Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 13ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:37/km
Total distance to date: 1180.97 km
The good news: no hail!
Better news: It was mild and sunny, perfect conditions for running.
Bad news: both of my feet were sore and cranky by the end of the run. It actually hurt more to walk after so I was half-tempted to keep running home (that would have added 4+ km so I ultimately decided against it).
I am almost certain that the soreness in my feet is not due to last Sunday’s hike, doing weird things to my feet while I sleep or a result of alien visitation. What I do think is a distinct possibility is that my trusty New Balance shoes, which I have been using since May 2009, may finally and officially be wearing out. On the Nike+ alone I have tracked 1180 km on them and I ran from May to September 2009 before getting the Nike+ setup, so that’s probably enough to put me past 1200 km. On one pair of shoes.
So getting new shoes is a top priority. I’m not going to try those wacky Five Fingers or a variant because at this point I’m more interested in getting back to peak condition than having my feet cry even more but it’s an option for further down the road (or trail).
As for the actual run, I conducted a bit of an experiment and while the end result is one I’m not happy with, it was not unexpected, so I consider it a success.
If you look at the chart below, specifically my most recent 5:33/km runs you’ll see that my pace is slower in the first half but flattens out nicely in the second. Today I tried — and succeeded — in bringing up my times in the first half of the run. I could feel my lungs working harder and the vague threat of a cramp here and there. By doing so, however, I tapped out my reserves for the second half and while the pace flattened, it did so at longer intervals, leading to a slower pace of 5:37/km. From this point forward I think I’m going to stick to starting at a moderate pace and build toward a stronger finish.
Overall, I am pleased that I was able to complete another week of runs without any major incidents.
Today I went to the doctor to discuss the bunch o’ blood work I had done. I knew there wasn’t going to be catastrophic news because they obligingly call you to come in if the lab returns results stamped with something like PATIENT HAS THREE DAYS TO LIVE.
I made the trek to Richmond via the still sexy Expo Line and the decidedly unsexy Canada Line. There’s not much you can do to dress up a subway. It’s even more annoying in that most of it is cut and cover so it meanders all over the place to follow the road above it.
As is usually the case I arrived at the office early and had to wait awhile before the doctor came in. I like my doctor. He’s friendly and smart. He’s also older than me so when he gives the ‘men of your age’ speech it’s always somewhat ruefully.
The overall news was good — no hideous diseases or deficiencies that would require hospitalization/surgery/medication/alien intervention. The scare that came out of an April 2008 visit to a walk-in clinic (‘You’re one year away from Type II diabetes”) is gone with my much more sensible diet. My combined bad/good cholesterol number is fine and I don’t appear to be deficient in anything else, blood-wise.
One of two areas of concern was my bad cholesterol level — it is a bit higher than what would be considered optimal. The doctor figures this is likely a genetic predisposition and is nothing to be concerned about. He gave me a number to call for a free consultation with a government dietician if I’m concerned I may be eating wrong and horrible things. The other concern was regarding how efficiently my kidney is flushing out the things it’s supposed to — the jargon got a bit technical for me. Basically he said that as you age the efficiency decreases by about 1 per year and while my current level is fine, in 40 years it would be at a critical level. I’d also be 87 then, so it’s quite possible I wouldn’t give a flying fig about it, either. The advice here was to take kidney-friendly medication when needed and to monitor it year by year.
And that was about it. I’m scheduled for a full physical next month so we’ll find out if I have nutty blood pressure and whatnot. I’m hoping for perfectly boring results because my health is one part of my life I prefer to be dull.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 10.07 km
Weather: Rain, heavy at time, hail, cloud
Temp: 11ºC
Wind: moderate with some gusts
Calories burned: 703
Average pace: 5:33/km
Total distance to date: 1170.94 km
The weather today was looking unsettled. For this time of year that is not unusual. Forty-five minutes before my run the sky was brightening and the sun was poking out. Just prior to heading out it was the opposite. As I walked along the Brunette River trail the sun came out again, albeit briefly. The sky remained overcast until I reached about the midway point of the run.
At that time the sky opened up and it began raining hard. It quickly then changed to hail, which I’ve never run in before. The hail persisted for about 2 km before changing back to straight rain and the rain continued all the way home, though it eventually tapered off to a light shower by the end of the run itself.
I am glad I wore a long-sleeved shirt for the run. The hail wasn’t Texas-sized golf balls or anything but I could feel them pelting off me as I kept up the pace. I can’t say I’m eager to experience more of the same any time soon.
As happens during a deluge, my iPod got a bit wet, more so since I did not have it in its protective case. I knew what this would lead to and sure enough, at the end of the 10K the slippery clickwheel would not cooperate. I ended up running a total of 10.7 km before I could finally stop the workout.
The good news is the extra run time was not a problem. With Tuesday’s rest I was feeling much less sore and more energetic for the run. I went in with the mindset of running a marathon, not a sprint and paced myself deliberately. By the 4K mark I reached a comfort zone that allowed me to continue without losing much time at all. I ended right back where I was on the last Friday before hurting my back, with an average pace of 5:33/km. I am pleased by this.
I was less pleased by my left foot feeling a bit sore. I’m not sure if I twisted it in my sleep or what it was but it was an annoyance throughout. It didn’t slow me down and I don’t think it’s anything serious but it bears mentioning.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Cloud and sun
Temp: 13ºC
Wind: light with some gusts
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:59/km
Total distance to date: 1160.87 km
Ten days after my last run, nine days after hurting my back and one day after a rather strenuous hike that left my legs sore and tired, I returned to my regular running schedule. I knew it was going to be hard — and it was!
The first two km were not overly fast — 5:15 and 5:23 but just shy of the 2K mark I was breathing hard and obviously overextending myself. I paused to catch my breath and continued at a deliberate pace for the remainder. Stamina was not an issue going forward but with about 1 km left my legs were feeling more tired than I can ever recall. I maintained pace and finished but even the brisk walk home (around 5 km itself) was a challenge, especially taking the steps up in Hume Park.
Joanne, naturally, congratulated me again for another 500 km completed. I believe I have covered half the distance to Mars by her estimates. Such a nice if incorrect lady.
I also had my first pausetastrophe. At the 1.8K mark I paused the workout to catch my breath and instead of hitting pause to resume the workout I hit the center button on the iPod, which ends the workout. Eek. I quickly hit the pause button and the workout cooperatively resumed. The Nike+ site seems to have simply added a 1.8K mark in addition to the regular ones for each regular km completed, so all is well.
While I am not happy about having such a sluggish pace (5:59/km, my slowest 10K ever), considering all the extenuating circumstances I am happy to have simply completed it. I will begin the work of moving back toward peak condition with Wednesday’s run. I am fairly confident I will better today’s time.
Today Jeff and I set out for our first official™ hike in a year and Jeff opted to take us along the Diez Vistas trail, as 15 km trek above and between Buntzen Lake to the east and Indiand Arm to the west. It took us just under five hours to complete. It is described thusly on the BC Hydro website:
This route is recommended for experienced and fit hikers only. Spanish for “ten views”, the Diez Vistas Trail is aptly named. Offering spectacular views of Vancouver’s waterways and mountains, the Diez Vistas Trail commences near the floating bridge. Travelling uphill into the forest, cross the powerline and pipeline and continue along a series of switchbacks until the trail forks. The left trail leads to a viewpoint overlooking Indian Arm and the right leads to a view of South Beach and across to Eagle Ridge. After reaching the high point where the trails reunite, you travel along a forest trail that terminates at a BC Hydro service road. Keep right and follow the service road and transmission line (the Old Buntzen Lake Trail) back to the Buntzen Lake Trail, where a left turn will take you to the suspension bridge leading to North Beach. From here, follow either Powerhouse Road or the Buntzen Lake Trail back to South Beach.
And now the stats:
15 km hiked
3.1 km/hr average pace
740 m of elevation gained
one billion calories burned (okay, more in the range of 2400)
Considering that neither of us are in peak condition and I was coming off a week of not running, not to mention having a still slightly sore back, this was probably more than we should have tackled but it was a fun challenge, even if by the end our feet were aching, our stomachs were grumbling and we both felt very tired.
Living up to its name, Diez Vistas (10 vistas) has lots of viewpoints along the way, though we didn’t check out all of them. The ones we did had spectacular views of Burrard Inlet and Salmon Arm, with the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island spread out far below.
Much of the ascent and descent is fairly steep and it’s the kind of hiking where you often have to pick where to place your feet, as the path is covered in rock and twisted roots. We each slipped a few times but neither of us fell, something of a miracle for me given my unerring sense of imbalance. We encountered at least a couple dozen people during the hike, not surprising given that it was a Sunday and conditions were mild (the two previous times we hiked in this area it was freezing and pouring with rain, respectively). A pair of smart alecks even jogged past us at one point while we were exhausted enough to be tripping over on our feet. Dang kids young adults.
Click the first image below to view them all in sequence or visit the gallery here at your leisure.
Five days later and my back is starting to feel a little closer to normal after The Stooping Incident. I have written a haiku to help remember this less-than-cherished event.
This Back of Mine
Bending down and zap
Pain and the old man shuffle
Stupid random back
Putting new lyrics to an established song is nothing new — it’s done regularly for parody but it’s still a fun exercise, especially if you try for a specific focus.
For example, the song ‘California Girls’ (Mike Love, Brian Wilson) takes 2:47 to explain how girls all around the U.S. (and the world) are nifty but what would be the niftiest of all is if they were California girls, presumably because they’d have rockin’ tans and actually be near enough to date/chase/moon over. Not exactly deep stuff:
Well East coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the Southern girls with the way they talk
They knock me out when I’m down there
Doing the old gender switch is easy for the chorus since it doesn’t rhyme.
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls
Becomes:
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California boys
Simple! In fact, the rest of the song can easily be switched around, gender-wise, too. This is probably the trickiest verse:
The West coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned
I dig a French bikini on Hawaii island
Dolls by a palm tree in the sand
What would be the equivalent of a French bikini for guys, especially of that era (mid 1960s)? How about cut-offs? A substitute for ‘dolls’ is tougher. Studs, maybe? Was that in the vernacular back then? I don’t know offhand because I was about one year old at the time and my fashion sense was limited to diapers and pooping in them.
The West coast has the sunshine
And the guys all get so tanned
I dig blue jean cut-offs on Hawaii island
Studs by a palm tree in the sand
Not exactly a masterpiece but hey, if someone ever starts up The Beach Girls, they’re good to go.
How about making the song about music?
Well East coast bands are hip
I really dig those styles they play
And the Southern jazz with the way they strum
They knock me out when I leave L.A.
The Mid-West farmer’s hoedown really make you feel alright
And the Northern cats with their drums and songs
Will keep you grooving all the night
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California bands
Again, not the stuff of genius but we’ve shifted focus of the song while keeping as much of the original lyrics intact, creating a kind of alternate universe version of it.
Giving yourself the freedom to change the lyrics as much as you want, sticking only to the actual meter of the song (‘sung to the tune of…’) makes it both easier (no need to hew to the spirit/theme of the original) and more difficult (what will the song be about?)
I’m still mulling over choices but I’m thinking of something profound and grim to go with the jaunty music. I’ll post an update when I have put together my morose musings. If I can record it via some karaoke thing, all the better*!
Way back when I started what I didn’t know at the time was called a ‘Let’s Play’ I blogged about my first experience with The Sims 3 and the sim I had created, Ferris Wheele. After three posts I got sidetracked by work and a billion other things. I recently (and finally) completed the LP on Broken Forum, which is hosted by Scott ‘Lum the Mad’ Jennings. BF was revived in January 2012 as a refugee camp of sorts for people who had been banned from Quarter to Three or disagreed with the way the admin ran things there. One of the things Lum did differently on BF was to break up the games discussion more discretely. There are dedicated subforums for PC/console games, MMOs (understandable given Lum’s work in that particular area), traditional (board) gaming and the most recent addition was a Let’s Play section after several requests went out to have the few LPs gathered in one place.
The LPs took off, in no small part to Angie Gallant’s pigeon dating sim LP. This has brought out a veritable flood of people posting their experiences, largely in Japanese dating sims — but you can find everything from Master of Orion 2 to Minecraft, X-Com, Morrowind and even big rig and train simulators (with zombies!) It’s really quite neat and has given BF a distinct flavor to set it apart from Qt3.
I revived my Sims 3 experience and carried it through Ferris Wheele’s entire life. You can read the thread here. I’ll eventually bring it back over here. I’m planning another LP soon and it will also go to Broken Forum first then make its way back here. Have a look in on Ferris’s wacky life.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW < NEW
Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Cloud and sun
Temp: 9ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:33/km
Total distance to date: 1150.84 km
The weather for today’s run was a bit of a reverse from Wednesday, with it sunny to start and cloudy to finish. It remained mild throughout and a t-shirt probably would have sufficed.
Given the Good Friday holiday and benevolent sky (can a sky be benevolent? It can now!) there were quite a few people at Burnaby Lake. I counted 24 vehicles in the parking lot and roughly a million people on the trail, a mix of walkers (some in large groups), joggers and a few obnoxious types letting their dogs run all over sans leash. My favorite, though, was a pair of women coming toward me. One had a dog off leash, the other was on a bike. They occupied the entire width of the trail (off-leash dogs and bikes are both verboten as the lake is classified as an environmentally sensitive habitat). I remained polite, not even offering a dirty look. I may have muttered something unkind under my breath in passing, however. On the last stretch leading back to the parking lot I passed a woman on a horse. This isn’t too unusual, as that particular part of the trail is mixed use but it was the first time I’d seen someone on a horse that was galloping. Given that the path is not especially wide it seemed odd. Maybe the horse had to pee.
The run was remarkably similar to Wednesday’s, although I managed to shave three more seconds off my pace, a modest but welcome improvement. With an average of 5:33/km I have an unofficial target of beating 5:30. I hope to do so next week as I continue to increase my endurance.
Here are the top-grossing movies domestically for 2011 (domestically refers to Canada and the U.S. As you’ll see, worldwide grosses paint a somewhat different picture):
1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 $381,011,219
2 Transformers: Dark of the Moon $352,390,543
3 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 $281,287,133
4 The Hangover Part II $254,464,305
5 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $241,071,802
6 Fast Five $209,837,675
7 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol $209,278,301
8 Cars 2 $191,452,396
9 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows $186,842,737
10 Thor $181,030,624
This list can be summed up thusly: YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT TOO MANY SEQUELS. EVER. Exactly one of the top 10 movies is not a sequel and it — Thor — is based on a licensed property and is in a genre (superhero films) that has had titles cranked out regularly over the past decade.
Let’s have a look at each film and figure out why they made buckets of money (apart from exorbitant ticket prices).
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. If you include ‘in 3D’ this becomes one of the longest movie titles ever but no one can keep an accurate count of how many Harry Potter movies there are (7? 8?) so it never got called Harry Potter 7 (or 8), typically being referred to as simply ‘the new Harry Potter’. The success of this is no surprise because it wraps up the saga and all of the HP movies have done well. Most of them have been looked kindly upon by critics, too, which never hurts.
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Regarded as better than #2 (the very definition of damning with faint praise) the third installment proves the least popular of the trilogy (when taking into account ticket sales and not inflated ticket prices) — not a good sign for Michael “BLOW IT UP” Bay but $352 million even in 2011 dollars isn’t chump change, so this series seems safe for awhile or until it’s run into the ground (with Bay directing, this will probably literally happen).
3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Another popular series, the sparkly vampires continue to draw in its loyal audience with the penultimate film (at least until Twilight: The New Generation or something comes along). Like Harry Potter, they are squeezing out a few more bucks by splitting the last book into a two-part movie. While I can see this for HP, given that the first book was about 300 pages long and the last was about 10,000, it seems more of a money grab for Twilight. But hey, I have not read the books nor seen the movies, so who am I to judge? As a bonus, even the critics seem to be warming up to this saga of pasty white teenage/werewolf/undead love.
4. The Hangover Part II. Hey, another sequel. Weird! This one seems to have coasted a bit on the success of the first movie. A third is all but inevitable and probably won’t do as well. This will not stop a fourth or fifth from being made. This is the only live action comedy to make the top 10, proving again that for whatever reason people do not like to go to movies to laugh. Maybe the ticket prices put filmgoers more in the mind frame for tragedies.
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In North America the wind seems to no longer be in the sails much for this, although overseas it’s still incredibly popular (over $802 million), so Johnny Depp can probably continue to wear eye makeup (and get paid for it) into the foreseeable future.
6. Fast Five. I am surprised at the resiliency of this series. The April release would suggest it was viewed as not cut out to be a summer movie yet it did boffo box office. People really like Vin Diesel and fast cars, it seems. Don’t blame me if Diesel uses this to leverage a new Chronicles of Riddick movie, I never saw it!
7. Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Another sequel, another surprise. After a tepid reaction to #3 people returned in greater numbers to watch Tom Cruise running again. He can probably crank out a few more before shifting into the inevitable character (‘I’m too old to be a leading man anymore’) parts.
8. Cars 2. The second worst-performing Pixar movie ever and after adjusting for inflation the worst. While you can’t really call a movie that makes close to $200 million a flop, it clearly underperformed. This is what happens when merchandising is a primary consideration and the audience can sense it. This won’t stop them from making Cars 3 before The Incredibles 2, though. There is no justice. This was the only animated film to crack the top 10, a bit unusual in itself.
9. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Exemplifying both ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ and ‘more of the same’ the sequel to Sherlock Holmes managed to do almost as well as the first, which means it’s probably considered a failure of sorts. Expect more explosions or zombies or exploding zombies in the third one.
10. Thor. Wait, this isn’t a sequel. How did this get here? Thor is, of course, based on the Marvel comic character and under the direction of Kenneth Branagh (!) it proved a solid hit. But before they can stamp out Thor 2, Thor 3 and Thor 4: I Adore there’s The Avengers movie this summer. I find it hard to imagine a sequel to this but on the other hand, do we really want them to remake The Incredible Hulk again?
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW < NEW
Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Cloud and sun
Temp: 9ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 701
Average pace: 5:36/km
Total distance to date: 1140 km
It felt rather cool this afternoon under a cloudy but non-threatening sky. I opted to wear my jacket and initially it was a wise choice. About midway through the run the sun came out and by the 6K mark I was warm enough that I doffed it but it was nice not to be all chilly for the first stretch of the run.
I opted for a CCW router today and set a deliberate pace. After Monday’s slog I was merely hoping to improve. If you look at my initial km below it may look like I backslid even more, coming in at a poky 5:17/km, a full 14 seconds slower than on Monday. However, if you look at the next km you’ll see I only dropped by two seconds to 5:19/km. This was the difference. I maintained a much steadier overall pace today and ended up with an average time of 5:36/km, 17 seconds better than the 5:53 on my previous run. I am quite pleased by this.
I did experience some light cramps but elected to just keep going steady and let them subside instead of breaking.
As for conditions, it was entirely pleasant once the sun came out and crews were out again spreading fresh gravel along the northern stretch. And in a sure sign of spring I spotted the first black slug of the season on the trail, a little baby one maybe 1/4 the size of a mommy or daddy slug. It was about as cute as something that leaves a trail of slime behind it can be.
Unlike the last two runs the left pad of my foot did not feel sore after the run. I’m not sure if I had been favoring it or if something else was happening but it felt fine today, so that’s also a bit of good news.
Reading about my runs is pretty dry for everyone but me and sometimes even I find it a bit dry. There’s only so many ways to wax poetic about exercise you do multiple times a week.
On August 18, 2011 my partner and I went for a stroll around Burnaby Lake. A full circuit around the lake takes about two hours when walking and covers a little over 10 km. I chronicled our walk in pictures that day and have (8 months later!) sorted them out for perusal.
Burnaby Lake is the largest urban lake in the Lower Mainland/Metro Vancouver area and has more lilypads than any other place on Earth. Or at least it seems that way. There are always plenty of birds splashing about, sunning, eating and doing generally bird-like things, copious numbers of black slugs in the warmer months and apparently turtles and fish, though I have yet to see a single turtle or fish and regard their presence at the lake as the stuff of myth and legend.
This is a modified copy of the lake map where I’ve superimposed my running route (the original is available here as a PDF). Click on it to see the detail better. My route is in red with a red dot marking the parking lot that serves as the starting point. I generally run the traditional counter-clockwise though I sometimes mix it up and run clockwise because I can be crazy like that.
Here are a few random highlights from the gallery. Click to embiggen each image.
[singlepic id=436 w=400 h=300 float=none]
Cariboo Dam.
[singlepic id=460 w=400 h=300 float=none]
View of the lake from one of the bridges.
[singlepic id=453 w=400 h=300 float=none]
If you want to touch trees, you’ve come to the right place.
Full gallery of Burnaby Lake which guides you around the lake counter-clockwise. It’s like going for a jog without any of the effort or sweating.
