Treadmill walk: Late at night

Here’s an example of something I couldn’t do before the treadmill: Start a workout at almost 10 p.m. Even in the summer it would be dark and spooky at this time. But inside the miracle of artificial light means I was A-OK to hop on the treadmill.

Here are the stats, with the previous run in brackets as comparison. As you can see, the pace was better and BPM was much lower–even lower than previous walks on the treadmill. Maybe my body feels well-rested by mid-evening.

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:17/km (9:21 km/h)
Time: 30:06 (30.05)
Distance: 3.24 km (3.21 km)
Calories burned: 287 (313)
BPM: 132 (143)

This site stinks

Well, not really, but it needs a refresh. The design has been the same for a long time in internet years. But I’m also kind of lazy and undecided on what to change.

Maybe a logo in Comic Sans to be ironic? Post-ironic? Perhaps Papyrus would be better.

A new color might be in order. I like the green, but perhaps blue, not because I am blue, but because blue looks clean and soothing and who doesn’t want to be clean and soothed?

So many decisions.

I’ll decide later.

EDIT: Okay, I went for the blue. I may fiddle with the logo and shade of blue but for now it’s a tiny bit different and a tiny bit different is better than the same old thing, says I.

Treadmill walk and almost a treadmill run

I did a 30 minute treadmill walk today and intended to follow it, after cooling off for about ten minutes, with a 30 minute treadmill run.

The run, with the incline set to 1 to simulate the wind resistance of running outdoors, began decently enough. After about two minutes I had a sudden and urgent need to go to the bathroom. My entire midsection was rumbling ominously, so without knowing exactly what was in store, I stopped the run after 2:17. This netted me a distance of 0.35 km and 22 calories burned. But hey, I tried!

The less-jostling walk yielded the following stats (pace is a bit slow and BPM a bit high):

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:21 km/h
Time: 30.05
Distance: 3.21 km
Calories burned: 313
BPM: 143

Treadmill walk: Day 1, Year 2020

Well, the future has arrived and with it my personal challenge to exercise every day. Most days this will mean hitting the treadmill, as was the case today. As I’ve mentioned before, there is not a lot that can be said about walking on a treadmill, as zany adventures are rarely encountered. I did notice that my pace was a bit slower than my previous 5 km workout. I guess I am tired or something. With that, the stats:

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:18 km/h
Time: 30.06
Distance: 3.23 km
Calories burned: 295
BPM: 134

Treadmill walk: Walking in the new year

After indulging in a few tortilla chips, I worked off the fat and the guilt on the treadmill. I thought about going for a run outside but it has been a monsoon all day and I generally avoid running in monsoons.

Instead I did a 5 km walk. The stats are below, with the stats in brackets being from my previous 5 km workout, which was done at a speed setting of 6.0 (easier). The notable differences are a lower BPM today, despite using harder settings and of course, fewer calories burned for the same distance because I walked for four fewer minutes:

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:13 km/h (9:51/km)
Time: 46.10 (50:05)
Distance: 5.01 km (5.08 km)
Calories burned: 433 (533)
BPM: 139 (144)

December 2019 weight loss report: Up 0.4 pounds*

I’ll explain the asterisk.

First, the bad news: I was up again.

Now to explain the asterisk. Although I was technically up for the month by 0.4 pounds, I have been trending down for several weeks and it was only due to a mysterious overnight gain of 1.6 pounds on the night of the 30th that I was up at all.

For the year to date, my total body weight did not change over the last month, still up 4.3 pounds. The accumulation of body fat also slowed, and for many days in the last two weeks my weight was in what is considered the “normal” range, so there’s that.

Looking ahead, I am reasonably confident that I can keep shedding weight, because December has already bucked the usual weight gain trend and I am continuing the same habits going forward. For example, I could be eating a big chunk of fudge right now at 8:56 p.m. as I type this, but instead I will eat nothing. Ta-da! Also, I have no fudge.

As recounted yesterday, my goal is to still hit 150. I have 21.4 pounds to go. I can do this, and without even needing surgery!

We’ll see what progress I’ve made to that end come January 31.

December 1: 171.4 pounds
December 31: 171.8 pounds (up 0.4 pounds)

Year to date: From 167.5 to 171.8 pounds (up 4.3 pounds, unchanged from previous month)

And the body fat:

December 1: 20.1% (34.5 pounds of fat)
December 31: 21% (36.1 pounds of fat) (up 1.6 pounds)

New Year Resolutions 2020: More cat, less fat

First, a review of how I fared for my resolutions for 2019. I deliberately made the goals broader and easier to attain after more or less bombing on nearly everything in 2017. Here they are, graded as if by a mean grade school teacher:

  • Drop to 150 pounds. As of today I am 170.1 pounds, which any mathematician will tell you is more than 150 pounds. A lot more. Alas. Looking at the year overall, my weight held pretty steady for the first six months. In July I finally started shedding pounds (I was also running more) and this continued until September, when the weight not only started creeping back up, it climbed even higher. The only good news after this is that by some miracle (and a treadmill) I managed to actually reverse the weight gain in the last two weeks of December, when it would normally be spiraling ever-higher. Still, short of shedding a lot of water weight tomorrow (the 31st) I am going to end up a bit heavier at the end of the year than at the start. Grade: D
  • Write something every day. Technically, I achieved this, between blog posts, journal entries, posts to social media and other miscellaneous stuff. But I wrote almost no fiction, so that still knocks a grade or so off. Grade: B+
  • Run at least once per week. According to the Activity app, I did 58 runs in 2019 as of today (I may do one tomorrow to top off the year. That means I did in fact run at least once per week! Grade: A
  • Read at least 52 books. I revised this goal partway through the year when it became obvious I would not read near 52. The new goal was 26, which I achieved. There’s a chance I might finish Book 27 before the year ends. For some reason I had a lot more gaps between books, possibly because I read a few too many bargain novels that may have been bargain-priced for obvious reasons. Grade: B
  • Eat better. A mild improvement at best. Grade: C+
  • Learn and practice meditation. I thought about this. I did not actually do it. Grade: D
  • Stretch. See the above. Grade: D
  • Redo the Complaint Free World 21-day challenge. I’m wearing the band again, but haven’t yet started the formal challenge. Still, just wearing the band has helped me to stay more positive. Grade: B

2019 was a pretty even split between triumph and not-triumph. It was a difficult year in many ways for me, so the result is not unexpected. For 2020 I am going with a slightly revised set of goals:

  • Drop to 150 pounds. I actually think I have a better shot at this than in the past few years. Really!
  • Be creative. Do one of the following every day (more than one is even better):
    • Write a blog post (Note: Jogging/treadmill workouts do not count)
    • Write some fiction
    • Draw something (not to be confused with the app)
    • Take a photo
  • Exercise at least three times a week. One of the exercises should be a run, the others can be treadmill walks or something similar. I can no longer use the weather as an excuse to be lazy and fat.
  • Read at least 26 books. I think a book every two weeks is fine and I can probably do better that that with a wee bit of effort. Maybe I’ll start counting comic books or something.
  • Eat better. I went cold turkey with my diet once before (this did not involve actual turkey), I can do it again. I think.
  • Start stretching. If I can do this, I’ll move on to meditation. Maybe it’ll be easier that way. Stretch the body, then stretch the mind. Pretty deep, man.
  • Investigate other careers. I like tech and I like helping people. I am less convinced now that I like both together.
  • Just generally improve. Try to be kinder, more thoughtful and helpful. Lead by example.

Run 645: Slow with traffic cones

Run 645
Average pace: 6:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 1:44 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:14
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 76%
Wind: light
BPM: 162
Weight: 171.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 4835 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (195 km)

Back to Burnaby Lake for the first time since November 24 (more than a month ago) and it was like I’d never left, at least in terms of pace, as it came in at 6:01/km, a rounding error away from the previous pace of 6:02/km–but technically still faster!

Most of the run was fairly consistent and I would have come in under six minutes if not for the third km, where my pace dropped to 6:10/km. This drop was due to two things: I was admittedly tired (I haven’t run outdoors much lately and it is a lot more demanding than being on a treadmill), but also because I kept gawking over to my right, which undoubtedly slowed me down. I was again staring at the clearcut mentioned in my last post on running at Burnaby Lake. It just looks so very weird now, like the whole of civilization has suddenly been revealed, the illusion that you’re running in the woods has been literally stripped away. This time, though, there was more evidence on the reason for the massive tree removal. Earth-moving equipment was in place and you could already see dirt piled up and plowed alongside the existing railroad track, indicating that the trees were removed to either allow them to shore up the existing track area or possibly expand it to include new track.

It still looks about as attractive as you’d expect a clearcut to be.

The run itself was done in remarkably mild conditions, with the temperature a balmy 10ºC–well above normal–, along with little wind and even the sun poking out a bit here and there. While the weather was surprisingly pleasant, the trail was not. Several sections–including resurfaced areas–are collapsing due to the aggressive inflow of water. Keep in mind that the fall hasn’t even been abnormally wet, too. There were numerous cones dotting the trail to mark soft spots and areas where the surface was crumbling away along the edges. The area leading up to the Cottonwood Trail was especially bad, as was the stretch immediately after it that leads to the bridge at Still Creek.

Surprisingly, despite occasional and somewhat large puddles, the area by the fields was not flooded and I escaped with my feet dry. Here’s hoping more resurfacing and shoring up has been scheduled for sooner than later.

Overall I didn’t experience any issues, just that “yep, not exactly in peak form” feeling, though my BPM was lower than the previous run, which was nice. That was probably due to being in slightly better shape (thank you, treadmill!) and also the warmer conditions meaning less strain.

It was nice to be back outside, and I did run a fair bit on the walk out from the lake, so all of my pep hasn’t yet abandoned me. We’ll see how it goes the next time when I run with actual wind resistance and stuff.

Treadmill walk: Fear of fat

Sorry, I couldn’t come up with a better title. 😛

This was a now pretty standard workout, and the results are almost identical to the Boxing Day workout, so without further ado, the stats:

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6.5 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:14/km (9:15/km)
Time: 30:07 (30:05)
Distance: 3.26 km (3.25 km)
Calories burned: 284 (279)
BPM: 133 (134)

Treadmill walk: Boxing Day boogie

I opted out of the insanity of dealing with Boxing Day sale crowds at the mall and did a basic 30 minute walk on the treadmill instead. The settings were the same as the previous walk, though I pushed a little harder (most evident on the second km, where my pace was 9:07/km).

Other than that, it was exercise on the treadmill. No dogs magically appeared for me to trip over, and it did not rain at all indoors.

The stats (previous walk in brackets):

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6 km/h)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:15/km (9:17/km)
Time: 30:05 (40:04)
Distance: 3.25 km (4.31 km)
Calories burned: 279 (363)
BPM: 134 (137)