Run 552: The paws that does not refresh

Run 552
Average pace: 5:10/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 11:23 am
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 26:07
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 76%
Wind: moderate with gusts
BPM: 173
Weight: 158.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4290 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

With today being the statutory holiday in lieu of the actual holiday on Saturday, I opted to go for a run today instead of having to run that horrible circuit around the golf course at noon tomorrow. Also, it’s supposed to be raining and super-windy, so there’s a good chance I wouldn’t even be running, anyway.

The forecast was similar today, with winds up to 80 km/h forecast and a 70% chance of rain. I managed to both duck the rain (very light showers started shortly after the run) and the wind (it only got up to maybe 15 km/h, so it was breezy but not “duck as large branches tear off trees and fly at you” windy). There were some parks workers out pruning some branches, possibly trimming down the ones most likely to go a-flyin’.

Because of the wind I wore two layers up top, even though it was a mild 10ºC. I think I may have been okay with one layer, but two definitely didn’t leave me overly warm.

I felt a bit tired for the first part of the run, likely because I was running too hard and didn’t realize it, but my pace stabilized and I felt fine after, with no issues to report. My BPM is stubbornly staying around 173, still too high for my liking, but we’ll see if it drops the next time I go for a longer run. Or maybe I’ll force myself to mellow out a bit and see what happens. My pace was 5:10/km, which is pretty much back to form, so that was good, at least.

The river trail was host to a few other runners, some people out walking and the occasional cyclist. The most memorable person, though, was a woman out walking her large white fluffy dog. An older woman was jogging ahead of me and this woman and her dog were to her right. As the jogger moved past the dog started running after the jogger in a “playful” manner. The jogger was obviously alarmed and put up her arms as if it surrender. As I caught up to the woman I turned my head to her and said, “Leash your dog.” I continued past the other jogger and the dog then decided to playfully run after me and caught up and then jumped on me, putting a couple of paw prints on my shorts. I then turned back to the woman again–she was already making some kind of noise to call the mutt back–and yelled, “LEASH YOUR DOG!” I no doubt sounded very macho. I happened to pass her two more times and the dog was indeed leashed both times.

The best part is during the entire incident the song that was playing on my phone was The Cars’ “Let the Good Times Roll.”

It was a perfect illustration of why the bylaw to require dogs on leash in public areas exists. This person had zero control over her dog and the only reason no one got hurt is because I’m a 5’10” man and not a five year old girl. Had the dog approached a little kid the same way the kid would have gone splat and likely been hurt, possibly seriously.

It continues to depress me that people do not think of others. It doesn’t even matter that it’s a bylaw, it’s just common sense. A dog is not a four-legged person. You can’t reason with it logically. It is not as smart as we are. It doesn’t understand that jumping on a person can cause injury. We do, so we leash them and keep them under our control.

Anyway, I hope the dog owner learned something today and will actually keep her dog leashed in the future. She probably won’t, but I’m ready to yell in a macho manner again if I need to.

Bad design: Soylent green is people (not physicians?)

The Dragon Naturally Speaking site has a Solutions section at the bottom of the site that seems to suggest that physicians are not people:

Then again, it does separate business and people, which makes sense, as people are not businesses.

The real problem, of course, is using “people” because no matter which version of Dragon Naturally Speaking is chosen, it’s a pretty safe assumption that it will be used by people rather than cats, robots or giant carnivorous plants.

The solution would be to replace “people” with something that more accurately reflects the product:

Speech recognition — for individuals
Speech recognition — for business
Speech recognition — for medical use

Note that I also changed “physicians” to “medical use” since you kind of need to be in medicine to be a physician and this better aligns with “business” being the other non-individual choice. Note also that the link for Speech recognition – for people actually leads to a page offering Dragon Professional Individual so I’m wondering why I even have to suggest this change in the first place.

Finally, note that there is no way to easily see a list of features to differentiate the many flavors of Dragon Naturally Speaking. What makes Home different than Premium, other than the latter costing $100 more? Premium obviously does more, but to find out what you have to read through a lot of material on the site, where a simple side-by-side comparison of features between versions, like this page showing the differences between Art Rage Lite and Art Rage 5 easily demonstrates what is or isn’t included.

I wonder if Dragon can tell the difference between pastor and pasta?

Run 551: Deja vu, leaf cull and the return of sensitive nipples

Run 551
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:14 pm
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 54:36
Weather: Cloudy, light showers
Temp: 9-10ºC
Humidity: 78%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 174
Weight: 156.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 4285 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

There was a threat of rain in the forecast today but at least the temperature was back to seasonal, hovering around 10ºC. I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and shorts and was fine for the run.

The rain held off for about the first half but light showers persisted through the second half. Fortunately they were genuinely light, so I never felt I was getting drenched. The showers turned heavier for the walk home, which had two consequences I will get to shortly.

I was a tad concerned about the run because I missed both of my usual weekday runs but in the end my pace was the same–5:26/km–and the overall length of the run was nearly identical, with today’s being three seconds faster–again, that’s over a stretch of 10.04 km–than last Saturday’s. A little weird.

BPM is still higher than I’d like at 174, possibly a combination of being off form and the cooler temperatures. Or something.

Generally I felt fine, though the upper left leg started stiffening up in the last few km. It felt fine after.

There were more people out than expected (looked like something was happening at the rowing pavilion. Rowing, perhaps.) and this led to several traffic jams where I had to actually jog in place before I could get through.

I also had two near-collisions with other runners, which is pretty rare. The first came when I make a sharp left coming off the narrow feeder trail near the sports fields. A runner came up on my blind side and was dressed darkly. I scooted around him and all was well. The second runner was being naughty by cutting a corner, putting him in my direct path. He dodged out of the way on that one.

The trail was actually in good shape, the park workers having removed the five billion leaves that had been piled up all over.

On the walk home the rain picked up and this had a couple of undesirable side effects. The first was the return of the chafing on my ever-so-sensitive nipples. While they didn’t gush blood they got as close as possible and are still feeling unhappy now. Stupid nipples. If rain looks possible next time I will dutifully wear my nipple guards. As soon as I invent them.

The other consequence was tracking the 4 km walk home. I actually thought about locking the face of my Apple Watch, as it tends to get squirrelly and do its own thing when it gets wet. Sure enough, after 2.87 km (when I was walking along North Road) it managed to shut the walk activity off and change my default watch face. It then restarted the walk somehow for about five more minutes, stopping for good midway through Hume Park, so it got most of the walk recorded. Next time I’ll lock.

Overall, the pace of the run was better than expected, though the various complications were annoying. I give it three out of five chintzy jogging trophies.

Book review: American Elsewhere

American ElsewhereAmerican Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

American Elsewhere would sit between 3 and 4 stars if I could rate it accordingly. It’s a solid horror story with a science fiction veneer that could be glibly described as a pan-dimensional family fight come to Earth. It’s an entertaining read, with a strong Cthulhu vibe, though it’s not specifically set in that mythos.

The primary strength of the story comes from its protagonist, the ex-cop Mona Bright, whose past turns out to be way more significant than she could have ever imagined. Mona is tough, resourceful, intelligent and yet has her share of flaws and vulnerabilities, plus a mouth that would make a longshoreman blush. While she doesn’t always make the best choice, it never feels like she takes any action to simply drive the plot forward. It’s refreshing in a genre where all too often people must do really dumb things to keep the story rolling.

On the downside, the novel feels longer than it needs to be, with digressions, exposition and perhaps too many flashbacks weighing it down. The writing is always solid and engaging–though at times the author’s voice intrudes a tad more than I’d prefer–but there is definitely room to tighten things up.

Still, if you’re looking for a story about the perfect American small town and how it’s a front for horrible beings with horrible plans, American Elsewhere will satisfy. Recommended.

View all my reviews

NaNoWriMo Day 4 and 5: Signs of life

On Day 4 of NaNoWriMo I wrote zero words, going 0-4 for the first four days and leaving me with a deficit of 6,668 words–a positively devilish amount to catch up on (ho ho).

My plan today was to go to the usual write-in at Waves in sunny downtown New Westminster (where during the other 11 months of the year it’s known as, well, The Other 11 Months) and do a good bit of catching up by reviving my unfinished 2013 novel, Start of the World (definitely a working title).

Good news: I did indeed write, putting together 2557 words. This gives me a deficit after five days of 5778 words. If you divide that over the remaining 25 days, I would need to write an additional 231 words per day, which seems pretty easy when looked at this way. So I should be good as long as I keep up a slightly above average pace from here on out.

But here’s the surprise twist: I didn’t work on Start of the World. Instead, I continued work on my 2014 NaNo novel, Road Closed. I added 50,000 words to the current word count total, bringing it to 120,242 words, then started back on it.

I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, a good thing to do or something else. It is clearly a thing to do because I’m doing it. Tomorrow I’ll decide if I want to keep doing it. I’m not sure there’s 50,000 more words in this novel but you never know. I could channel my inner Stephen King and just not leave out anything at all, writing a kind of complete and uncut edition right from the start. Smothering my inner editor with a pillow. Not killing my darlings, but nurturing them and encouraging them to procreate. And other assorted weird analogies.

Anyway, it was nice to write again.

We had twelve people in attendance, but the table (which mysteriously moves every week) only seats eight, so multiple people had to sit on the floor. I’m betting some of them will arrive earlier next week to indulge in the luxury of writing while sitting in a chair.

Run 550: A billion leaves, cold and a little damn snow

Run 550
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:49 pm
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 54:39
Weather: Cloudy, cold
Temp: 1ºC
Humidity: 67%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 175
Weight: 157.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 4275 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

With the temperature just above freezing this morning I took some extra time pondering how to dress, wanting to avoid both overdressing and underdressing (the former is usually a lot more likely). I initially settled on two layers up top and my usual shorts. I went outside and after maybe 20 steps turned around, went back in and switched the shorts in favor of my running pants, which I have not work for multiple years.

The pants are comfy and work well, but they lack pockets and a liner, meaning that without a jacket (I wore a sleeveless shirt as the base layer and my heavier gray long-sleeved running shirt as the outer) meant I had no place to keep my hands warm while walking to the lake. I debated gloves but again, had on place to put them if my hands got hot and sweaty. I was forced to wear undies but again lack proper running undies (something that wicks, unless my normal underwear) but I figured it was cold enough that it shouldn’t be a big issue.

Clothing verdict:

Top: Base layer and outer layer worked well. I stayed warm but did not get sweaty and yucky.

Bottom: Running pants were fine, though my tush felt slightly cool toward the end.

Gloves-free: My hands started to warm up a few km in but by around the 6-7 km mark they were getting cold again. It would have been nice to have had gloves.

I may look for a better running jacket (the one I have is fairly small and a bit snug for my liking) so I can wear gloves then stash them in the pockets if I want to take them off. New running pants with pockets and possibly a liner (or sexy sports undies) would be good, too.

The run itself stood out in a few ways. It was easily the coldest run I’ve done in quite awhile, which may also partly explain my really high BPM (175!). The leaves were so thick in some areas that you could not see the edges of the trail, just leaves and more leaves. Fortunately it was dry so it wasn’t like running on a field of banana peels.

Oh, and it snowed. Sure, the flakes were tiny and they didn’t stick, but there was actual snow falling during a run for the first time in years.

Damn snow.

My pace was 11 seconds faster than the last 10K at 5:26/km but I’m feeling a bit stiff now. Hopefully once I’m into a regular routine again for a bit my legs will revert back to normal runner legs.

Overall, a good run in cold conditions.

NaNoWriMo 2017, Day 3: Still wordless in New Westminster

I still haven’t written anything but the weekend beckons and it’s my chance to get the proverbial ball rolling on this year’s novel attempt. One might say actually getting some words down at this point would be novel, ho ho.

I kind of wish weekends were three days long, though. It would help. Also helping would be if the goal of NaNoWriMo was, say, 10,000 words. I could churn that out in desperation on the final weekend if I had to.

Not that I’ll need to, mind you. No sir. This weekend (the first weekend) I’m going to catch up on word count (from zero to greater than zero) then keep flying through to victory by the end of the month.

Yep!

NaNoWriMo 2017 Day 2: Word count still zero!

Yes, another day of non-writing. Hooray.

But I’ve settled on an alternate plan, which is to rewrite my failed 2013 novel, which had the awkward working title of Start of the World. I’ll spend time tomorrow mulling and then tomorrow evening I’m going to start writing. I have some ideas.

I can’t say I’m confident in how this will turn out, but I am genuinely interested in tackling this particular unfinished project again, so I have that in my favor.

Also, while I’m not yet changing the description of the novel, I am probably not going to keep the title of Cosmic Tingles. That might work better…elsewhere.

Run 549: A short run through an unexpected river

Run 549
Average pace: 5:23/km
Location: Langara Trail
Start: 12:32 pm
Distance: 2.62 km
Time: 14:10
Weather: Heavy rain
Temp: 5ºC
Humidity: 96%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 160
Weight: 158.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 4265 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

With a cold front and rain in the forecast I was a bit wary about today’s run. Indeed, by the time noon rolled around it was raining heavily and the temperature had gone from 8ºC down to 5ºC. This was my first big test running around the golf course–would I let bad weather scare me off?

The answer is both yes and no.

No, in that I did indeed go out and run.

Yes, in that I only ran one loop, about 2.62 km, before abandoning the run. Why did I do that?

I am used to running in the rain. I am used to running in the cold. I am used to running around puddles and occasionally through them.

What I am not used to is doing all of these things with each condition turned up to a ridiculous degree.

It was raining so hard at times that it felt like hail. The low temperature felt even cooler because of the heavy rain assault. Adding to this was the extremely poor condition of the trail. On the east and west sides it slopes, so during rainfall you get run-off streaming down the trail. (more on the steeper west side). The volume of rain water was so heavy, though, that the bulk of the west side of the trail, spanning a length of about eight blocks, was more akin to a shallow river than a trail. At points it was so wide it was unavoidable. Puddles of water were pooling so wide and deep that they were merging together to form virtual ponds along long stretches of the trail, with no room to bypass them.

For a few moments it was almost fun to just surrender and start dashing straight through these monster puddles. But after nearly 15 minutes of the relentless storm assault I was drenched, cold and in no mood to continue.

I was actually boggled at how poorly the trail handled the rain. It’s simply not fit for use when precipitation turns heavy. I imagine all the patch work done on the gully carved down the center by previous rainfalls has been washed away.

Anyway, it sucked. It was the coldest and wettest run I’ve done since…I can’t even remember. Bleah.

I’m actually halfway considering getting some road runners (beep beep) and planning an alternate route on the sidewalks for days like these. Maybe, maybe.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Day 1: Zero words!

It’s just after 10 p.m. as I type these words and my story progress stands at zero. I have written nothing. The previous two sentences are two more than I’ve written for my NaNoWriMo 2017 project.

If the evening ends with me writing nothing–and that seems rather likely at this point–I will need to double my effort to 3,334 words tomorrow to stay on track. Am I already doomed? Perhaps.

But perhaps not. Maybe in desperation I will find inspiration. Maybe I’ll dig out some old unfinished work and pick up where I left off, the words gushing forth like blood from a skewered artery.

It’s funny how something that only happens once a year can sneak up on you. Or how when you try to think of ideas your brain just seizes up and refuses to even offer up anything, even objectively terrible stuff.

But I will ponder tonight, evaluate my back-up plan and make a decision tomorrow on how to proceed.

October 2017 weight loss report: Up 2.8 pounds (whoops)

Well, oops. The month started well but the last week or so my noon walks dried up as the weather turned soggy, I missed some runs and I found chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins.

In the end I picked up a hefty 2.8 pounds on the month, going from 155.2 to 158 pounds.

But I’m back on a regular run schedule and the muffins have been banned, so I’m reasonably confident the weight will start dropping consistently again.

Stats:

October 1: 155.2 pounds
October 31: 158 pounds

Year to date: From 165.9 to 158 pounds (down 7.9 pounds. Last month I was down 11.4 pounds)

And the body fat:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
October 31: 16.4% (26 pounds of fat–up two fatty pounds)