I opted to do a sort of remedial 5K run today, basically to see how the legs/body would feel without putting as much stress on them as a full 10/11K run would.
For a change of pace and because it’s conveniently close, I ran along the Brunette River trail as seen in this BlurryTech™ iPod nano video still:
The run gently slopes uphill on the way in but it’s so gentle it hardly counts. It’s otherwise flat and mostly shaded by the trees. The sun was just coming out as I ran and in the exposed parts of the trail where the sun hit it was hot as all get-out. Other than that, it was comfortable enough.
The first km was fairly brisk — 4:47/km — but after that my times fell off a cliff. At the 2 km mark I felt like I was plodding along. Mostly just tired and still feeling the effects of the cold. I finished with a pace of 5:01 which, if extrapolated over a full 10K would probably have ended up as a decent 5:11 or 5:12.
The legs seem to be holding up after the run, which is the main thing I was looking for, so I rate this one a qualified success.
I’d like to say I grew up on text adventure games, even though that would identify me as olde, but in reality the genre was already well-developed when I was in my teens. Still, I fondly recall getting nearly all of the Infocom games for my Commodore 64, during the period between 1984 and 1988. By 1989 the market had shifted, Infocom was making games with actual graphics and the text adventure pretty much died. It would be many years before freely-available interpreters and languages for writing text adventures would lead to a minor renaissance of the genre.
A text adventure was simple to learn–type your actions at a command prompt, read the results, repeat until you have solved all the puzzles in the game–but often the biggest puzzle was figuring out which words or commands the game could understand and the proper way to present them.
Back in that mid-80s era when computer graphics were less sophisticated (ie, crude, terrible) I spent many hours working through Infocom’s games. This was also my first bit of co-op gaming as I usually had a friend assisting me. Two brains will theoretically solve puzzles more capably than one. Until both brains get completely stuck, that is. That’s when you mail order the Invisiclues hint book and wait weeks to finally get an answer. It was the gaming equivalent of walking to school uphill in the snow both ways. And we liked it!
One of the key requirements of playing an Infocom game was making a map. Sure, you could try memorizing the game world and with some simpler titles it might even work, but making a map was essential for nearly all Infocom games. I’m fairly certain that utter madness was the only reward for successfully mapping out all of Zork I and its mazes.
I took to making most of my maps in a sketchbook and recently scanned in some of the more detailed maps. By the end I think I was playing the games more to make the maps than to play the actual games. Going back and looking through the maps also made me realize there are more than a few of these games that I left unfinished. Now they taunt me and I consider re-playing them using programs like Gargoyle or Windows Frotz to help make the experience more pleasurable than those halcyon days of yore with my Commodore 64 displaying 40 whole characters of text on a single line. 40! And I always knew I had successfully solved a puzzle because the 1541 disk drive would start grinding away madly to fetch a new chunk of game. Today I can use Trizbort to automate the mapping process entirely but I know if I do go back I’ll have that sketchbook at hand and start doodling again because it was part of the magic.
And a game without magic is just a game.
Here are the maps I’ve scanned so far.
First up is Zork I. The maze in this game (twisty passages, all alike) requires you to drop items in order to successfully map it out. Following all of these lines still gives me a headache. I never finished the game but I did finish the maze!
Next is Infidel, featuring ASCII hieroglyphics and even a start and end date for the game playthrough. How nerdy.
I have two Enchanter maps, the first image being from the start of the game and the second being the next area. I like the turtle.
And the follow-up area:
Finally the maps for Spellbreaker even includes 3D shading. Fancy!
Distance: 11.66 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 815
Average pace: 5:18/km
Total distance to date: 1000.27 km
I didn’t run for a full week due to a persistent energy-sapping cold. I approached tonight’s run knowing that I was not going to be anywhere close to fast. I only wanted to reach Nike level Blue — 1,000 km logged. I needed to run about 11.39 km to do it.
I set out and was immediately struck by how very humid it was. Not good, since humid conditions tend to sap my energy and my reserves were already low. Despite a decent first km my time fell off in big chunks over the middle part of the run, due to both conditions and light cramping. The latter half was steadier as the cramps eased and I established a workable pace. I finished with a sluggish time of 5:18/km. It’s funny how a year ago that would have been a record-setting time and now it’s a disappointment.
By the end my shins, especially the left one, were tender enough to give me pause. But I did achieve two milestones as I evaluate whether I’ll be in shape for the next scheduled run:
1) I did my longest run to date at 11.66 km. My next goal, logically, is 12 km. That would only require a minor extension of my usual run, so it shouldn’t be difficult.
2) I reached the Nike level Blue, which means I’ve now tracked 1,000 km on my Nike+ sensor. Not bad for a lazy slob who didn’t run at all for over 20 years! The next Nike level is Purple at 2,500 km. It will be…awhile before I reach that.
Chart (All runs at Burnaby Lake except those in blue which are at China Creek):
I did something over the past weekend that I haven’t since I sold my car way back in 1986 — drove over to Vancouver Island. Technically I wasn’t driving, as Jeff did that. We ventured over Saturday morning and returned Sunday afternoon, heading to sunny Duncan via Nanaimo and Departure Bay. Strangely, we picked what was probably the hottest day of the year to visit, noteworthy only in that it has not been hot this year at all.
Once we had arrived in my hometown, I dragged Jeff around various old haunts and took a picture of the giant hockey stick at the Cowichan Community Island Savings Centre. This stick — the world’s largest — came to Duncan after I had moved away. Ironically, I first saw it at Expo 86 after moving to Vancouver and away from Duncan. We noted, with some curiosity, that the big swimming pool/slide area adjacent to the centre was apparently only opened for two hours in the morning on Saturdays. Indeed, an inspection through its darkened windows revealed it was abandoned. Maybe they want people to go muck about in the river or something in the summer.
Giant hockey stick:
Speaking of abandoned, a walk around Cowichan Senior Secondary School proved depressing. Although the small sign out front exhorted everyone to enjoy summer, the school grounds looked not merely empty but desolate. The track had weeds popping up through its surface, the creaking wooden bleachers nearly blasted free of paint, the buildings were faded, paint peeling from their walls. The bus area looked like it had not seen a bus in years; likewise the teacher parking lot. The grassy areas between buildings were unattended and wild, though the fields appeared to have been cut sometime this year. The main photo on the school’s website seems to be from the 1920s* when a horse livery was situated next door. The buildings are actually the same color today. Maybe the school lets things go fallow, so to speak, during the summer months as a cost-saving measure.
This abandoned/depressing theme continued at nearby Kinsmen Park where the monster slide I remembered from my youth had been replaced by a community garden. No kids is going to face the risk of breaking his neck in a community garden. Bah. The jumbo swing set was likewise gone, replaced by a little sissy set in a new kiddie play area. Despite being the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon the park was pretty much empty.
We crossed over behind the community centre to what we thought might be the rumored new high school building. It had a certain scholarly aspect to it and indeed it turned out to be the new Island University campus. Signs on the doors revealed it had a lien on it, so good luck to getting in come September, students!
None of this is to suggest that Duncan itself is deserted. Far from it, the island highway was choked with traffic as usual, the city streets hardly affording a chance to just toodle around without someone tailgating you. We made our way to my mom’s place and I suggested ice cream so we hit the Dairy Queen and it was good.
After a supper at Romeo’s we went for a walk along the river dike with Sophie the wonder dog in tow (you wonder what she finds so fascinating about every blade of grass she stops to sniff).
Here we see mom and Jeff looking over a li’l foot bridge at the many minnows darting about in the water below:
There were a decent number of people frolicking about in the Cowichan River. Some had dammed off a section of it to make a wading pool while others chose to park their chairs square in the middle of it just because.
While at the river I got bitten by something, which has been my unofficial theme for the summer (“I’m delicious, suck my blood!”) and the bite became as itchy and annoying as all the others I’ve dealt with the last few months. Today — four days later — it’s finally pretty much gone. Stupid bugs.
It was still a nice walk and would make a decent place to jog, provided you slathered yourself in bug repellent or ran inside a plastic ball like hamsters do.
We ended the evening with two games of Yahtzee. To my surprise Jeff had never played before. This meant he won both games, of course.
Before leaving the island we got one more gift — a cold. I’m just starting to get over mine now after days of a scratchy throat, sneezing and sundry related cold symptoms. I suspect the ferry was the vector for this. The ferry, or as I call it, that big floaty thing where kids scream for 90 minutes solid.
Anyway, it was a fun little trip, even if the high school looked like it hadn’t been touched since I graduated a hundred years ago.
* slight exaggeration, though if you look carefully, it’s probably safe to peg the photo circa the 1950s
Distance: 11.61 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 811
Average pace: 5:12/km
Total distance to date: 988 km
It was warm and a bit on the muggy side as I set out tonight. While I experienced no cramps or weird tendon issues, the heat and pace left me tired and dried out. You know it’s going to be a dry run when you start smacking your lips less than 1 km in.
My shins felt a bit tender after and I am now seriously considering strengthening exercises on my off-days, especially as I’m focusing more on distance and form for the next while rather than just improving my speed. To that end I ran my longest run to date tonight, coming in at 11.61 km. It was also my first run to come in at over an hour at 1:00:26 to be precise. Despite theextra distance and not running with the aim of setting a PR I finished with a decent pace of 5:12/km (5:11/km for 10K).
Chart (All runs at Burnaby Lake except those in blue which are at China Creek):
Distance: 11.41 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 798
Average pace: 5:14/km
Total distance to date: 977 km
With my shins feeling a bit tender after the last run I planned on a deliberately slower pace tonight. What I didn’t plan was a pulled tendon partway through that guaranteed a slower run and almost an early finish. I finished with an average of 5:14/km, which is perfectly acceptable given the conditions and as a bonus I did my longest run ever by taking on all three extra loops along the north side of the lake, coming in at 11.41 km. Joan even correctly congratulated me! The shins and in particular the right one, did start to hurt a bit partway through and you can see how my pace slowed down a notch or two when this happened but I persisted and as my legs armed up the soreness diminished. Stamina was never an issue. Somewhere between the 6K and 10K mark a tendon in the back of my left knee got pulled. There were a few times where it hurt noticeably as it stretched out again and I seriously considered stopping the run at the 10K point or even sooner. I risked giving it a bit to sort itself out, reckoning that it wasn’t a serious pull and happily it settled down and I finished without a precipitous drop in my pace. I’m going to focus less on speed and more on distance over the next few runs. Since I’m only 23 km from reaching 1,000 km (blue on the Nike+ site) I’ll need to cover at least 12K to do it in the next two — a reasonable goal, I think. It may also be time to start working on some leg exercises to give my calves extra strength.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise; purple= Burnaby Lake):
Over on East Columbia Street in New Westminster, the Sapperton Place Cafe offers a menu where ‘All Prices included HST’ (perhaps anticipating the tax’s possible defeat in the recent referendum) that includes a morning snack for a mere $2.50. For that low price you get coffee and your choice of muffin or ‘cheese scorn’, a roll that I suspect is either forged in the fires of Hell, merely disdainful of the cheese it features or perhaps is just generally designed to offer early morning contempt to the world in its own small way. Whichever it is, yum to the delicious cheese scorn!
Despite the subtitle, Dark Delicacies III: Haunted is not really a collection of ghost stories, though many play on the theme of ghosts or some kind of haunting.
Perhaps its most bizarre inclusion is a foreward by Steven Weber. Yes, the guy from Wings.
As is often the case with collections there are a few standouts, some clunkers and a lot of perfectly serviceable reads to be found. Most of the stories are quite short at ten pages or thereabouts so even the bad ones won’t linger. As befits a horror collection a few stories are built on gross-outs and some fairly graphic sex. Be warned, ye of delicate sensibilities!
My favorites include Richard Matheson’s cheeky “How to Edit”, which has a kind of companion piece in the ultimately nonsensical “Tyler’s Third Act”, both stories dealing with self-mutilation. The latter falls apart at the end (no pun intended), while Matheson’s wraps up appropriately. David Morrell’s “The Architecture of Snow” rounds out the book (save for a very brief poem by Clive Barker) and is a wonderfully meditative piece. “Man with the Canvas Bag” by Gary Braunbeck is weirdly wonderful while Chuck Palahinuk’s “Fetch” is just plain weird, kind of what you would expect if Jack Handey wrote a horror story. Funny, though.
“Food of the Gods” left me cold and not just because it’s one of several stories in the collection to use the ‘haha, even though the story is written in first person the narrator is DEAD, fooled you!” shtick. “The Slow Haunting”, though well-written, is flattened by a twist ending that isn’t earned.
Overall, though, any fan of horror should find enough here to warrant a look. I give Dark Delicacies III: Haunted 3.5 out of 5 severed heads.
Distance: 10.07 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 17-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 704
Average pace: 5:08/km
Total distance to date: 965 km
My goal tonight was simple: run without cramping and beat the (now) pathetic time of my previous run, which averaged 5:17/km.
First, I broke my vow of not drinking Coke Zero before the run. I imbibed a glass but finished it a full five hours beforehand. If that was going to affect me, I’d need to have a serious talking to my digestive system.
Because Jeff was off to North Van for a bike ride I opted to return to China Creek and its dusty trail. I am happy to report no dog incidents, though there were dogs (and joggers and soccer players and plenty of other people) about. The soccer players presented the closest to a hazard, as several balls got punted onto the path ahead of me, none underfoot, fortunately.
One soccer guy who was mixing in some sprints came up and passed me on one lap. Shortly after passing he came to a stop in the middle of the path and began pinwheeling his arms horizontally because, you know, I totally wasn’t right behind him, even though he had just passed me. He didn’t seem to have much energy so the arms came down before one could bap me in the head.
The good news is I remained cramp-free for the entire run. This one was hard, though. I worked to keep on pace and the air at China Creek is very dry, so my mouth is parched pretty much the whole time. I felt myself flag slightly toward the end and that may have cost me a second or two but I still finished with my second best time overall — 5:08/km. I feel I’m back on track now after the last two crampaloozas.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise; purple = Burnaby Lake):
Distance: 11.03 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 771
Average pace: 5:17/km
Total distance to date: 955 km
Bleah: The Sequel.
Tonight’s run was pretty much a repeat of the previous, with a few minor variations that ultimately led to a near-identical result.
I got a cramp very near the start of the run and as a result the opening km was a (now) sluggish 5:04/km. To put this in perspective, this is only two seconds off my fastest overall pace. The cramp persisted for more than the first half of the run and returned in slightly milder form for the last 1+ km. I kept pushing steady through the cramping, though, and managed to hold myself to a time of 5:17/km when it could have been much worse.
On the plus side, it wasn’t quite as warm or buggy as the previous run. If I can get a decent start next time and avoid cramping up I should be in good shape. I had some Coke Zero in the afternoon before running but I didn’t think it was close enough to affect me. I’ll be skipping it altogether next run day, so I’ll find out then.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise; purple = Burnaby Lake):
Distance: 11.02 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 24ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 770
Average pace: 5:16/km
Total distance to date: 944 km
Bleah.
It was quite warm tonight and there was no wind at all at Burnaby Lake so the canopied sections of the trail were especially humid. This alone would have likely shaved a few seconds off my pace but what really did me in tonight was a cramp that showed up early and persisted through about 3 km. My start time was fine — 4:51 through the first km, then it dipped by 3, 5 and 5 seconds over the successive km, torpedoing any chance of finishing with a decent time. Once the cramp cleared my pace held up much better and in fact I generally only lost a second per km over the second half, which is pretty good, especially given that the southern part of the trail is more uphill.
Given the pleasant (for walking) weather, there were a few more people out but no incidents to report. The buggy section of the run was indeed super-buggy but keeping my head down managed to spare me ingesting a hundred gnats, though I felt a few plink off my forehead and face as I pushed through the clouds of ’em.
Here’s hoping the next run is a little more in-line with what I expect. Also, note to self: no Coke Zero an hour before a run.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise; purple = Burnaby Lake):
Distance: 11.18 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 781
Average pace: 5:10/km
Total distance to date: 933 km
Back to Burnaby Lake tonight. With the temperature still 22ºC at 7 p.m. I expected it to be warm and humid and it was. I also expected the bug-filled parts of the trail near the western tip of the lake to be especially bug-filled, given the rain from yesterday morning and the prevailing conditions. And it was very buggy.
I’m pretty sure I inhaled more than one. At one point it felt like I got something lodged in my windpipe and I tried clearing my throat. That didn’t seem to work so I coughed a few times. As I passed over a bridge I suddenly was taken with the urge to retch. This is not what one would call optimal running conditions. Fortunaqtely I did not retch, my stomach settled down and I finished thew run without further incident.
At times my shins felt a bit tender but I believe it was a combination of form (as the feeling went away when I concentrated on my form) and another five day layoff. This one was unintended, as other events ended up squeezing out my running time. I should be good to go again in two days, though.
Despite the mid-run glitch (between 6-7 km, — you can see my pace fall off by three seconds there) I turned in a solid 5:10/km average — identical to my last run, which was also after five days off. I got that consistency thing going.
And I must commend a polite and observant dog owner. She was walking two dogs, one on each side of her. The one on her left was stretched out on its leash, effectively blocking the path. I had to clear my throat as I approached and it served as a cue to her. She glanced back, saw me and neatly pulled the one dog close to her so I could pass. I waved and offered thanks as I did so. Why can’t all dog owners be like this? Thank you, nice lady!
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise; purple = Burnaby Lake):
