost upon the dresser from time to time, offering cryptic warnings.
The twists the story takes are best read unspoiled, so I won’t go further into the plot, but it honors the tradition of time travel/magic/tech stories where changing seemingly small things can have far-reaching results.
The narration is very much in line with what you would expect from O’Malley, breaking down the fourth well and sometimes even arguing with Katie directly. I love this stuff when it works well–as it does here.
The art takes advantage of the medium, especially as things go sideways and is pretty much a perfect match to the tone and delivery of the characters.
This was an enjoyable “What if?” romp and is, for me, a welcome addition to the sub-genre of using magic/tech to (try) fix the past. Recommended.
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I have had no snacks today.
I had breakfast, dinner and two leftover slices of pizza for lunch.
I also did a 5K run at Burnaby Lake, my total distance for the day as I write this is 22.75 km.
The one down note was my weight, which was not down but up. Up 1.6 pounds, to be exact, to 172.7 pounds. Boo. This is not unexpected, though, as I ate a truckload of pizza and drank a ton of fizzy (but calorie-free) beverages after because pizza makes me very, very thirsty.
I may actually be up tomorrow for the same reason, as I have drank my approximate body weight again today due to the leftover pizza, and the long workout. But you never know, because bodies are weird and mysterious things.
The last time I ran was five days ago. The last time before that was on June 1, which was also my last run at Burnaby Lake. It had been 70 days since my previous run and I was so out of shape I had to pause the run and walk for a minute or two twice before I could finish. My pace was an incredibly slothful 6:28/km.
Today, 96 days after my last run at Burnaby Lake, I returned with new shoes, in better (but not top) shape and…did better than the previous lake run, but worse than the river run, which is to be expected, given the lake trail is much more windy and hilly (even if the hills are modest).
I ended with a pace of 6:12/km, which is slow (but still much faster than the last lake run), and I did it without stopping, though at around the 3.5 km mark I was starting to feel a bit tired. Shortly after the 4 km mark I felt what seemed to be a very small but sharp piece of gravel in my left shoe and it bit into my foot with every step. I paused at the Still Creek bridge, roughly around the 4.5 km mark, emptied the shoe, then finished the run.
It was mostly cloudy, which was nice, and despite higher humidity, the temperature was low enough to keep excessive sweating from getting excessive.
The walk to the lake was slower than my usual river walks and I think I was unconsciously holding back a little, knowing I needed enough fuel for a 5K run, plus the 9 km or so walk after. I arrived at the lake just before noon and there were people everywhere. The first two km the trail was packed–someone was always in my view ahead. The side trails gave me some respite, but even there I passed a couple.
The numbers tapered off a bit once I moved past the entrance near Piper Spit, then picked up a bit again on the Cottonwood Trail. As expected, the resurfacing of the trail is now complete, which means the entire stretch has gone from 10 million exposed tree roots to none. As a runner, this pleases me greatly. I have some concerns about the edges of the trail, as they seem a bit mushy and I suspect we’ll be seeing some notable erosion when regular rain comes in the fall, but it’s still a massive improvement overall.
After finishing the run, I was a bit pokey again on the first km heading back, but soon found enough energy to run on and off the rest of the way, probably ending with a split of 60/40 to run/walk.
The heel emerged intact and as of now, some hours later as I write this, does not feel any worse for the extended outing.
The people on the trails fell into roughly two groups:
The latter group was far, far greater in number. Did I mention cases of COVID-19 have been spiking like crazy over the past month?
There was also a bonus threesome who were apparently so caught up in their own world that even when I clearly called, “Behind you!” when I was pretty close, did not react or move in anyway whatsoever.
And of course, multiple people on bikes because rules are for losers. As always, I hope all suffered flat tires midway around the lake.
On the brighter side, I saw turtles again, two of them! Seeing turtles makes me happy. I never see them in the actual turtle nesting area, though.
The only after-effects from the run right now is just being really tired. My body is clearly not used to this level of walking and running yet, but I’m getting there.
Run 650 Average pace: 6:04 km (6:12/km) Location: Brunette River Trail (Burnaby Lake, CCW) Start: 12:01 p.m. Distance: 5.02 km Time: 31:05 Weather: High cloud Temp: 21ºC Humidity: 65% Wind: light BPM: 151 Weight: 172.6 Total distance to date: 4860 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8 Shoes: Brooks Caldera 4 (10 km)
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.
Story here: A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged
(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.)
But no cheating!
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.
Following: A Marketing Guide to Author Platform by David Gaughran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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.
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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 7 Average 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.
But it was still bad. No more! Hardly ever again!
Yes, I had a few more crackers, but only a few. And a couple of small cubes of cheese. I was otherwise good.
My weight was up today, from 171.8 to 172.6, probably due to water, my irregular regularity or ALIENS.
Tomorrow I shall redouble my efforts to have no snacks at all, except for maybe a banana or some yummo sugar snap peas.