Then work Saturday. You don't want to hear much about it other than it being the culmination of what was really about a week's work, spread over several months, on and off again. When I say that one xl took 2 hours and 15 minutes to load you'll have a good idea how my day went. 49K rows of data. Glad that's done.
Today started with a bit of chaos caused by a cranberry, we think. All is fine now. The swim was really good, with video even! One slow-mo, one real time, each. I've been watching these, marveling at how much Michelle has improved, and even how much I've improved. I'm liking my stroke better, with the water entry being good, and my body position in the water is good. But I was getting sloppy on the stroke itself, leading with my elbow a bit. I might put mine up on YouTube with more detailed commentary, but I'm not up to that tonight.
This is why it's important to get video of yourself swimming if you want to improve. Whatever you THINK you might be doing, odds are it doesn't look that way at all. All this was shot above water level, so it's harder to see what's going on under the surface. I keep meaning to buy a Hero camera and shoot from underwater.
I found it interesting that my first 100 m I thought I was cruising along, was maybe going to end up being about 100 seconds, turned out to be 91. The next I tried a bit harder and was 94 seconds. After a short break I put it all together for 87 seconds. Contrast that with the 50 m swim in the video, that was 39 seconds. It's clear my speed falls off sharply when I double the distance.
Showering and changing after a swim is old hat. Getting run gear on is a bit more disorganized. Today there were about 7 other people in the locker room, and 3 of them were standing right beside me, and one of them was a smoker. Yack.
Then out for a run, nice and easy. About 8 K in an hour. We parked over at the canoe club. Once upon a time we ran from there all the way up to 64th Ave, in the dead of winter, check it out here.
Some of my long time readers might remember me running along the canal in the mornings. This started at the canoe club, across the canal, along it, and then along the Bow, with some pauses to check out interesting stuff, and take some run video.
I still look like T Rex, plodding along, but at least my feet don't look like they're trying to pick themselves out of a tar pit. I think I look very heavy on my feet. My hands are doing a floppy thing that looks looks weird, each arm doing something different.
On the way back we ran along the bluff above the river and paused to enjoy the view,
Even though in the photos the buildings downtown look a long way off, in real life they are right there. Sunrise photos from here can be pretty dramatic if you've got the right camera and lenses.
Weather coming in. We got a bit of rain later.
Those large round brick things? I've stood on them. I used to work there.
How could I not include this shot of them?
Coffee after, and picking up goodies at the Farmer's Market. Later I put some beef tenderloin on the BBQ, and we had a lovely meal. I'm currently fending off the cats as I finish my wine and write.
The astute of you will have already noticed the NaNoWriMo banner is no longer at the top of my blog. It's true. I'm not going to do it this year. My schedule is full already, and I still don't have any idea where that piece of the story is going. Maybe what I think is that great opening scene belongs elsewhere.
This is what I like about writing, the intellectual challenge of taking this wonderful story and characters that live in my head, and reducing it to a string of text that someone else can read and build their own world in their heads. Even though it's frustrating when it doesn't work out, or my characters aren't talking to me. Maybe their busy sorting something else out, and I'll wake up one day knowing what happens next. That day, I assure you, I'll take the day off work and write like a madman.
Thanks for a great swim & run! It was fun taking the shot of the runner's pose with the city in the background.
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