Book review: Dead Sky Morning

Dead Sky Morning (Experiment in Terror, #3)Dead Sky Morning by Karina Halle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the third book in Karina Halle’s “Experiments in Terror” series, though the story is self-contained and any needed background is provided along the way. I chose it because a) the cover looks neat (yes, I am still drawn to a good cover) and b) I liked that this particular ghost story was set on an actual local island here in BC.

The story follows webcasting ghost hunters Perry Palomino and Dex Foray as they set out to document the alleged haunting on a former Chinese leper colony on D’Arcy Island, located off the coast of Vancouver Island. Dex is a chain-smoking gruff thirty-something with a Dark and Mysterious Past while Perry is a 22 year old with serious confidence issues and also the ability to see ghosts.

The story is told from the first person perspective of Perry and Perry likes to go into great detail about what she is thinking, what she is doing, what she might be doing, what Dex should be doing (falling in love with her, it seems) and well, everything and anything. This is another story where much of the mystery and drama is leeched away by the protagonist basically not shutting up about every subject under the sun.

The romantic tension serves as the undercurrent to the story and consumes a surprisingly large chunk of it. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the will-they-won’t-they thing but it’s all fairly predictable.

The adventure on the island goes south quickly with all kinds of terrifying and horrifying sights and sounds. As with many horror stories it works best if you don’t step back and try to piece things together logically. The biggest issue here is probably how Perry can see ghosts but Dex can’t–until it’s needed story-wise for him to be able to.

On the one hand I admire the author for having a protagonist who isn’t some uber she-warrior able to handle everything with panache. Perry is neurotic, throws up, passes out, trips, falls and generally has a terrible time of it, yet she comes through it all a little stronger and a little surer. The arc for both characters growing is small but there.

In the end, though, the writing itself left me feeling ambivalent about the book. Halle does a fine job in capturing Perry’s voice but at times it’s detrimental to the story, with the tone veering all over the place, from melodramatic passages you’d expect from a bodice ripper to near-slapstick. Perry’s take on things often feels like an overheated teenager. It’s funny at times but the shifting tone and casual, almost sloppy style detract from the overall experience.

Still, this is a decent bit of terror and it moves at a brisk pace. It’s not likely to make you want to go camping on a remote island any time soon.

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The old shoes is good shoes run

Run 325
Average pace: 4:58/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.06 km
Weather: Sunny, some cloud
Temp: 18-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 389
Total distance to date: 2752

My run schedule was out of whack this week as much as my runs, so in order to space out the remaining runs I would need to run on Friday. Running on Friday takes a lot of motivation as the end of the work week is when you’re thinking about relaxing, not jogging hither and yon. Couple this with my last two runs being terrible and I opted to skip the run, explaining it to myself as a precautionary step, needed because I was obviously in need of extra rest and recovery.

Yes.

Today–Sunday–I headed out for my usual run and while I originally planned on doing a full loop around the lake, I again felt it would be wiser to go a bit conservative, so I need up doing a 5K to round out the month.

My last change before heading out was to strap the Nike+ sensor back to my Adidas Energy Boost shoes, to see if reverting back might make a difference.

Heading out, two things were in my favor: the left foot was feeling fine, and the weather was not as warm, with the temperature around 18ºC. The sky was mostly cloudy but the sun managed to beam through gaps in the cloud cover enough to make it sunny for about two-thirds of the run. It never felt uncomfortable, however. I didn’t even sweat much.

How did the run go?

Let me explain by saying this: when I started jogging I did not feel the hip at all. It didn’t last as I did feel it a little after maybe 20 seconds or so, but those initial moments of the run felt downright magical compared to the last two months.

It was quickly (ho ho) obvious my pace was much improved and I finished both strongly and with my second fastest run if the year, breaking the 5:00/km barrier with an average pace of 4:58/km, only two seconds shy of my fastest pace.

The left foot did start feeling sore after about three km of walking post-run but I stopped for a few minutes at Piper Spit to watch the ducks and geese and a few pigeons pretending to be waterfowl. That was enough time for the foot to recover enough to get to the SkyTrain station without unsightly limping or collapsing.

Overall I was quite pleased by the return to form. I’m going to stick with the Adidas shoes for Tuesday’s run. It will be interesting to see how that goes, as the current forecast is calling for Africa hot weather.

The “run” run

Run 324
Average pace: 5:32/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 10.07 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-24ºC, felt like 26ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 774
Total distance to date: 2747

This was a weirdly disappointing run.

First the good news: my left foot was reasonably behaved. I didn’t feel anything until the 5K mark and it wasn’t until 7K that it began to hurt. It leveled out quickly and was tolerable for the rest of the run.

Despite an unusually early start at 9 a.m. it was already quite warm–20ºC and rising rapidly to 24ºC during the run, and feeling warmer due to that good ol’ humidity. This had an impact on my time, as did my general approach of taking it slower so my foot and stamina would both hold up. I could have gone a full 11K and only stopped because I knew my time would be awful and I didn’t want to drag my average down any further.

The last run, a 5K, had me plodding along at a glacier-like pace of 5:32/km. This is terrible. I figured even doubling the distance today I would still come in faster.

I was incorrect.

My pace was worse, at 5:35/km. To put it in perspective, the last full 11K I ran my pace was 5:12/km. Today my pace for just the first km was 5:17/km.

With today’s run feeling much better overall but the time being even worse I am wondering if the new Brooks shoes are causing issues with the Nike+ sensor. Especially today it seems difficult to believe I could be loping along so slowly.

As a test I am putting the sensor back on the Adidas Untying Boost™ shoes for my next run to see what happens. I’m looking forward to being able to ditch the sensor altogether, possibly in the fall once all these crazy new smart watches have come out. It looks like between Google, Apple and everyone else there will be about a billion of them.

The one other good part of the run: I actually walked back instead of taking the SkyTrain. I sat on a bench and gave my left foot a five minute rest and managed to walk back without any great discomfort.

The monumentally disappointing first summer 2014 run

Run 323
Average pace: 5:32/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.09 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 24-26ºC, felt like 27ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 392
Total distance to date: 2737

Yesterday I compared two different pairs of trail runners, the Saucony Peregrine 4 and the Brooks Cascadia 9.

The Peregrines were lighter and more flexible, with the upper more reminiscent of some of the minimalist shoes I’ve used. It also has very pronounced teeth-like knobs ringing the sole. The Brooks is stiffer and heavier but overall I preferred the fit and feel and felt the sole would work better on the tamer trails I run on.

Today I wore the Brooks for my weekly Sunday run. I had a few concerns going in. While new shoes often result in a faster run the first time out (giddy with excitement, perhaps) the weather was looking quite warm and humid today. That would slow me down. The hip was producing a strange twinge of pain for about the first 30 seconds of the walk to the lake before disappearing, meaning it was probably going to be a bit sore. Finally and most ominously, my left foot was sore even before I left.

The new shoes provided ample cushioning so the walk to the lake seemed uneventful and for a pleasant change I didn’t need to use the port-o-potty as soon as I got there.

I made what in retrospect a tactical error by choosing to run clockwise. This is the “easy” way but the southern side of the lake is also a lot more exposed to the sun. I should have stuck to CCW. But in the end it may not have mattered because my left foot started hurting noticeably right away and got bad enough that I knew I wasn’t doing a full run. I managed 5K before calling it quits. I even took the unusual step (ho ho) of sitting on a handy bench by the athletic field for about five minutes to let the foot recover a little.

I walked out of the park and caught the SkyTrain home from Production way station. Once home and with the shoes off, I tried flexing the foot and it hurt so much I ended up taking a Tylenol.

I don’t believe the new shoes made matters worse, as my right foot still felt comfy and fine after the run and the walk. I have no idea why the left foot was especially bad but I think I’m going to get it checked out by a foot doctor and look into extra padding for it for runs in the meantime.

I was hoping to come in around my last 11K pace of 5:12/km but instead finished with an abysmal pace of 5:32/km–for a mere 5K. That’s 36 seconds slower than my last run! The first km I came in at 5:21/km, which is Granny slow, so the run was doomed from the start.

It’s hard to imagine how the next run could be worse. Perhaps a giant sinkhole could open up on the trail in front of me or a crazed bear could come bursting from the bush, with an even more crazed raccoon riding on its back. Or my left foot could hurt even more.

My plan is to stick to the new shoes and see how they fare in the second outing. As I said, the right foot was fine and I felt no discomfort/tightness or anything caused by the shoes themselves.

Here’s hoping the next run is better. It would be difficult for it to be worse.

The better than horseshoes and hand grenades run

Run 322
Average pace: 4:56/km (best to date for 2014)
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.04 km
Weather: Overcast, some light rain
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 388
Total distance to date: 2732

Tonight’s run was basically a repeat of Tuesday’s but in the opposite direction. The sky was overcast, with no promise of sun whatsoever, but it was mild so it was actually pretty nice for running, apart from being humid.

Try as they might, the clouds produced little more than a few drops, so I emerged dry, with only the faint lingering scent of cigarette smoke clinging to me. I sniffed it about 3 km into the run and I’d say it was probably 200-300 meters before I finally caught up to the smoker (he was not jogging). With virtually no wind, I was impressed how far the obnoxious odor carried.

The run started surprisingly well, with the hip feeling close to normal. Then it kind of popped and felt more abnormal but not too bad and became a non-issue once I’d warmed up.

I felt the first km went quite well and this prompted me to push fairly hard in the final km, to see if I could crack the 5:00 minute mark for only the second time this year. I actually felt a little nauseous the last few hundred meters but kept going and was rewarded doubly: the last km was my fastest at 4:50/km. The last km being the fastest is very rare. And my overall pace was 4:56/km, a solid three seconds better than my best pace for the year.

Woot, I say.

With this, I have completed a week where each run was faster. Going back four runs, my average pace improved a zany 31 seconds per km, from 5:27 to 4:56.

I feel I’ve earned my two days of rest before Sunday’s follow-up.

The close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades run

Run 321
Average pace: 5:00/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Sunny, somewhat humid
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: moderate to gusting
Calories burned: 388
Total distance to date: 2727

A shorter run tonight and with the hip not being sore exactly but feeling a bit more noticeable after a pair of longer runs, I didn’t plan on pushing too hard. Toward the end of the run I thought I had a good pace going so I pushed anyway and finished at an even 5:00/km–one second off my best pace of the year. If it wasn’t for the mysterious sag at 3.5 km…

Although it was warmer and a bit humid the later time kept the run comfortable. A breeze strong enough to make me tug my cap down tighter helped, too.

Overall this was a better-than-expected run and a nice continuation of the improved time from the previous run. Excelsior!

The longer, faster and a whole lot wetter run

Run 320
Average pace: 5:12/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 11.04 km
Weather: Cloudy with heavy rain
Temp: 17ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 849
Total distance to date: 2722

My goals today were:

  • run a full loop around the lake
  • beat the slug-like pace of the previous run while also avoiding actual slugs

As I head off to the lake I noted the sky to the south looked mostly friendly, while the sky to the north looked dark and ominous, with a curtain of rain already falling over Burnaby Mountain. I was unsure which side would win this North vs. South scenario but had not prepared for rain.

You can probably guess how this ends up.

I tried applying a little more gas this time and the hip was again mostly fine, only making its presence felt when the other parts of my legs quieted down, as if they had all agreed that balance was essential:

Hip: I’m feeling pretty good now. Someone want to take over?
Left thigh muscle: I’m on it. It’s only been a few km, I can start throbbing for awhile.
Hip: Sounds good. How about you, Left Foot Pad?
Left Foot Pad: I’m lined up to start hurting around the 8K mark.
Hip: Excellent. We’re set.

I knew my pace would generally be slower since my body is still not tuned for longer runs quite yet but could feel I was ahead of the last run’s languid saunter.

Everything was fine and just as I hit 4K mark the first few drops of rain began to fell. These few drops turned into a torrential downpour that lasted the next four km. For the final three km it eased off into light showers. I was left suitably drenched.

It didn’t affect the run, though. Except for a dip as I neared the 10K mark I stayed on a fairly even pace and finished at 5:12/km, a whopping 15 second improvement over the previous run. I also didn’t step on any slugs to my knowledge. Mission accomplished.

As a final note, the number of puddles I dodged was approximately ten million.

The post-morning sickness 11K run

Run 319
Average pace: 5:27/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 11.03 km
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 22-23ºC, humid (felt like 25ºC)
Wind: moderate to breezy
Calories burned: 849
Total distance to date: 2711

Despite the title of this blog post I am not pregnant.

To my knowledge.

Instead, I woke up and felt strangely nauseated. I called in sick, slept in a little and when I got up the nausea had passed so I had breakfast and it seemed to stay down okay. I planned for a rare weekday afternoon run because running when it’s warmer is still preferable to not having a big chunk of my evening eaten up by a run.

I planned on doing a full loop around the lake and set out on a deliberately slower pace to better accommodate the goal. My first km reflected this, coming in at a poky 5:10/km. The hip was no big thing but the thigh muscles hurt both on the walk to the lake and for a good part of the run. It wasn’t until well past the halfway point that they finally went from aching to feeling warmed up. By then the left foot was starting to act up, though it stayed tolerable for the entire run, only getting notably sore on the walk back to the Production Way SkyTrain station.

The weather was a mix of sun and high cloud, was warm (and felt warmer) and was humid. Despite this the slower pace kept things tolerable and I completed a full loop, coming in at 11.03 km, though my average pace was a not-exactly-lightning-quick 5:27/km.

Another complication during the run was a few times when I felt like my gorge was rising–my gag reflex almost but not quite kicked in on several occasions. This is a rather unpleasant sensation when running. By the time I got to the SkyTrain my stomach was cramping up. I think this may be related to the Chinese food I had for dinner last night. Maybe MSG doesn’t agree with me or something.

When I got home my appetite was suitably curbed and I ate an uncharacteristically light post-run meal.

I’ll try to do another full loop on the next run. It will be interesting to see how they compare. The current forecast is suggesting cooler temperatures and a good chance of rain, so better but wetter conditions.

The stinky-yet-not-stinky run

Run 318
Average pace: 5:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.05 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 18ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 388
Total distance to date: 2700

Tonight’s run was a strange, contradictory and somewhat unpleasant experience.

The good news: My second best pace of the year at 5:01/km. This was due mainly to cloudy skies and cooler temperatures, a nice change from the mugginess of late.

The strange news: both of my thighs, but especially the left thigh, were noticeably sore during the run and even on the walk after. If any part of my legs are sore from a run it’s typically the calves or tendons.

The contradictory news: combining the above two items and having my second fastest run of the year.

The somewhat unpleasant news: I had to go to the washroom (in all ways) when I got to the lake and had to use the port-o-potty. At least they refilled the hand sanitizer.

The soreness of the thighs and the hip, come to think of it, both started after I got the new shoes. I think my stance may have changed somehow and it is now Wrong. I plan on getting new shoes–even if it’s another pair of my Nike LunaFly 3’s–before next week. They must have Laces Never Untied® technology.

Overall I suppose I am pleased more than not by this Jekyll and Hyde run. The stamina held up thanks to better conditions and the ailing parts can hopefully be corrected by better technology.

As long as it doesn’t require bionic limbs. I can’t afford those.

The run-walk-run-walk run

Run 317
Average pace: 5:12/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.05 km
Weather: Sunny, some high cloud
Temp: 23-25ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 389
Total distance to date: 2695

I adjusted my weight in the iPod’s Nike+ app from 170 to 165 pounds. As a result I burned 11 less calories running the same distance as the previous runs. This is a sneaky way to get me to run more. I’m okay with that.

Once again I planned tentatively on a full loop around the lake for my Sunday run but as with last Sunday this did not happen. In fact, it was warm enough (up to 25ºC but feeling warmer) and noticeably humid that I packed it in shortly after hitting 5K just past Still Creek.

The hip was not a particular factor again, so that is once more good news.

The left foot started to hurt but not until after the run. Paradoxically it usually hurts more when walking then running so after walking a little less than 2 km around the lake after the run I started running again for another 2 km or so, stopping when I got to the Avalon trail. I ran a little over 7 km in total so not too bad. The south side of the lake had more of a breeze and generally felt cooler so that run was probably faster. It felt better, apart from the foot nagging at me.

I am probably going to look at both new shoes and something to put in the left shoe to help cushion the pad of the foot. This is one of those times where more is more and more padding will probably make it easier to run on.

The 5:12/km pace is not horrible but disappointing after my times had generally started improving again. It looks to be a bit cooler on Tuesday so that run may prove faster.

Book review: The Final Winter

The Final WinterThe Final Winter by Iain Rob Wright

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I bought this on amazon for three reasons:

1. It was short and I wasn’t in the mood for a 1,000 page epic.
2. It was cheap. Cheap is always a good price.
3. I’m a sucker for apocalypse stories, especially ones that aren’t the start of a 20 volume series.
3a. I like to give a few untried authors a shot every year.

The Final Winter or as I like to call it, The Final Winter Where Every Character Shares Every Thought They Have with the Reader starts out with some measure of promise. A small assortment of people are effectively trapped in an English pub as an apocalyptic snowstorm rages not only outside but all across the world. Shortly into the story all phone service goes down and the power flicks off, leaving the group of people completely isolated.

A few others from a nearby supermarket and video store make their way over and the rest of the short novel chronicles the group trying to survive the storm and each other because most of them are miserable wretches.

The ending is right up there with “it was all a dream” or “and it turns out they were Adam and Eve”. It’s hokey as all get-out.

Overall, this is a mediocre effort, hampered by a few things that feel very “new writer” to me:

  1. Each scene is told from a particular character’s point of view. This is fine. However, the author doesn’t merely jump into each character’s head, he snuggles comfortably in. Every thought and emotion is relayed in explicit (and often redundant) detail. There is no mystery at all behind anyone’s motivations at any point. Everything is quite literally spelled out for the reader. This gives the story a strange flatness, leeching out nearly all of the inter-character drama.
  2. The plot drives the characters. The author seems to have hatched the plot for the novel and then contorts the situations and characters to ensure that everything moves from Point A to Point B to Point C. There are absurd coincidences, characters behaving stupidly (often wondering to themselves why they are acting so stupidly but carrying on nonetheless), all in service to keep the plot moving forward. The characters feel less like people and more like chess pieces being moved about to get to checkmate. That’s what the bad guy should have shouted at the end, really. “Checkmate!”
  3. Without getting too much into spoilers, the depiction of good and evil flips between cartoonish and grimdark, but the tone shifts are awkward, as if the author couldn’t make up his mind whether to play things straight or for laughs.

The opening where the characters are first introduced and the mystery of the storm is not yet revealed works reasonably well and I was interested in seeing what would happen. By the end I was rolling my eyes regularly and happier about the book being short and cheap.

A disappointment overall and one I can’t recommend. If you’re looking for an apocalyptic tale I’d suggest the nearly 40 year old Lucifer’s Hammer before this.

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