Since I had time today, I decided to go for another 40-minute workout on the treadmill. Let’s see how yesterday’s workout, along with 17 km of additional walking throughout the day affected my stamina today.
I was a tiny bit slower but burned more calories. BPM was also down a bit, which goes hand in hand with being slower. Overall, the results are very similar. In terms of pace, I noticed I flagged around the 3km mark, but picked up again for the last km. I again found myself experiencing the weird sensation of having my mind go off thinking about other things than the actual exercise, something that is relatively rare when I’m on the treadmill, so this is a good thing.
Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:32/km (9:29 km/h)
Time: 40:02 (40:02)
Distance: 4.20 km (4.22 km)
Calories burned: 439 (431)
BPM: 143 (145)
Concerned that the weather might not be nice and I would turn into a couch potato for much of the day, I opted for a noon hour workout on the usual settings, but stretched it out from the usual thirty minutes to forty. This allowed me to complete both my exercise and move rings early, clearing the way for some serious couch potatodom.
But instead, Nic and I went for a long picture-taking excursion through Hume Park, down the Brunette River and partway up the loop at Burnaby Lake. As I type this I sit at 21.04 km walked (26,415 steps).
The walk on the treadmill, meanwhile, went well and I felt peppy, maintaining a good pace for the first three km before flagging a wee bit in the final stretch.
The stats are boosted where expected with the extra distance, and it was nice to see the extra time did not result in any real change in BPM (ie. not higher) and my pace was technically better, too. Overall, another pleasing result, and I kept my exercise streak going.
Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:29/km (9:30 km/h)
Time: 40:02 (30:04)
Distance: 4.22 km (3.16 km)
Calories burned: 431 (320)
BPM: 145 (144)
For today’s noon workout I thought I would try an experiment, by setting the incline from the usual 10 (steep) to zero (very much not steep) and see what difference it made in terms of energy expended. After a minute of this I had burned a whopping four calories, so I was putting in a little over a third of the effort. I no longer had to hang on for dear life. I probably could have started dancing a jig. I set the incline to 10 and finished the workout as I normally would.
I made sure to add some extra zip to the closing stretch of the workout and was rewarded for my effort.
The stats show the difference, with everything improved over the last workout. Even the BPM was marginally better.
I am pleased.
Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:30/km (9:44 km/h)
Time: 30:04 (30:04)
Distance: 3.16 km (3.08 km)
Calories burned: 320 (311)
BPM: 144 (145)
Odd because I usually finish strong, but the last workout was the opposite and today, I felt for sure I finished stronger on the last km but was in fact slower.
I have no explanation for this.
But I did sweat a lot. And I am two for two on my 30 minutes of exercise each day thing, so that’s good.
The stats are mostly worse than yesterday, though. Bluh, I sez.
Speed: 6.5 km/h (6.0)
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:44/km (9:41 km/h)
Time: 30:04 (30:03)
Distance: 3.08 km (3.10 km)
Calories burned: 311 (300)
BPM: 145 (140)
Starting, let’s say…today, I am committing to a 30-minute workout every day. Yes, all seven of them, every day that ends in “day.” That workout could be any of the following:
treadmill walk
treadmill run
outdoor walk
outdoor run
30 minutes of pushups. Actually, this would probably cripple me.
Today I did a 30-minute treadmill walk. It went fine, though I actually got slower as the walk progressed, which is the opposite of what usually happens. I don’t have any particular explanation for this.
The stats are all slightly worse than the previous walk, except for BPM, which was down a wee bit due to me not trying as hard. Maybe I was weighed down by the ravioli I ate last night.
It was good ravioli.
Speed: 6.5 km/h (6.0)
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:41/km (9:34 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:05)
Distance: 3.10 km (3.14 km)
Calories burned: 300 (321)
BPM: 140 (143)
As happens sometimes, I went to watch a video on YouTube and found myself going down the rabbit hole, bouncing from one video to the next and there goes an hour of time in what feels like seconds.
It started with watching a live version of “Live and Let Die” from 2009, followed by the opening credits version, then another live version from 1973. The song was a big hit, but I’m still surprised because structurally it’s a bit odd, with no traditional verse/chorus and several sudden shifts in tone (which McCartney was known for, especially in his early 70s songs).
This eventually, somehow, led to an “uncensored” version of Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.” I love just about everything about this song: it’s catchy, evocative, haunting, it’s great fun to sing along with (“You too can be Eddie Vedder!”) and the video, which won MTV’s Video of the Year award in 1992, is equally effective, due to the young actor playing Jeremy, the striking art direction and, of course, the ever-intense Vedder howling away, veins on his forehead bulging.
I figured the uncensored part was the line “seemed a harmless little fuck” because MTV generally did not allow f-bombs to be dropped on air. But it turned out to be a mere second of footage right near the end, where Jeremy walks into the classroom, tosses an apple to the teacher, then turns to face his classmates. You see him make a motion as if he is raising a gun, then the shot cuts away to show the other children in tableau, with looks of shock and horror on their faces, many of them splattered in blood.
Some took this to mean Jeremy had shot up the room, but the uncensored version, in that one second of previously unseen footage, shows him raising the gun and putting it in his mouth. It’s quite chilling, and while I always thought that’s what happened, it was still stunning to see it. I get why MTV would not air it–probably out of fear of inspiring troubled kids to emulate Jeremy–but it’s good to see Pearl Jam finally make the original version of the video widely available. Its message of bullying, depression and suicide are probably more relevant now than they’ve ever been.
A sad coda in the comments (I know, never read the comments, but the ones I read are surprisingly decent) notes that the actor who played Jeremy died in a drowning accident in 2016 at the age of 36. The band went to his funeral.
I did another lunchtime walk on the treadmill. Nothing unusual to report. I reverted to the 6.5 speed setting and did not collapse into a ball. I sweated decently.
The pi was achieved by covering 3.14 km. Mmm, pi…
The increased speed increased also increased all my stats, including BPM, though not to an alarming degree. This is closer to my usual treadmill workouts, which is nice to see in my current flabbo state.
The stats:
Speed: 6.5 km/h (6.0)
Incline: 10
Pace: 9:34/km (9:54 km/h)
Time: 30:05 (30:04)
Distance: 3.14 km (3.04 km)
Calories burned: 321 (272)
BPM: 143 (136)
I uncovered a pile of old photos from the olden days and have started scanning a few of them in to share with the world of the future.
I am impressed at how lousy image quality was back then.
This photo was taken in the hallway of the house I grew up in on St. Julian Street. I have no idea why we were sitting on the floor of the hallway getting our picture taken, but we seemed pretty happy about it.
The guy with the amazing bangs to my left is Claudio, a childhood friend who lived a few houses down. His father made endless wheels of stinky cheese in the basement of their house that was the best cheese ever.
I have no pictures of the cheese, sorry.
I believe I was about 12 in this photo and, like so many from that era, I am wearing a shirt with numbers because I had a weird thing for them that I still can’t explain.
