Run 497: Prayers for rain (to stop)

Run 497
Average pace: 5:32/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 2:31 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:53
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16ºC
Humidity: 60%
Wind: light
BPM: 162
Weight: 164.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3875 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I was running late this morning and feeling slightly unmotivated so while doing a few chores around the place, I said to myself I’d run at 10. Then 11. The noon. Finally, I changed and headed out around 12:30, only to find the cloudy morning had changed into a monsoon.

We never seem to get light rain much anymore, it just monsoons for awhile then stops.

I checked the weather radar and it looked like this nasty bit of precipitation would pass over soonish and then it would be cloudy but dry for at least long enough to get in my run.

It took an hour of waiting but at last, the rain stopped and I headed out.

Amazingly, the rain did not suddenly start again when I stepped back outside. The sun even peeked out once or twice.

My right heel felt a bit sore initially but settled down. It was humid but not really warm so weather-wise it was a lot more comfortable than Tuesday’s run. Normally my runs at the lake are slower than comparable runs at the river but today I was pleased that my average pace was faster than Tuesday’s–by one entire second! Over the course of the entire run it worked out to a six-second difference and the distance was exactly the same on both runs, 5.03 km. It’s kind of freaky that I can be that consistent.

Overall it was an encouraging showing, though the right heel became sore again on the walk back (the trip from the lake back home after a 5K run is a little over 9 km and I had about the same distance already logged from walking to the lake and then the run itself. What I’m saying is the right heel can be a bit if a pain sometimes [ho ho] but doing nearly 20 km of walking and running is not exactly pleasing it these days. The heel is on The List of things to talk to my doctor about).

Book review: Blind Lake

Blind LakeBlind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blind Lake is a near-future story that imagines a world where we have created powerful quantum computers without really understanding how they work or what, in fact, they might do. It also imagines that people will still print out copies of their email to read. 😛

Author Robert Charles Wilson falls into the trap of trying to extrapolate near-future gadgetry and technology and having current technology (as of 2017) make the extrapolation look a little silly. While the quantum computers at the Blind Lake research facility that create video images of two distant worlds, one with sentient life, seem reasonably convincing–mainly because they are steeped in mystery–the references to “pocket servers” that all of the characters tote around feel outdated in a world overflowing with smartphones (the novel predates the iPhone by four years).

Still, the story, a combination of mystery and suspense on both human and cosmic scales, is well-told and builds convincingly toward a conclusion that slightly disappoints by feeling a bit disconnected, somewhat like most of the characters.

Those characters include a withdrawn eleven year old who sees a “Mirror Girl” that looks like her and may or may not exist only in her mind, Marguerite, the mother of the girl and a scientist who doubts herself and her ability to judge others after a failed marriage to a Ding Dong-munching and verbally abusive bully–who also happens to work at Blind Lake, a reporter named Chris who carries guilt over the role his book may have played in a person’s death. Nearly every character has some kind of emotional baggage and when the Blind Lake facility is sealed off from the outside world, with no explanation as to why, the various doubts, neuroses and obsessions escalate in parallel to the budding crisis caused by the quantum computers perhaps taking a little too much initiative.

In the end Blind Lake is a weirdly hopeful sort of story, albeit in an ambiguous way that may even lead to a sense of existential dread–as it does for at least one character. The detachment and relentless struggles of everyone is a bit wearying at time and Marguerite’s ex-husband Ray is an odd sort of pseudo-villain who never gets fleshed out enough to really resonate as well as he could.

Still, the escalation of tension and the unfolding mystery of both the observed alien race and just what the quantum computers might be doing, make Blind Lake worth visiting. Just be sure to leave before you feel the earth move. It’s definitely not romance.

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Run 496: Africa hot in the first week of June

Run 496
Average pace: 5:33/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:25 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:59
Weather: Sunny, high cloud
Temp: 28ºC
Humidity: 27%
Wind: light
BPM: 160
Weight: 164.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3870 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

The weather roller coaster continued tonight, with temperatures reaching a midsummer-like 28ºC. It felt really humid but apparently humidity was only 27%. The air was thick and heavy so it felt more like 2700%.

I was seven seconds slower than my last run, something I attribute about 100% to the weather. It was a slog. My left knee creaked for a few seconds but was fine and I felt a mysterious slight pull on the left side of my groin from time to time, odd because I have had no fun with my groin recently that would cause it to be sore. Since the issue was intermittent and minor, maybe my form was off due to all the panting and sweating.

I missed another weekend run and feel guilty about it. The last few weekends have been stupidly busy for me, but I do plan on heading out this coming weekend, whih probably means rain (current forecast for Saturday is, in fact, rain).

For fun here are the temperatures of my last four runs, all done at the same time of day:

22ºC
12ºC
18ºC
28ºC

You tend to notice temperature variations of 10 degrees from one run to the next.

Writing group, June 4, 2017: A case of the blahs

I’ve missed making a post or two for the writing group so I’m switching to titles referencing the date as it’s easier to keep track of by my small yet manly brain.

Today I had a case of the blahs. I got there first and early, a second person also showed up early and eventually, we had four, with a fifth arriving midway through.

I read the last few chapters of Road Closed and got caught up on the story, making a few minor tweaks to wording and fixing a few more small continuity errors (I’m pretty sure Wendy now consistently dies in the same year). I got all of this done with plenty of time left in the three- hour WOW (window of writing) but couldn’t muster any real enthusiasm. I switched for a while to rereading some of my last NaNoWriMo effort, Last Exit, but that only left me equally unenthused about it. I read a smidgen of Weirdsmth and nope, still wasn’t feeling anything.

I surfed a little. I went to the bathroom three times. I figured out (again) how to convert straight quotes to smart quotes and actually documented the process so I’ll have reference instead of needing to figure it out all over yet another time.

In the end, I almost wished I had gone for a run instead, as overall it would have been a more productive use of my time. Still, it’s important to keep the habit going, so ultimately it was worth it, if just barely. I did think about inventing an excuse to leave an hour early, though, an option I may keep in mind should I hit a big fat wall of ennui again.

Run 495: The recovery rolls along

Run 495
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:22 pm
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 27:28
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 18ºC
Humidity: 60%
Wind: light
BPM: 165
Weight: 164.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3865 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

It was cloudy but with seasonal temperatures today and the sun even shined briefly, so weather-wise it was pleasant enough for the run.

The arc of the run was about the same as it’s been lately, though the first km was a bit perkier than normal, followed by the usual slowdowns from the second to fourth km before picking up again for the last km, which was again my fastest at 5:14/km. This is not an entirely unwelcome trend, as it feels good to end on a high (or fast) note.

No real complications to speak of. The right heel was a bit sore but didn’t seem to affect my pace (it has helped me focus more on my form which is a good thing) and all of my other body parts co-operated.

Overall, a solid effort toward getting back to my pre-cold pace.

Bad design: Staples iOS app

The revised version of Staples’ iOS app lists products but no longer lets you know if a product is available both in-store and online or online-only. This matters when you use the app, find a product, then go to a store and are told, “lol, naw, we only have that online!”

To insure they are not wasting a trip to the store, a customer is forced to call ahead to check for stock, an inconvenience the app should eliminate, not create. This is bad design.

Best Buy’s app, on the other hand, not only tells you if a product is available in-store, it will provide a handy list of storers near you that have it in-stock. That’s good design.

Staples bad, Best Buy good.

E is for Eyeball

A quick doodle made in Sketchable. It’s hard to screw up an eye, but I still tried!

E is for Eyeball

Programs used: Sketchable, Photoshop CC 2017
Hardware: Surface Pro 3 with pen

Book review: The Eerie Silence

The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien IntelligenceThe Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paul Davies, the chair of SETI’s Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup, wrote The Eerie Silence in 2010, a short time after the Kepler space telescope launched. Back then a handful of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) had been discovered. Since then Kepler alone has confirmed over 2,300 exoplanets and estimates for the observable universe go as high as 5.3 trillion.

That’s a lot of planets.

And yet seven years later, the eerie silence Davies wrote about persists. You might think that over 50 years of observation by SETI failing to yield any tangible results would be disheartening and indeed, Davies does admit it can be a little depressing when you focus solely on the lack of any clear signal that we are not alone in the universe. But he remains hopeful that life here is not a one-time fluke among the billions of star systems. That hope is tempered by his adherence to the scientific method, of observation and testing, with minimal speculation.

It is that speculation, though, that forms the heart of the book. Davies presents comprehensive scenarios on how other planets might support life, what that life might be like, how alien races might communicate with us–or if they would even bother. He takes a dim view on fictional portrayals of aliens as malevolent beings looking to wipe us out and constantly warns against falling into the trap of anthropocentric thought. H notes that we might not even recognize aliens because they could exist in a state we can’t comprehend.

Davies also spends time covering how SETI and others would handle the world-changing confirmation of other intelligent life (he doesn’t put much stock in politicians or government handling it well).

In all, this is a wonderfully detailed and engaging look into the possibility of life beyond Earth. Davies keeps coming up with unique angles on how to approach looking for signs of communication–whether intentional or incidental, on how other intelligent beings might act and evolve, and why he is still passionate about continuing the search for other intelligent species beyond the confines of our solar system.

Highly recommended.

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May 2017 weight loss report: Down 2.3 pounds

Before looking back on May’s weight loss/gain/donut catastrophes, let’s first look back on April:

April 1: 166.3 pounds
April 30: 165.2 pounds

A small amount of weight loss. Encouraging, if only slightly so. And now May:

May 1: 166.2 pounds
May 31: 163.9 pounds

Note that only one day into May I had effectively erased the minor but of weight loss for the month of April. However, I managed to actually move in a positive direction for the month as a whole, shedding 2.3 pounds and 2.0 pounds for the year to date.

How about body fat?

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
May 31: 17.9% (29.3 pounds of fat)

Body fat is down 1.2%. Not much, but it’s down. If Fitbit’s estimates are even remotely close to accurate it’s kind of grossbuckets to think I’m carrying nearly 30 pounds of fat around with me. No wonder I don’t feel light on my feet these days. 😛

Still, May was a month of progress, so here’s to June seeing the momentum continue as I shed pounds like some efficient pounds-shedding device.

Run 494: Staying dry

Run 494
Average pace: 5:31/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:35 pm
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 27:52
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 12ºC
Humidity: 91%
Wind: moderate to strong
BPM: 157
Weight: 164.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 3860 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I was so dang busy on the weekend I did not run, plus it was weirdly warm, like end-of-July warm, so it would have been gross, anyway, especially since I’m still sluggishly recovering from the time off and the head cold.

I did run today, though, just in time for the weather to change from ludicrously nice back to unseasonably cool and damp. In four days the temperature on my runs went from 22ºC to 12ºC. The lower temperature was actually nice for running, not really feeling cold at all.

Luckily, despite a few drops on the way to the river, the showers held off and I actually completed the run without getting soaked. Yay. This was even more impressive considering how much of the day was a torrential downpour.

Looking over the splits, the second and third km were a bit slow but actually kind of comfy. The pace felt just right for my current condition. I did pick it up in the final km, which again was my best at 5:17/km and continued my overall slow improvement, chopping off a few more seconds from the previous run to finish at 5:31/km. My BPM was low again, too, at 157.

I seem to have slept on my right hip funny and it had been acting a bit tricky today at work, but proved to be a non-factor on the run. The right heel was a bit sore but not enough to make an impact (ho ho).

Overall, a small improvement but an improvement all the same. I will take it.

D is for Dinosaur

This crudely drawn T-rex was done in almost a single continuous line due to how the Autodraw site works. As far as I can tell there is no erase function, though there is a generous undo ability.

But I don’t have the patience to keep doing and undoing so here’s my stick man dinosaur.

Autodraw threw out a ton of completely random guesses so it wasn’t too terribly impressed by my artistic ability. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was never great at drawing or painting and I’m okay with that.

It did include a T-rex head as one of its guesses, though. I’ve included it below my masterpiece.

Program used: Autodraw, Photoshop CC 2017
Hardware: Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, my uncoordinated mouse hand

D is for dinosaur
Poor one-armed dinosaur 🙁
Autodraw Googlesaurus Rex
Autodraw Googlesaurus Rex

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Run 493: Clone run

Run 493
Average pace: 5:33/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:19 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:58
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: moderate to strong
BPM: 158
Weight: 164.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 3855 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch, iPhone

Tonight’s run was a virtual replay of Tuesday’s except without hurricane winds to add excitement, though it was breezy.

With most of the debris on the trail cleared, I was able to focus less on tripping/getting clobbered by rogue branches and more on the actual run. And yet my performance was nearly identical, with the pace of 5:33/km only one second faster than Tuesday’s pace. My total time of 27:58 was all of three seconds faster. I’m not complaining, as I was expecting similar performance as I come back from both the extended break and the cold, but it’s always a little weird when I so closely match one run to the next.

One improvement, though, was my BPM, down from 164 to 158, the lowest it’s been on a run in a good while. It probably helped that I fairly plodded the first km.

A complication, though it didn’t result in any difference in actual pace, was the right heel, which was aching a bit before the run, ached during the run and is still aching now. It actually felt better during the run than after.

I also had a weird ten seconds or so as I neared the far gate around the 3 km mark where my left knee suddenly felt funny, but not haha funny. Every time I stepped forward it felt like my left leg might buckle because the knee suddenly didn’t want to support it. It cleared up quickly but was a bit disconcerting. Knee issues for me have been very rare, fortunately. And should remain so, dang it.

Overall, the best part of the run was simply getting out and doing it, to help get back to my regular routine as swiftly as possible.

Plus no trees fell on me.