First run in the dark in a long time

Except it wasn't really dark at all. There's a nearly full moon in a cloudless sky. But I still dug out my reflective vest, and wore a white toque. I was trying to think of the last time I ran in the dark. It might have been March 2010, but was probably January 2009. I've missed it. Running in the moonlight is peaceful and calming. It's quiet. There aren't many people around, and fewer dogs. It's all good.

The only other runner I saw had a headlamp, but was dressed completely in black. I think they're missing a bet. I'd far rather have other people able to see me from lots of reflective stuff, than rely on one little light.

Plus it was nice and warm, right on 0 C. (I hope I don't have to tell anyone that's 32 F.) I started easy, trying to convince my lungs to open up and breathe. My back is kind of cranky today; I've been hunching over at work, which I do when I'm really concentrating on stuff. Crunch time is coming.

Once I got going, the going got good. I ran down into Fish Creek, where it really came together from the bottom of the 37 St hill, to the bottom of the 24 St hill. That felt smooth and effortless, breathing well, and it seemed like I was running really fast. It ended up averaging 7 minute per K pace, which seems about right.

The point was to run easy and get the creakies out, so mission accomplished.

Short and sweet

Easy spin, 45 minutes. Just enough to sweat lightly. Concentrating on round and round.

Then some good stretching and core stuff. No plank or pushups so don't get too excited. One has to work up to these things. All in good time.

The carrot cake Linda made is really good.

JL is back!!!

Yes I am excited about that. You would be too.

My book at the moment is The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje. When I decided to read it I found it for two very, very different prices. $25 something via the e-Google bookstore, and $9 something from Amazon/Kindle. Guess which I bought. No need for a question mark on that sentence. This is the first real reading experience on the iPad, and I'm liking it. I can't really read it standing up on the train the way I see people with Kindle's or Nooks, or the other readers. I'm enjoying the book.

One of the things he said when talking about a painting, is a reference to a map of a person's life, seen before they lived it. This concept quite struck me, being phrased that way. It is common to speculate about the future of a person, or the road they've traveled, but I had never really thought of expressing a person's life journey as a map. What landmarks would be on it? What unexpected twists and turns would there be? What little incidents would be marked that seem like nothing at the time, but turn out to be important later?

This is one of the reasons I like reading so much. I like to be exposed to different world-views and different viewpoints. Another reason is that nobody can live long enough, or possibly survive all the mistakes that can be made, so reading about the mistakes of others can enable one to avoid them. Some writers have a way with dialogue and words that makes your brain happy when you read them.

I was up early this morning, and was reading while it was still dark out. This probably led to a more meditative frame of mind than usual. I got thinking about what the map of my life so far might look like, and what's to come. I don't regret the choices I've made, but there are a couple of points where things could have gone very differently, and I sometimes wonder how they would have turned out.

As it started to get brighter out I looked out, and ran outside with the phone for these two photos. They are even better than seeing it for real, what with the camera seeing things a little differently than a human eye. Again, totally untouched from the camera to your eyes.

Shortly after I stretched and dressed for a run in -10 C (14 F) weather. It's clear and cool, so a nice day for a run. My feet felt a bit heavy at first, and it seemed my lungs were working harder than I expected. Mostly I chugged along, enjoying being outside. Toward the end my legs felt better and wanted to run faster. For a little bit I tried to stretch out by leaning forward. It was ok, but I ran out of lungs way too quickly. Walked to cool down, and stretched after. Only 35 minutes running, though as I'm writing this my legs want to go for another run.

The high point of my day is finding out that my massage therapist JL is back till next May! Well, not back in Calgary, but in Drayton Valley. She is planning to come down to Calgary every month or so and do a bunch of massages. I will eagerly accommodate her schedule. I'm very happy with how she works on me. There was lots of creaky and sore bits today, and it feels great afterward. I had first thought that she was just back for a short visit, but no, her life has changed a bit, so it will be 6 months here, and 6 back home. Now, I just need to figure out what to do for massage next summer, but at least now I have lots of time to think about it. Her phone number? Eh? What's that you say? I can't hear you.

While she was working on me, the most amazing smells were percolating into the room. Linda had baked cookies, was working on a carrot cake, and had popped dinner into the oven. Just before I started writing I took the pottery dish out of the oven. I won't tell you what's in there right now, otherwise we'd have a lot more people for dinner. You'll have to tune into tomorrow's blog.

This. That. Resonance. Sympathetic vibrations.

Several photos for your enjoyment, one of them the problem (this) and one being the solution (that). I thought I'd let you guys decide which is which in the comments. On the way home Friday we stopped by the Superstore to buy the only things we buy there. Dark chocolate chunks, and hazelnuts. So here's all the photos from the last couple days.

The morning started well, not rushing the get out of bed thing. I slept in till about 7, which is very late for me. From there I was moderately brisk about doing some stretches and getting on the bike. A few Facebook friends noticed and I got a couple nice comments there. Thanks guys!

30 minute warmup, gradually increasing spin speed and effort, and including (gasp) one leg drill.
then 3 sets:
15 minutes at 1.7 to 1.8 watts per goal kg,
10 minutes at 1.8 to 1.9
and 20 minutes at 1.7 or so.
These felt strong, with my breathing easy, heart rate a bit higher than expected, and legs feeling good. Sweating a bucket, as you can see in the one photo. In between was some easy pedal, some standing, and some fast spin. My old bike computer topped out at 199 cadence, and I was sure I was going faster than that, and sure enough, I can! Briefly. Yay me. Finished up with 10 minutes easy spin to cool down and stopped at 2 hours. I thought of going longer, but decided not.

My legs felt a little clunky to start, not sure why. It seemed like the left crank was longer than the right one. I've been noticing that I've got a rough spot right around 120 rpm. The bike shakes a bit and there's something about the resonance that gets the little bit of back fat I have jiggling. It used to be front fat, leg fat, calf fat, arm fat that all jiggled, so there's been some improvement. I spent some time there working to smooth it out. Spent lots of time during the main sets trying to go round and round.

Overall this was a good solid spin session. Stretched a bit after, and walked the scenic route to the 7-11 for the morning papers. I was thinking about going for a run, but will probably do that tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to a massage tomorrow, since JL is back from New Brunswick on a visit!

We had one of those energy audit's done a little while ago. You have to do this to qualify for the rebates. Good thing we'd already planned to replacing the furnace, since that was the single biggest thing we could have done. The furnace is all installed and passed the City inspection on Friday. We're going to be looking at replacing the outside doors next, to get something that looks a little nicer and seals a little better. Anybody have any recent experience with getting doors installed in Calgary? Who did you use?

One of the issues is that the vapour barrier in the basement just sucks, and has since the house was built. Several cats that liked to leap up there didn't help. Paying someone to do this is expensive since it's fussy work. I bought some of the vapour barrier material, and a few other supplies, and got started today. It's a bit more of an adventure than I thought it would be, but there were no injuries. I think I'm going to take it slow and steady, try to get several done every weekend and gradually work my way through them. Some of them are going to be very difficult to get at because of all the crap we have piled up down in the basement.

You can see the first couple that I did. Not as neat as I'd like, but I"ll get better. With any luck the ones visible to anyone going downstairs will be much better. Not that any one will look at that, when there is wine and books to be looked at.

So, which photo is the problem, and which is the solution?

Well, that went off the rails but produced a new word

Thursday after work was my ART therapy appointment. My knee is feeling rock solid these days, but I like to get it checked every now and then just to be sure I haven't done anything to it as I build effort and training time. So far so good. There were some minor clicks in my knees and ankles as he worked on them.

His appointment usually also includes a bit of adjustment for my back and hips, since there is some tightness and stuff that contributed to the knee injury. I have trouble relaxing for this, which makes it harder, and leads into a spiral that doesn't go anywhere good. What he does typically leaves me not wanting to run, or do anything afterward. Which is ok.

Friday was a bit of a slackasserization though. Let's see what happened. Thursday at work was actually pretty productive, as was Friday morning. The big secret was bailing on a bunch of meetings, and getting stuck into some process diagrams and documents. Then Friday afternoon was working (playing) with SJ to set up a SharePoint site for our team. I know the process, and she knows SharePoint better than I do. So we've been putting it together, and we're in geek heaven as we try to bend SharePoint to our will. I actually stayed at work longer than I intended because it was so much fun. (Yes, I know, you don't have to say it.)

Here, let me get you a cold compress and a nice cup of tea to recover from the shock.

Then I come home to a dinner of duck breast on a bed of wild rice with a sauce of something that would make cardboard edible. And wine, let's not forget that. Then when I settled into my chair to finish my glass of wine, our cat hopped into my lap and settled in. Plus I had my iPad to hand, and next thing I know it's almost bedtime, and the important thing not done.

I refer to blogging, of course. Much of my steam has been robbed by a one MG as he posted a provocative thing on Facebook about the medical system. I got the wind up and barfed out a bunch of stuff. It isn't up to my usual standard, but I think I'll post it here, completely sans context, though I'm not sure it qualifies as a rant.

I have ideas about the medical system. Some have been on my blog. The biggest single thing is to stop the doctors from being the choke point to the system. We need to have someone like a registered nurse, but not exactly, set up in strip malls everywhere, more common than 7-11 and Subway combined. Every adult that wants to get medical services registers to one convenient to their work or home. At regular intervals, say monthly or bi monthly, a person drops in. They get weighed, blood pressure done, look in eyes ears and throat. Breasts and balls (depending on which you have) palpitated. A sample of blood is taken and sent for analysis of lab tests appropriate for that person. The intent is to build a history of what is normal for that person, and to catch changes early. Really early. When something changes that person is the gatekeeper to see the appropriate specialist. The key of the whole system is to prevent disease from happening, to treat it while it's small. In a truly connected world, it wouldn't matter which one you went to, your medical records would follow you everywhere. Make an appointment, or drop in.

The system shouldn't have to seek permissions for organ donations. If a person meets some standard criteria for brain death, whatever organs can be salvaged for transplant should be harvested and used. That person doesn't need them anymore. I don't accept that religious objections should prevent saving someone's life.

There ought to be major tax breaks to encourage people to be healthy. Say, oh, I don't know, completing an Ironman before the cutoff should be good for taking $1,000 off your taxes for that year. Every person should get a medical statement every year, showing what they used in medical services, compared to the average.

I'm not sure I accept that the elderly are the biggest driver of health care costs. After all, there aren't that many of them. But there are a lot of people in their 40's and 50's with expensive diseases like diabetes and cancer. I'd want to see the numbers. At some point we have to draw the line and say we aren't going to do massive intervention to save lives. The focus should become managing pain and dying with at least some shreds of dignity.

Another thing driving the medical system, (no pun intended) is automobile collisions. There are no accidents. None. There is only driver error, for all intents and purposes. The exceptions are a trivial number. We should be treating these collisions like airplane crashes, to determine exactly why, lay blame, and assess costs. Some people should be insuranced out of driving because they are bad drivers and a hazard to the rest of us. This distracted driving law is nonsense. Really, they should just say that if the cell phone records show you were driving while using the cell phone the insurance companies need not cover you, and you become fully liable for all costs of any accident you caused, even if technically it's the other person's fault. Everybody ought to be getting a drivers test every 5 years. Defensive driving refresher courses ought to be mandatory every 10 years. Let's use this computer simulation technology.

Hard ride followup

As you will recall I pushed the spin a bit yesterday, working pretty hard for a short ride. It took a little while to drop off to sleep, but then I was out like a light. This morning I could feel it in my hip flexors, and oddly enough, in the ball of my left foot. That foot has been a bit stiff and tight lately.

I discovered this during yoga a couple weeks ago when we did the pose where you stand on one foot, and slowly roll your toes under the other foot and lift up so the stretch curls your toes under. That actually almost hurt. Which means I should do it more.

After work (another brutal day, in case you were wondering, and thanks for asking) I was almost thinking about going for a run, but restrained myself. I could still feel those hip flexors, and hoped that yoga class would have something for that. It did.

Our regular teacher was off doing whatever it is that yoga teachers do when they skip class. Our sub teacher had us doing some different stuff, which was very refreshing, including one good stretch for the hip flexors. Very good.

You may note some new people in my blogroll. So far I haven't trimmed many people off the bottom of the list, but it is getting long, and at some point, one has to assume that they've given up on blogging. I'm thinking about some changes to the blog, so stay tuned.

No Slutty Girls!

I realize that title is the kiss of death for many blogs, but I'm running a wholesome family blog here, right? Right? Ah, guys, wholesome family rated blog, yes? Ah Sheesh. No way I can compete with SUAR in the poop department, and I KNOW you aren't coming here for my good looks. Maybe it's the rants.

Last night was All Hallow's Eve, so I was busy dealing with the little trick or treaters. There was one group that put a little song and dance routine for their trick or treat. I liked them. We had 70 kids overall, and we gave away 3 Kilo's of candy from a big plastic bucket. That's 42.85 grams per kid, but I know that a couple of kids got more and it wasn't even to the slutty girls that you perverts think would appeal to me. As I've said, to my astonishment, there weren't any of those unlike the last couple years. I'm sure that one girl was going to pick up more than candy. But there were some very cute costumes, and I rewarded them with more candy.

The kids started at 6:30 and the last were 8:30. The most popular outfits were the Scream mask, and related reaper costumes. A few kids were essentially in no costume at all, and they got hardly anything. As a workout, I'm going to count as core all the bounding to my feet to get the door. That, and trying to reassure Amelia the Cat. She spent most of the evening in the basement.

I didn't have one single piece of candy. No candy at all, not the day before, not for sampling purposes to make sure it's ok for the kids. Not the day after, since there wasn't even a lot of candy to say no to at work. The other thing there wasn't was coffee for a morning meeting. I don't know who screwed up, but there was a full SAP implementation team meeting first thing in the morning. They actually had real food there, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns in addition to the normal muffins and fruit. But they didn't have coffee. None, not till the meeting was well underway. So I don't have any idea at all what was happening then, and probably just as well.

Things went downhill after that. Yes, I know for some of you that it's inconceivable after a no coffee meeting start, but it did. So I was thoroughly grumpy when I got home, an hour later than usual. Oddly enough, this made me more determined than ever to get on my bike.

Warmup 15 minutes.
Fairly hard steady state at 1.7 to 1.8 watts x goal weight for 20 minutes. My lungs were fine, my legs were starting to get tired, and my butt was getting sore.
Easy 5 minutes
Hard 2.5 watts x goal weight for 5 minutes and working hard, relying on the tunes to pull through.
Variety easy spin and cool down 20 minutes.
Stretched a little bit. All of it felt great! And I'm in a much better mood.

Now that I've blogged, I can go cruise other blogs, and leave comments. Speaking of which, I'm announcing a new blog comment policy. My blog stats have been thoroughly fubarred by the spam bots hitting the main page dozens, even hundreds of times per day, which leaves a link in the traffic sources, hoping I'll click on it. Don't. But now I don't have even the least of ideas how many people are actually reading my blog, or any idea of what posts are popular. Not that I'm fussed about that, since I'm writing this for me, and I'm pleased it amuses other people.

So I'm really happy when people leave comments. To encourage that I will now try to respond to comments. Wordpress is better at that, but oh well. I don't promise to be immediate, and I'm sure not going to write another blog in the comments. But now you have a reason to look at the comments again, because I might be talking to YOU!