Today is the last day of winter 2017. Well, I suppose to be more precise it would be winter 2016/17 since it’s the one season that nuttily starts in one year and ends in another.
This winter we had more snow than we usually see in about five winters combined. Maybe ten winters combined. I am not exaggerating. Some winters we get a dusting or two, maybe a couple of centimeters for a Lower Mainland “blizzard.” Just as often we can get no snow at all and maybe a handful of days where the temperature drops below freezing.
We had so many snowfalls this year I actually lost track. It snowed on probably ten different days, if not more, and most of those days the snow was significant to pile up. Two of those days it was enough to shut down my workplace early. I couldn’t run at Burnaby Lake for nearly three months because the snow and ice would simply not go away.
So now, with temperatures closer to normal, trees beginning to bud and the first flowers starting to blossom, I bid this horrible sneaked-in-from-back-east winter adieu, and welcome spring, even knowing it is probably going to be soggy as all get-out for the next two months.
But at least it won’t be snow.
Here’s hoping my next “damn snow” post is in December, or better yet, 2069. I’ll be 105 years old then so I’m secretly hoping we will be able to control the weather then and also have discovered the secret to eternal life, otherwise I’ll just be a very old man yelling at (snow) clouds.
Where the snow previously saw a huge boost in attendance, today’s writing group saw attendance drop to a mere four amid what Dave described as “ornamental snow” (that same snow eased up for most of the day, only to begin again with renewed fury tonight. Spring officially starts in 15 days).
I was the first one there and early. The group that has the room before us had vacated early so I took advantage and moved in and began writing before 11 o’ clock. By the end of the three hours I’d written just under 4,000 words, all of it on the new Chapter 2b, which is still not complete.
I don’t really have anything to add. I’m pleased with the output and am staying nearly completely away from editing mode. I look forward to hacking the writing to bits later.
Oh, and the snow can bugger right off. After six (or is it seven? Or eight?) major snowfalls I’ve had enough, thanks. I want flowers and t-shirt weather now, not sub-seasonal temperatures and weather you have to be under 10 years old to enjoy.
I went a-walking today down the Brunette River trail and counter-clockwise halfway around Burnaby Lake to Still Creek. The purpose was to see if there was still too much (damn) snow to make running infeasible.
The verdicts:
Brunette River trail: Long sections are now bare but three others feature enough snow to still span the entire width of the trail. In some cases, it’s possible to skirt along the edges and avoid the snow, in a few spots it is unavoidable.
The trail (which technically is a gravel service road) is in bad shape now, riddled with puddles and muddy, soft dirt lined with long ruts from bikes passing through. These ruts have all filled with water.
Overall this would be okay for running but not great. The last of the three snowy stretches is at the far end of the trail, an especially awkward spot.
Burnaby Lake: The first km has a few snow patches but they’re relatively short. The second km is for some reason significantly worse, with a lot of patches that are unavoidable. The remainder is almost completely bare save for the straight stretch just before getting to Still Creek, which features a somewhat avoidable stretch of snow. In all areas, the snow is slightly mushy or pliable, making it a little slippery but not treacherously so.
Overall this seems better than the Brunette River trail. I am actually mulling a run after the write-in tomorrow. Timing-wise it should work because the write-in ends at 2 and by the time I get to the lake it’s likely to be past 3 p.m, which still gives me plenty of time to run before the sun sets at 5:37 p.m. It looks to be soggy and cool with a high of 7ºC but hey, it’s not a treadmill!
Also, two days of the extended weather forecast are calling for snow overnight as temperatures drop below freezing. A third day calls for 3-7 cm of ice pellets. It’s like a parody of the weather. A very bad and unwelcome parody.
The forecast overnight is what you’d come up with if you asked yourself, “What’s the worst combination of weather Vancouverites would fear to see in winter?”
snow starting in the afternoon, ranging from 10-40 cm depending on location
snow changing to freezing rain overnight or becoming the even more delightful-sounding “ice pellets”
as temperatures rise the freezing rain changes to regular rain (with 10-40 cm of fresh snow on top of a huge dump of existing snow)
oh, and winds up to 70 km/h
To be followed by a slushpocalypse, local flooding and general despair over whether we will see sunny, warm days ever again.
Still, if this is the last of the winter weather, I’ll grit my teeth and makes plans for running at Burnaby Lake sometime in March. If it snows in March I will be very cross.
Clearly, this is the winter of my discontent, at least when it comes to running. I wasn’t really expecting to run this weekend because the pace of the snow melting on the trails suggested it would be at least a few more weeks at minimum.
That was before yesterday when we got yet more snow. And today when yet more snow was met by its cousin, still more snow.
I’m now not really expecting to run at Burnaby Lake or along the Brunette River this month. I suppose it could suddenly warm up dramatically and torrential rains might sweep in, flushing the snow away, but it seems unlikely.
For now, here is a tour of my trip to Lougheed Town Centre today, highlighted by snow and snow.
The first part of the walk is three blocks down Fader Street, toward Hume Park. Surprisingly most of the sidewalks were cleared, including several that weren’t cleared after the last snow on New Year’s Eve. Several houses still had unneighborly snow-filled sidewalks and they shall get a virtual raspberry from me. The streets at this point are unplowed and a bit messy but the snow is still fresh enough that it hasn’t turned into a slush apocalypse–yet.
The sidewalks in Hume Park were shoveled. The park was pretty. And pretty abandoned. I suspect most people–even kids–are well beyond the novelty of snow by now.
I first opted to avoid taking the stairs down to Lower Hume Park, thinking they would be snow-clogged, then changed my mind and figured the fresh snow would provide good traction. I was right on both counts. There was one complication, though.
Yet another tree fell victim to the snowfall. It looked like it was passable on the right, so I decided to continue heading down and would skirt around it.
The gap on the right turned out to be an optical illusion. I still made it through by cleverly ducking and using my opposable thumbs to redirect branches out of my face. My coat pockets were filled with snow afterward.
The Brunette River trail was once again completely covered in snow. It looks like one vehicle had been through, creating ruts that people walked along. If it wasn’t so uneven it would actually be easier to run on this than the hard-packed snow that’s sitting underneath it (and has been there for almost two months). I did not see anyone running.
Even the trains are snow-covered. Who decided Greater Vancouver should audition for the sequel to The Day After Tomorrow, anyway?
And finally, one more tree victim. This winter has not been very environmentally friendly to trees in the area. This one even suffered the indignity of being trampled on.
Because the snow is fresh and not firmly packed down yet, the walk to the mall was actually a bit of a workout. I kept up a vigorous pace and my boots kept my feet dry, even as my jeans got thoroughly soaked almost up to the knees. Sure, I could have tucked the jeans into the boots but I’d rather suffer damp pants than commit such a fashion faux pas. I’m willing to bet they would have somehow gotten wet, anyway.
Throughout the rest of today, it continued to snow on and off and apparently it’s freezing rain now, even though it’s gotten colder. I am not surprised because all snow is hellsnow, as far as I’m concerned. I went out and enjoyed it before it could turn evil again but turning evil was always its destiny.
Here is the current 10-day weather forecast in convenient screenshot format:
Do you know what’s wrong with this picture? Of course you do.
Damn snow.
If this forecast was accurate, and thankfully it will probably be at least a little wrong, we could be getting up to 35 cm of new snow. This would push back being able to jog outdoors to sometime in 2018.
We should be wearing t-shirts in two weeks, not parkas. Well, maybe not t-shirts but we have had trees flowering by mid-February. That seems…unlikely this year.
I did not get a single visit to my blog yesterday, January 26. This calls for a sad face.
In other unrelated sad news, I walked along the Brunette River trail today to see if it was ready for running. Behold!
A little mucky in spots but completely clear and perfectly suitable for jogging. Hooray!
But you are saying to yourself, “Why is this sad? Is it because he has grown fat and lazy and it is sad that the trail is now free of snow but the desire to run has itself run away?”
The answer can be seen in the next photo. I emphasize that this photo was taken at the same time on the same two km stretch of trail along the river.
If you look carefully in the above shot you can see another completely clear patch of trail near the top. These two pictures cover the extremes as most of the trail is somewhere between the two, with a mix of snowy and clear patches that would work for limited running, provided you had nimble, gazelle-like reflexes to constantly alter course between the snow and no-snow spots.
It has been almost four weeks since the last snowfall. Given that the weather over the next ten days looks to be pretty similar to the last few weeks I am revising my estimate on being able to run outdoors again from early February to late February–a month from now and, incredibly, close to three months since my last outdoor run on December 4, 2016, or as I like to call it, the BS (Before Snow) era.
And to think I once found snow delightful. Delightful!
Run 477 Average pace: 6:06/km
Location: Canada Games Pool (treadmill)
Distance: 4.81 km
Time: 29:22
Weather: n/a
Temp: n/a
Wind: n/a
BPM: 163
Stride: n/a
Weight: 163.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 3775 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch, iPod nano (for music) and Matrix treadmill (for running)
Feeling crazy I decided to do another treadmill run just 24 hours later. It was either that or sit and eat everything I could find. I’m still having a little trouble curbing the urge to stuff my face, though I’m getting better.
I made a few tweaks to my setup. I left the phone in the locker and swapped in my olde iPod nano for music. I last used it for a workout on September 23, 2014. I removed some old music, added some new music, synced and it was good to go. I also opted to just keep my Fitbit One in my shorts pocket instead of clipping it on because it’s not like there are dramatic sweeping movements made while jogging on a treadmill.
Despite all of my careful preparation I forgot to start the timer on the Workout app on the watch until about the 1:14 mark, so it recorded a little under 5 km. Alas.
It was also about that time that I noticed the fan was not working. The fans are mounted ahead and to the left of the machines so there is no way to reach them without stopping or pausing your workout, getting off the treadmill, making whatever adjustments, getting back on and essentially starting your jog over again (but not totally over). I left it and hoped for the best. The difference was noticeable. I was sweating sooner and felt hotter, but not the sexy kind of hot, just the “this is gross and uncomfortable” kind of hot. My mouth also got about as dry as a hotter summer run. I am going to bring a water bottle next time.
On the positive side, I improved in several respects. My BPM was down, from 166 to 163, and my pace dropped from 6:13/km to 6:06/km. Not bad for one day of progress.
My next trip to the pool will probably be back on the elliptical but I may whimsically change my mind and jog again. The elliptical is a more pleasant experience and though I burn fewer calories on it (unless I switch to Mountain Goat Mode or something that simulates stair-stepping up a cliff face) the difference isn’t enough to bother me.
While I like the relative convenience of having a fitness facility nearby that lets me get some exercise in, I miss being outside and running the trails. If you had told me that this winter I’d be unable to run due to snow for at least six weeks (and realistically I’m betting it will be closer to two months) I would have uttered a solid LOL in your general direction because that would be ridiculous. And yet here we are with a semi-permanent layer of crusty, ice-covered snow still all over the place.
There is still a wacky amount of snow on the ground nearly a month after the first snowfall this winter (which technically began before it was actually winter). This means running outside is still not feasible unless I want to constantly fall down, which I do not.
It rained today and through some miracle of nature, the rain did not turn into snow, so the existing snow has been denuded somewhat. It will take a lot more of this for it to finally go away.
The good news is there is no snow in the forecast and if the forecast is at all accurate we should see temperatures climbing to 6 or 7ºC in a week or so, which will be absolutely balmy compared to the last 30 days. Mix that in with some more rain and my prediction is I’ll be able to run outside again before the end of the month, meaning I might still be able to run every month this year (outdoors).
In the meantime, I plan on substituting treadmill or elliptical workouts at the Canada Games Pool in the meantime, as I’ve got to get my slovenly fatty self back into shape even if the outside is transforming into New Arctic.
It’s the third day of the month. A few things to note:
it is the first day of the spring semester. I know, it seems odd to refer to it as the spring semester when it starts in January but it ends in April, so it kind of balances out
it was very busy today
I now have a lifelong hatred of projectors
well, maybe not lifelong but at least a week long
the sidewalks that have not been shoveled are basically sheets of ice; I observed several people slipping but none actually ended up flat out, so that’s a positive
I was too tired at lunch to write or work on writing-related stuff, so I surfed
same thing this evening; I’m allowing myself this one day as an exception since I’m just getting into the swing of things after a few weeks off
I have been pretty good on snacking today, having resisted several plates of cookies and other treats
I have over 16,000 steps today, which was my usual average back before The Fattening began–an encouraging sign
17 days to go until Inauguration Day. Will we find Bobby in the shower and realize this has all been a crazy dream? Here’s hoping!
I’m going to be finishing up “The Box on the Bench” by popular request. I love the idea and parts of the story but it needs some major reworking. I haven’t decided if I’m looking forward to this yet or not.
I’ve gotten full value on the “damn snow” tag this past month
the forecast is calling for snow showers on Friday, followed by rain, followed by more snow showers, with temperatures going up and down not unlike a rollercoaster. This means at least a few more weeks of snow/ice/slush/some form of cold horror on the ground. This also means more time on the elliptical and/or treadmill!
Here are two images to look over as the end of the year draws to a close.
The first is from the room adjacent to the parking garage of the building, where all garbage and recycling goes. This was taken on December 26:
Merry recycling!
A little celebrating and exchanging of presents, as you can see. On the plus side, what a responsible group of people we are for recycling everything. Just ignore the overflowing dumpsters.
A few days of rain and clear skies wiped out the snow that also fell on December 26, so five days later, this is now happening:
And one more snowfall for 2016 whether you like it or not. Ho ho ho.
Yet more snow.
The forecast is calling for a five-day reprieve after this and then at least four (!) days of snow after that. It’s like I was secretly moved to the Arctic Circle.
I look forward to eventually, possibly running outside in 2017.
