Run 537: A bear-able run

Run 537
Average pace: 5:41/km
Location: Brunette Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:29 am
Distance: 8.04 km
Time: 45:47
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-22ºC
Humidity: 33%
Wind: light
BPM: 157
Weight: 155.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4182 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

On Friday afternoon as I was madly strolling to the SkyTrain station after work I noticed a sudden tweaking sensation in one of the muscles in my upper left leg, a little above the knee. This is one of the muscles that comes alive when I’m doing my lunch power walks but not one I notice as much when running.

The tweaking turned to actual pain when I made my way down the stairs into the station. Each time I stepped down I felt it sing a little. This seemed ominous.

Going down the stairs into the condo complex later was not as bad but it was clear a muscle was very stiff/sore in my upper left leg. I chilled out for the night and planned on a regular–if less intense–run today.

The muscle was still stiff but I headed out and my walk to the lake, deliberately slower, went without incident. I started the run, promising myself to a) keep the pace slower and b) stop if the leg started to hurt.

For the first 5K things went okay. The muscle was stiff but tolerable. By the time I was in the second half of the run the stiffness was getting worse and it was getting more difficult to maintain pace. At the 7K mark I figured if the stiffness stayed where it was I would finish, otherwise I’d stop early.

Alas, the stiffness continued to get worse so I stopped just after the 8K mark and walked out. I then walked up the the Production Way SkyTrain station to save myself about 3 km on walking back home, the better to rest.

The muscle stayed fairly stiff through the rest of the day.

This morning (note that while the date for this post is Saturday the 16th I am writing the entry on Sunday the 17th) I can still feel the muscle but the stiffness is pretty much gone when just casually walking around the condo. I’ll be heading out soon to do some errands, so I’ll see what it feels like when walking close to a normal pace. I’m hopeful that as I’m in my two-days-off period from running that it will recover enough to at least allow for short runs and that it isn’t hurt more seriously.

It would be the height of irony if an injury from walking ended my running early for the year. It would also suck corn dogs.

As for the actual run itself, conditions were nice–pleasantly warm, with low humidity. Energy-wise, the slower pace kept me feeling comfortable and the area around the 5K marker (still missing) wasn’t closed off. They had added a layer of finer gravel on top of the other new gravel and steamrolled it, making the surface much nice for walking and running. I expect they will finish the entire stretch over the coming weeks.

When I came into this stretch I noticed two people stopping to talk to a runner ahead of me. I had no idea what they were saying but the runner jogged back toward me and signaled to get my attention. She informed me that there was a bear up ahead. If you’re going to see bears on the trail, this is probably the best place, because being next to the fields gives you lots of room to steer a wide path around said bear.

I’d had this happen before but never seen the alleged bear. Today was different.

Strolling causally maybe 50 m up the trail from me there was indeed a black bear. I scooted out onto the field (a soccer game or other ball-oriented game was taking place just a short distance up the same field) and made sure I had enough space between me and the bear to insure that the bear didn’t think I was running away from it (which would be bad). The bear didn’t seem to notice, though. It just kept walking slowly along the trail, keeping to itself.

I saw a few people taking pictures, of course. I paused briefly before ducking out of sight around the corner, to assess the bear’s trajectory. I felt I’d be safe for the rest of the run. I hoped it wouldn’t eat all of the soccer players.

Did I run farther to create more distance between myself and the bear? It occurred to me to do this, actually, but no, I just ran as far as I could comfortably manage.

My pace was a slothful 5:41/km, which was expected given the bear hijinks and the stiff leg. To illustrate how cautiously I started, my first km was 5:43/km. My fastest came during the 6 km mark and it was still only 5:31/km.

Overall, a weird and eventful run. I’m hoping that the stiff muscle in the left leg is only just that–stiff, not actually pulled. I’ve applied some stinky Rub-A535 to it this morning and will see how it holds up when I’m out and aboot today.

Book review: Cold on the Mountain

Cold on the MountainCold on the Mountain by Daniel Powell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a solid little horror novel that feels more like an expanded short story. There are no side plots or other distractions here, just a Point A to Point B story about a family that takes a shortcut in the Sierra Nevada mountains that leads them into the small town of Adrienne, a place where evil gathers (literally, all the bad people of the world end up here after they die).

As part of the contingent of “normals” that blunder into Adrienne, Phil and Wendy Benson are forced to work for the “dark ones” to earn a chance for a once-a-year lottery that sees a bunch of people, both good and bad, released back into the world via magic portal. Adrienne is host to demons, serial killers, Joseph Goebbels (“Call me Joseph”) and the teenage Columbine killers who are never mentioned by name and are weirdly depicted as cartoonish villains.

There is some nice tension as the family struggles to both follow the rules and sometimes defy them, knowing the dire consequences of being caught, but the story is almost too efficient as it speeds along to the endgame, the various pieces all falling in place so quickly there is little time to allow events to sink in. The reader learns about Adrienne but it only ever feels like the surface is examined.

Phil, the protagonist of the story, comes across as a decent but ultimately bland kind of everyman. Bo, his brother on the other side, leads a search to find him and his family, and at one point he and his girlfriend come to believe it’s essential to get the local sheriff on-board to make their kooky plan to free the normals of Adrienne work, though it’s never stated exactly why he’s needed. The sheriff is nice enough as a character, but he becomes increasingly non-essential as the story progresses, to the point where I almost felt his alleged need was a deliberate red herring.

The conclusion will likely leave a lot of readers with a “What happened next?” feeling but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, Cold on the Mountain has a comfortable old school horror feel to it. The journey is brisk–perhaps too much so–but the action certainly keeps rolling along.

View all my reviews

Run 536: A fast 5K with no chest mishaps

Run 536
Average pace: 5:12/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:26 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 26:12
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-21ºC
Humidity: 30%
Wind: light
BPM: 171
Weight: 155.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 4174 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

One of the minor annoying things about after-dinner summer runs is the sun is low enough in the sky to shine directly into your eyes.

The fact that the sun was already too low to do that tonight is a good indication that summer is coming to an end. Also, all of the rain in next week’s forecast. My poor nipples. 🙁

And speaking of, I wore one of my sleeveless shirts tonight because the fabric is a little lighter and smoother than my other running shirts. Since I was going without nipple protection, this seemed to be the best way to avoid another chest-related bleedapalooza. And it turned out fine. I think I’ll only really have to cover up, so to speak, when it is raining, because that’s when the clothes start sticking.

So next week, as per the forecast I mentioned above.

Two things I noticed on the trail tonight: the first was a pervasive dusty odor. Despite the bit of rain we had on the weekend and a brief shower yesterday morning, it’s still quite dry, so cyclists are still churning up clouds of dust along the river trail. Weirdly, the whole trail still smelled of dust even when none was visible hanging in the air. It was kind of weird.

The other thing I noticed were lots of cyclists. They were all well-behaved, so no issues there.

Conditions were quite nice. With the sun tucked behind the trees and the temperature hovering around 20ºC it was nice and comfy, with only minimal sweating and no real dry mouth to bother me.

My idea was to settle back a bit after the last few runs but I somehow managed to end up with my fastest 5K of the year, at 5:12/km. My last km pace was 4:546/km, marking the first time this year I’ve broken the five minute mark.

At one point it felt like a stitch was going to develop, so I eased up a little, but even that had no effect on the overall pace.

My BPM was back up to 171, which is about where it goes when I basically sprint for an extended stretch.

I’ll try to moderate my pace for real next time.

Also, it was starting to get dark about fiften minutes after I got home, meaning the extended runs along the river and then to the lake are pretty much done for the year, there simply won’t be enough daylight after dinner. Alas. Even the 5K runs are going to start getting iffy in about a month’s time. I’ll have to decide between treadmill or noon runs then. I don’t like either option.

But for tonight, I soared.

Run 535: Protecting nipples

Run 535
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:59 pm
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 54:29
Weather: Sun and cloud mix
Temp: 18-21ºC
Humidity: 62%
Wind: light
BPM: 161
Weight: 155.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4169 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I was having trouble with the plumbing so stayed home from work today. By early afternoon things seemed better enough to prompt me to do my run then instead of waiting until after dinner.

I reluctantly shaved my chest after Saturday’s run in order to make it easier/less painful to protect my strangely sensitive nipples. I covered each with a Band Aid before heading out because even though there was no rain in the forecast and it was warmer, I wasn’t taking a chance.

It proved unnecessary because a) it didn’t rain and b) it was warmer. Plus now the skin under the Band Aids is red after I removed them. Oh well. Maybe I’ll look into official Nipple Guards® or something in the future.

The sky was clouded over, which is nice for a run when the same clouds don’t empty a bunch of cold water on you. Less than a km into the run the sun started poking out and while it never got hot, the jump in temperature from 18-21ºC was noticeable.

I felt decent for the first half of the run, even peppy, but started feeling a bit tired on the second half as the temperature climbed and the sun did its thing. Annoyingly, they were doing more work on the trail near the now-absent 5K marker, forcing me to run across the field, which is lumpier than I’d expect for a sports field. Maybe I’m just used to running on gravel.

Looking at my splits, I got off to a sluggish start at 5:28/km but dashed along at 5:17/km for both the fourth and fifth km. Interestingly, the same thing happened on Saturday, when I was running counter-clockwise. I have no real explanation for this.

And speaking of detours, the sewer construction around the condo expanded today to the point where my three-block walk to Hume Park turned into a maze-like journey that added more than a km to my walk to Burnaby Lake. Never live near construction if you can help it, kids!

The slower pace meant my BPM was also down, to 161. Overall, it was still easily my second-best 10K of the year and with no other issues, a solid effort. Even better, I didn’t finish covered in mud and blood. Never finish a run covered in mud and blood, kids!

Run 534: Racin’ in the rain with bonus nipple nightmare

Run 534
Average pace: 5:21/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:52 am
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 53:50
Weather: Rain
Temp: 14ºC
Humidity: 86%
Wind: light
BPM: 169
Weight: 156.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4159 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

The weather finally changed yesterday and today it changed even more, with lower temperatures, actual rain and the blessed end of the smoke haze (again).

I was curious to see how it would go with the different conditions, and it turned out to be very different.

And also mildly horrifying. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

It was 14ºC and showering steadily when I headed out and stayed that way before, during and after the run. The only change was sometimes during the run it would start to rain a little harder, then ease up. It’s the first time in months that I’ve run in rain from end to end.

My hands actually felt a bit cold by the time I got to the lake. It was weird.

A large walking group was assembled near the dam, their umbrellas jostling against each other. Fortunately they had just ended their damp jaunt so they weren’t an obstacle. A second group later on were actually parked out of the way at a trail intersection, being talked to by their presumed leader (“Glad we all brought umbrellas today, lol!”)

What surprised me, though, were the number of joggers out. The spitfire was out, as were plenty of others. Naturally a pair of tall, thin, supersonic jets were speeding along the first boardwalk (after I’d already dodged an umbrella-carrying couple). Fortunately they were so thin I slipped by without too much trouble.

More than any other recent run I felt genuinely energized. I never pushed to run fast, I just naturally gravitated to doing so. If I was sweating at all it was impossible to tell as I started the run thoroughly drenched. By the halfway point I stopped trying to dodge all of the shallow puddles and instead embraced them. When I got home I had mud and muck above my knees. And everywhere below them.

The energy level wasn’t all in my head as my pace was a relatively blazing 5:21/km–that’s a full 19 seconds better than Monday’s 10K and only five seconds off Thursday’s 5K. Yes, that’s how much my performance is affected by warmer temperatures. Who knows how fast I’d be running at the Arctic Circle. My BPM was also way up, to 169, not surprising as I was moving a lot faster and over a longer distance, but I felt surprisingly good throughout.

It was only on my walk back after that I noticed something wrong.

I have over the last few years developed strangely and highly sensitive nipples. Why, I don’t know. It’s annoying. What I do know is that if I run in the cold or in the rain (even a summer rain will leave your skin feeling cold), the nipples will start to ache. When I get home after such runs I need to let my skin temperature get closer to normal before having a shower or bath to avoid turning the ache into a glowing pain.

As I walked along the now-raging river, I could feel the nipples doing their thing. I looked down at my chest, as I do from time to time, and noticed a strange streak of dark orange (the shirt I was wearing today was orange). It looked like the fabric was bleeding color. I lifted the shirt to see if my skin was now stained the same color, but it looked fine. I kept looking up and noticed something strange and mildly horrifying.

My nipple was bleeding.

Both of my nipples was bleeding. The stains I was seeing were trails of blood. I was simultaneously grossed out and embarrassed.

There wasn’t anything to do, so I kept walking and tried to cover up the twin tracks of nipple bleeding as I passed by others. When I got home I doffed the shirt and confirmed the obvious. It was like I was lactating blood.

Grossbuckets.

I rinsed the shirt in cold water and presumably because it was fresh, the blood washed out with little effort. I then hit the web to be my own doctor and found that “runner nipples” are such a common thing that some running stores sell nipple guards to prevent what had happened to me.

What had happened to me? When my shirt got thoroughly-soaked it started to cling to my skin but the motion of running meant that the fabric continued to saw back and forth across my chest. This chafing action can cause the skin at the top of the nipples to break. When it breaks, it bleeds. Making it stop during a run is pretty much impossible, so preventative measures to avoid chafing are advised:

  • wear band aids over the nipples
  • wear those weird nipple guards
  • apply petroleum jelly or some other lubricant (presumably one that won’t stain and ruin your shirt)
  • wear a waterproof out layer

I suppose you could also try running topless. In fact, just after I crossed Still Creek bridge I saw three guys who, judging from their stances, had just finished a run. They were young and chiselled and none of them had bleeding nipples so I hated them a little. Actually, my nipples weren’t bleeding at the time, but I hated them, anyway.

I’ll probably try band aids and see if they work. I’ll have to do some shaving as I have a hairy chest. Curse my hair and nipples, I say.

The trail itself was mostly fine for the first half of the run but a puddle-palooza in the second half. I did see one change–near the 5K marker they’ve piled on another layer of gravel, further elevating that stretch of the trail. The 5K marker was also missing, possibly buried under all the new gravel. I am assuming they’ll continue with the bonus layer of gravel along that entire stretch. No flooding so far!

Despite the bloody chest and incessant rain, it was nice to have real energy and not feel slowed down by the weather for a change, so overall, a good run.

Run 533: Return of the smoke haze

Run 533
Average pace: 5:16/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:51 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 26:36
Weather: Smoke haze
Temp: 22ºC
Humidity: 72%
Wind: light
BPM: 149
Weight: 156.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 4149 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

It turned out the forecast was sort of right for today’s run. It was 22ºC and cloudy–but most of the cloud was actually the return of the smoke haze. Boo. It seems a little weaker this time, at least, so the air isn’t quite as stinky.

It was humid as all get-out, though, so no dry mouth but much wet everything else as I sweated like a well-oiled sweating machine.

I opted for a basic 5K tonight as I headed out later than planned and intended to find a comfortable pace. I somehow managed to fall into a cadence that felt nearly perfect, and felt very light on my feet as a result. I didn’t really push at all until the final km.

As a result, my pace was 5:16/km, only one second off my best for the year, and my BPM was a low 149. For much of the run I was even able to breathe through my nose. This doesn’t sound impressive to a non-runner, perhaps (“Duh, I breathe through my nose all the time!”) but try jogging hard for a few km with your mouth closed and see what happens.

No issues at all on the run and only a few people opted to hit the trail on this rather dreary-looking evening. The shadows are starting to get a little more ominous with the sun setting earlier.

Overall, a spiffy and pleasing effort, despite the grossbuckets conditions.

Book review: The Ways We End: Six Tales of Doom

The Ways We End: Six Tales of Doom (Dark Collections Book 1)The Ways We End: Six Tales of Doom by Ann Christy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The bland cover of The Ways We End (at least of the ebook edition) is unfortunate because it may turn away potential readers and they would miss out on a terrific collection of stories by Ann Christy that depict apocalyptic scenarios that deviate from or subvert the usual zombies/nuclear war/alien invasion tropes. Even the author’s notes at the end of each story are a delight, conveying the infectious joy Christy had in both writing the stories and their reception.

All six stories are well worth reading and are best without spoilers, so here’s some quick takes, in order:

“A Cottage of Hunger” puts together a rules-following protagonist, her quite mad mother and a lost teenage girl in a world where the sun is permanently blotted out in the sky. It raises interesting questions on how far some people might go to preserve a sense of order, believing they are doing the right–the proper–thing.

“The Mergans” is a story set in the far future, where descendants of Earth have formed a galactic “Peace Force” that uses its military might to intervene in corrupted cultures of planets colonized from seed ships, mostly by blasting everything to smithereens. The particular culture in “The Mergans” is especially ghastly in its treatment of women, but its liberators may not be quite what they seem, either.

“The Mountains of Five” follows the journey of a 12-year old girl exiled from her village and forced to find her way through a dystopian landscape. I found this story particularly evocative, its spare prose perfectly capturing both the spirit of the titular girl, Five, and her dangerous journey. There is a twist ending of sorts, but the astute reader will likely see it coming. It doesn’t make the story any less effective, though.

“The Bridge.” As Christy notes, this is a quick little “spooky campfire” story and it works nicely for what it is, but it is the slightest of the stories collected here. Still, trolls.

“Rock or Shell” is a time travel story that hints at larger mysteries while never fully revealing them, leaving the reader with a sense that there is a lot more to this depiction of a mist-like realm where thought alone can send someone off into nothingness, erasing them from time and space. Dashes of humor lighten the constant undercurrent of tension.

“A Mother So Beautiful” is probably the darkest and most disturbing tale of the collection. It eschews the body horror of “The Mergans” in favor of telling the story of a sociopath whose mother attempts to stamp out aggression through genetics and achieves horrific success. Watching the world disintegrate from the eyes of a profoundly unstable person is something that will stay with you well after the story ends.

Overall, a fine collection of doom, where some hope or happy endings are (usually) at hand. Recommended.

View all my reviews

Run 532: It’s not the humidity, it’s the bug you just swallowed

Run 532
Average pace: 5:40/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:45 am
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 56:50
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 24-26ºC
Humidity: 55%
Wind: light
BPM: 160
Weight: 156.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 4144 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

It’s Labor Day so I went out and labored on a 10K run.

It was warmer than yesterday but my early start saved me from having to run in 30ºC+ temperatures. It was 24ºC at the start and 26ºC by the end of the run. It was also more humid so the sunny stretches found me sweating like some kind of machine designed for maximum sweating.

I didn’t experience any issues on this run, I was just generally a little slower, given the extra heat and humidity. My pace was 5:40/km, four seconds off Saturday, but consistent with the yuckier conditions.

The trail was fairly busy but unlike the last run there were no near-collisions. On the Cottonwood Trail I was humming along and doing fine in the shade of the canopy. The long version of “Disco Inferno” had just started playing (that song is long enough to last several km of running) when I felt a sudden catch in my throat. While grooving out I had swallowed a bug. Knowing a coughing fit was bound to ensue, I summoned up as much saliva as I could (sort of ew, sorry) and swallowed hard, twice. Better to just down the thing that try to spit it back out.

This did not work. Instead I started hacking fiercely and, strangely, I actually did manage to spit the bug out and was immediately fine after that.

I am uncertain if the bug survived. Sorry, bug!

The run went otherwise without incident, though the conditions were definitely eating away at my strength. I’ve been running just long enough in more seasonal temperatures that this Africa hot-stuff is throwing me off. It’s expected to last a few more days then the possibility of actual precipitation is in the forecast. I’m not running tomorrow and have a bike ride planned for Wednesday so my next run will likely be Thursday after work. The current forecast is calling for a pleasant high of 23ºC and cloudy skies. Good running weather!

Run 531: Long weekend EVERYONE GO TO THE LAKE

Run 531
Average pace: 5:36/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:39 am
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 56:14
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-25ºC
Humidity: 48%
Wind: light
BPM: 155
Weight: 156 pounds
Total distance to date: 4134 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

Given the forecast (Africa hot) I thought it might be prudent to start the run earlier in the morning and to run clockwise, as there is less canopy in the first half of the loop when running this way, meaning I would face it while it was a little cooler.

I was wise to follow this plan. It was already 20ºC when I started out and was up to 25ºC by the end of the run less than an hour later. You feel a five-degree change in temperature.

Fortunately, the humidity was low so it remained tolerable (though I did experience some dry mouth, something that hasn’t happened much this sticky, sweaty summer). I initially tried to moderate my pace after a week off from running 10Ks and indeed, I felt a stitch in my lower-left abdomen around the 8K mark. I eased up a bit and it went away fairly quickly.

I also had a weird déjà vu moment as I ran down the part of the Conifer Loop with the tree root that tripped me up last summer. At around 10:10 a.m. the sun was still low enough in the sky that it was slanting through the trees in such a way that it created a flickering effect in my peripheral vision. This, combined with the trail being cast in a dappled combination of bright and dark areas made it difficult to see what was actually coming up even right in front of me. It’s quite possible that if I was running on the same side of the trail as the tree root that I might have tripped on it again, even knowing where it was.

I did not run on the same side of the trail.

I ended up with a pace of 5:36/km, a little slower than my previous 10K, but consistent with the higher temperatures.

This is the Labour Day long weekend and it turns out that this year a lot of people wanted to spend the first morning of it at the lake, as the trail was replete with pedestrians, joggers and one horse.

But no cyclists, hooray!

However, the most annoying moment came when I approached the second boardwalk. The boardwalks only allow for two people to comfortably walk/jog beside each other and because they are elevated, it’s not possible to duck out of someone’s way. I got onto the boardwalk, which in the clockwise direction, has a corner right at the start, and was immediately confronted by a pair of joggers moving fairly swiftly. The one to my immediate left did nothing to make room for me. I had to nearly stop so I could shift and get out of the way to keep from falling off the boardwalk.

That jogger was:

  • selfish
  • careless
  • going to get attacked by a rabid goose, if there is such a thing as karma

Really, the pair should have been moving slower and running single file. It’s just common sense given the conditions imposed by the boardwalk. Anyway, it was weird to be annoyed by another jogger instead of a cyclist.

Despite the near-collision, it was still a good run overall and the new shoes were problem-free, so yay.

Mechanical indecision

I recently bought a Cherry MX switch tester from WASD keyboards. It’s cute in a geeky sort of way and makes for a decent conversation piece:

I don’t actually leave it parked beside my mouse.

Its purpose is to let you try different types of mechanical keyboard switches without spending $1000 on six full-size mechanical keyboards. It also came with cute little o-rings that can be inserted to dampen the sound. The blue switch on the far right, for example, makes a very loud CLACK when you bottom out the key and I hit keys like someone trying to ring the bell on a strongman machine at the fairground, so this is important to me.

But after clicking and CLACKing I am still uncertain which one I like best. The blues actually feel nice to me and the noise isn’t really an issue since I’m just typing all by my lonesome here. The browns I find unsatisfying. They lack the satisfying CLACK of blues and feel like an inadequate compromise between the blues’ firmness and noise level.

The reds have very little CLACK and are fairly quiet as a result. The action is smoother than the browns, so they seem like a good choice if I decide noise is important after all. Possible drawback: accidental actuation if my fingers go rogue, since they require less force (especially compared to the blacks as noted below).

Blacks feel like firmer reds, with little difference in noise.

Clears feel firm but have less CLACK. Sort of a kinder, gentler blue, even if they require about the same force to actuate.

Finally, greens are, according to WASD’s mechanical keyboard guide, “almost identical to the Blue switches, but have a harder spring for a much higher actuation force.” This does not strike me as a good thing.

Reading over the above, I can rule out:

  • brown switches (unsatisfying compromise)
  • green switches (blues have the same CLACK but don’t require as much force)
  • clear switches (very similar to the greens)
  • black switches (no CLACK and requires a lot of force)

Of the remaining two:

  • blues have great CLACK and moderate actuation force
  • reds have no CLACK but require less force than blues

So it really comes down to CLACK or no CLACK. I am leaning toward CLACK.

I may bring out my DAS blue switch keyboard again to remind myself what blues are like. The eventual new keyboard will be an 87-key model, meaning it will not include the numeric keypad (which the Das and my current Logitech keyboards have). Smaller keyboards are more ergonomic and I don’t really use the numeric keypad that often (and can always get a separate one if I really missed it).

WASD lets you choose both the design and color of the keycaps. I’m still experimenting with the trillions of combinations but I’m liking this distinguished black and gray variation I came up with that uses a centered layout for the lettering:

I shall decide soon™.

Save

Haiku for a pants-free month

I didn’t wear pants for the entire month of August. It only rained once, overnight while I was sleeping. Even the few cloudy days were warm. The smoky, hazy days were downright hot.

This calls for a haiku.

August was dry and hot
My pants would have been on fire
Solution: pants-free

August 2017 weight loss report: Down 4.0 pounds

For the month of August:

August 1: 159.8 pounds
August 31: 155.8 pounds

Year to date: From 165.9 to 155.8 pounds (down 10.1 pounds)

I stayed consistently below 160 pounds this month, ending the month at my lowest weight, 155.8 pounds. For the month I’ve lost four pounds, proof that running a crazy amount may have some effect on burning fat.

For the year to date I have gone from 165.9 to 155.8 pounds, a total weight loss of 10.1 pounds, putting me within reach of my official goal of 150 pounds and not much further from my unofficial goal of 145 pounds. Looking at my waistline now I think it’s fair to say I still have more than five pounds of fat clinging tenaciously to my mid-section, so 145 is probably the more realistic goal.

I did not switch to an all-donuts diet as I had feared.

Body fat for the first eight months of the year:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
August 31: 16.7% (26.1 pounds of fat)