Average pace: 4:31/km Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.06 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 12ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 355
Total distance to date: 2075 km
The weather was about perfect for today’s run and it was my first of the month where I wore a short-sleeved shirt (and didn’t feel cold, to boot).
I was again mindful of how my stamina is not quite there yet and paced myself deliberately for the first km or so. The last few again felt much better and I finished with my best time to date of the four 5K runs this month, coming in at 4:31/km.
The only note of caution was my right ankle feeling a bit tweaked. This isn’t related to the tendon and I’m pretty sure it was just strained because I had spent a lot of time today at work crouched down while working on computers. Everything feels fine now that I’ve rested and there was never any pain, just soreness. Still, worth noting now in case it does become an issue. Heck, I’ll even add the ‘stupid ankle’ tag just for the heck of it.
Average pace: 4:36/km Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Overcast, light rain
Temp: 8-6ºC
Wind: moderate to strong
Calories burned: 355
Total distance to date: 2070 km (adjusted to what Nike+ is reporting–this may be taking into account a few walks that were uploaded)
I skipped the planned run on Thursday because I got home a little late and the weather at the time was a torrential downpour and with only two real runs in this year I couldn’t muster the desire to go out and get soaked to the butt. I also don’t have a proper weather-treated top yet, which I should probably do, since the chance of having rain-free runs for the rest of the year is approximately zero (times infinity).
As for the run itself, I charged out a little faster than I should have and as a result the second km left me feeling a bit more winded than I would have liked. I moderated my pace and felt fine for the remainder, though. It was rather brisk and the temperature actually dropped 2 degrees over the course of the run. It was warmer three weeks ago in March but April is often a blah month when it comes to weather.
I ended with a pace of 4:36/km, two seconds better than the previous run, so it’s nice to see I’m at being fairly consistent. The right foot is still not presenting any issues, also a plus.
I plan on doing two more 5Ks this week on Tuesday and Thursday, then I may try my first 10K on the weekend.
Amusingly, the iPod Nike+ app is still using Lance “Yes, perhaps I used steroids a lot” Armstrong’s voice to offer congratulations but they’ve surgically removed the bit where he identifies himself. If you don’t know his voice, it seems like some random guy saying “Good job!”
Tiger “I’ll trade my wife for 12 of yours” Woods, by comparison, still identifies himself because his transgression was outside the actual sport he plays in. If he starts cheating in golf Nike may have to start canvassing for new voices for the Nike+ app.
I’ve added a widget to the site that lists various social media links in handy and relatively non-obtrusive graphical form. You can find the icons listed under Archives. Right now these include links to my profiles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Steam, Goodreads and My Fitness Pal.
As I’ve mentioned before, when it comes to social media I take a less-is-more approach. Here’s my current activity on each of the above:
Facebook: used for messaging one friend. I log in just often enough for it to not pester me to log in due to inactivity.
Google Plus: similar to FB except without the messaging of a friend.
Twitter: I’ve made one ‘real’ tweet and a few to Nike’s support, which is primarily Twitter-based. Brevity is not my strong suit.
Steam: I play games on Steam, yes. Not as often as in days of yore but this counts as active.
Goodreads: signed up a few months ago, currently getting cobwebby.
My Fitness Pal: used every day but rather uninteresting as all I do is post meal and exercise updates. Heck, even I find it kind of boring.
If I find other sites to connect with and then ignore, I’ll be sure to link them here in the future.
Average pace: 4:38/km Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.02 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 14ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 354
Total distance to date: 2043.5 km
Today was the first time this year I followed up a run with another two days later, as per my normal running schedule. After getting home from work I donned my jogging duds and set off for a 5 km run down the Brunette River trail. The weather was sunny and pleasantly mild.
Foot-wise it was similar to Sunday, with the right foot feeling a bit sore early on but improving dramatically after warming up and feeling fine afterward.
Stamina-wise I ended up a bit slower — 4:38/km instead of 4:34/km, but I think that was mainly due to my body adjusting to the shorter gap between runs (or rather, doing runs plural at all). I again avoided any outright discomfort from cramping and whatnot.
Overall, a good stepping stone on the road to running recovery. Mmm, mixed metaphors.
Average pace: 4:34/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.02 km
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 7-9ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 357
Total distance to date: 2048.5 km
Today was my first official™ run of the year. With the wind light, the sky nor threatening rain and no handy excuses for not heading out, I donned shorts, t-shirt and cap and set off for Burnaby Lake. My plan was to walk to the lake, run 5 km (or make a brave attempt) then walk the remainder of the lake and back home.
The one warning sign I had heading out was a certain level of discomfort in my left foot, where the pad and the toes join up. This is also the part that hits the ground when walking. It was sore because without my footrest I sometimes stupidly slouch in the computer chair and press the foot into the wall in a way that is, shall we say, sub-optimal.
I arrived at the lake, set the shiny new iPod to 5 km and set off on a pace that was deliberately deliberate. I was going to be extra-careful about overdoing it.
Much to my surprise I kept up a consistent pace and reached the 5K mark in a little under 23 minutes, finishing with a pace of 4:34, impressive even for 5 km. While my chest felt like it was going to cramp for most of the run it never did and though each incline felt like tiny anchors were suddenly attached to my feet I kept up the pace. Overall I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased by the performance.
The right foot also felt fine. While the bump where the tendon was hurt can be felt it’s not at all painful and was fine before and after the run. My left foot (not to be confused with the movie) hurt like almighty heck on the 10 km or so walk back home, though. Holy cats it was bad. I may need to set up some kind of electro-shock thing to make sure I never ever slouch and press my foot against the wall again.
It feels mostly fine now.
The most notable thing about the run was probably the debris left over from yesterday’s storm (which featured rather intense hail at one point). On the top stairway leading down to Lower Hume Park a tree had collapsed, smashing through the railing but thoughtfully landing in such a way that it didn’t block the stairs. At about the 8 km mark of the Burnaby Lake trail another tree had snapped and managed to plunge itself top-end first into the trail itself (probably a good 20-30 cm into the earth), the rest sticking up at about a 45 degree angle. It was a rather bizarre sight. A number of other trees look like they are set to give way and some recently chainsawed pieces were evidence that more still had recently come down.
My next run is set for Tuesday after work and I’m planning on another 5K to see how that goes. Excelsior!
Found today in a library lab sitting on top of the keyboard:
The part that tripped me up was when I thought it said “slutty computer” and I was trying to determine how someone would reach that conclusion. Porn wallpaper? Lust moans for every Windows sound effect? DVD tray keeps sliding open? Then I read the note again and understood and was a little disappointed.
There are several artificial ponds in front of the library at Langara College. In the winter it is drained due to the chance that it could freeze and blow up pipes or something. But as of late March it’s been filled anew with water.
Earlier this week a pair of ducks took to swimming about in the main pond, a male and a female. A cute little duck couple.
The next day the female duck was gone and only the male paddled about the pond.
By day three there were again two ducks, except now both were males. Today, day four, the pair of male ducks were still there, swimming and then sunning at the pond.
The way I see it is like this:
The male and female duck had a fight. The female flew the coop–literally–leaving the male behind. The male swam about dejected and lonely. He put out a call to a buddy and was joined by him the next day. The buddy lent a sympathetic shoulder (if ducks had shoulders) and generally provided support and comfort. By the next day (things move quickly in duck world) the original male duck figured his buddy looked pretty good and they agreed to try an ‘experimental’ relationship.
I expect next week an interloper in the form of a seagull will throw a wrench in the works.
After using Blocks2 for a good long while I felt it was time for a new coat of paint on the website and have replaced Blocks2 with the Rembrandt theme by Tomasz Mazur. In terms of layout I’ve kept the site pretty much as it was before, right down to using the same header image (which will eventually change) but the body font is now the warmer but still very readable Georgia and the header font is Oswald, one of Google’s web fonts which has a classy modern look to it.
So far I haven’t messed with any CSS directly so I’m still using the parent theme but I expect to be mucking about in it soon enough so I’ll create a child theme to do that. While I never had to worry about changes overwriting the custom work I did to Blocks2 (since it was never updated) that could potentially be a problem with Rembrandt.
For comparison and archival purposes, here is a shot of the modified Blocks2 theme I was using previously:
Blocks2 blog look
Now I am back to the usual problem of generating worthwhile content.
Southern Gods is one of those books that can be glibly, though accurately, summed up with a trite phrase. In this case it would be “Cajun Cthulhu”. The title holds great promise on what turns out to be a strangely small scale adventure considering the subject matter of gods trying to destroy our world.
The story begins by following the lead of hired muscle “Bull” Ingram, a giant of a man who has been tasked by a DJ to track down a man he’s sent out to sell records to local radio stations. As Ingram journeys across the 1951 south he uncovers dark horrors that suggest the very world itself may be in peril due to malevolent and ancient gods trying to bust on through.
The early chapters are promising. Ingram is a rough but likable kind of lug and the mystery behind the pirate radio station that broadcasts music to go crazy by, along with Hastur, a devilish Blues musician, are set up nicely. Things start to come apart at the Ruby, a nightclub Ingram goes to in order to meet–and kill–Hastur. The scene is a literal orgy of violence that sets in motion the rest of the events and despite the author’s loving attention to every gory detail, the depiction fell flat for me. As I mentioned in the Broken Forum thread and in agreeing there with another poster, Drastic, when you’re openly invoking the Cthulhu mythos as Jacobs does here, sure you can bring your own take to the material but if you stray too far it’s no longer really Cthulhu anymore but its own thing. That in itself isn’t bad but reducing the Necronomicon to a book filled with grotesque imagery that makes you go crazy just looking at it, feels unconvincing. The angle with the music and singing, which struck me as far more interesting and original, is largely forgotten once the bad books are uncovered, to the story’s detriment.
The ‘love’ interest may as well have come with lug nuts, it was so blatantly bolted onto the plot. The other leading protagonist, Sarah, seemed to switch between being weird and emotional to focused and strong more on the requirements of the story than through any natural character arc. I felt nothing in regards to the daughter Franny’s fate because for most of the book the character is tucked away in the background.
In the end, what started out as an intriguing take on the Cthulhu mythos ends up a disappointment that focuses on the wrong things. I also noticed a strangely high number of typos and grammatical errors in the book. Somewhere in the first half of this book is a great take on the Cthulhu setting but the second half squanders it for what is basically a protracted slugfest. Not exactly what I imagined in a ‘evil gods out to enslave humanity’ story.
April Fools Day, especially in the era of the Internet, seems to be split between clever and obviously fake ads, stories and such, along with other ‘pranks’ that are mean-spirited, insulting or deliberately meant to confuse and/or falsely raise expectations.
I’m glad it only comes once a year.
On the plus side, today was another sunny, mild day. The weather is expected to change tomorrow but I’ve taken advantage and walked or run over 40 km in the past three days. My feet may not be on speaking terms with me at the moment but I plan to bribe them with new comfy shoes next weekend.
Today under sunny skies and with the temperature a positively balmy 15ºC I headed back to Mercer Stadium to do one more calibration run.
My plan was to do four laps or 1.6 km and I completed the run with a corrected pace of 4:59/km. Pretty slow compared to a typical pace but being able to clock under five minutes after four months off is not too bad. The little Achilles tendon lump in my foot could be felt for the first lap or so but I didn’t notice it for the rest of the laps. My stamina felt a wee bit improved over the last calibration and this time I was able to calibrate to the actual distance I ran so in theory it should be accurate as all get-out.
The only incident of note was when a small kid (maybe 3 or 4) stood by the inner lane on the playing field. I watched as he was poised to directly enter my path. He father, a distance away, was calling for him to come over. The kid did exactly what you’d expect–he stepped off the field and into my path just as I approached. Fortunately I had expected the worst case scenario and scooted by in the next lane over without incident.
It still amazes me that any kid survives long enough to become an adult.
My next planned run is on Monday and will probably be a 2 km gate-to-gate dealie at the Brunette River trail. This will be my first official™ run of the year.
Take 2 of my calibration attempt was made under sunny skies at Mercer Stadium again. Once more, I opted for 800 m (two laps) and reminded myself to not screw up the calibration like last time.
In a hopeful sign, my lungs, while still burning fiercely, took ever-so-slightly longer to do do. Even better I actually set the calibration properly. The only point of concern is that calibration can only be set within a certain range. I ran exactly 800 m (on the inside lane, just as they recommend) but I could only adjust the calibration up to 770 m. This is still fairly accurate and I can probably boost the accuracy by running farther so I may adjust it again sometime in the weeks ahead. I was a bit surprised that it was off by as much as it was, reporting 200-300 m to go as I finished. My pace was 4:43/km, not bad for 4+ months off, except my fastest km is 4:15/km. Rusty!
The right foot is still sore from the injury (meaning if I press a finger into it I can feel it) but it seems to be a build-up of some sort and my doctor is convinced that stretching and running should be okay. It doesn’t hurt while I’m running so I’ll keep ramping up for now. Next time I’ll see if I can run for over five whole minutes!
