say chow to how

Due to working the Fête St Jean I had yesterday off.

I began the day running 5km in 22:51, my best time this year. I ran the distance without slowing or stopping a single time. I was rather pleased about that. 

I let Maria know it would be my last trip to Montreal Nuru Massage, and it was a good time to stop as they raised prices yet again. I brought and gave to her a gift, a pack of Basecamp Cards. I also asked if it would be okay to have us a selfie and she was okay, but I rushed it and it didn't come out the way I would have liked.

Subsequently I went to see the Spiderman Multiverse animated movie and I was surprised at how much I liked it. The movie had funny and emotional moments, the animation was great and very creative and the soundtrack was good too.

I then went to A&W and had a Beyond Burger.

Then I walked further east to catch the metro at Place-des-Arts, I saw many people simply standing around, but I paid them no attention and swiped my transit card only to get down to the platform and see more people standing around as there was a metro there at the station, empty, with its inner lights off. The whole line was down. I set my stopwatch on my watch to count and if after 10 minutes there was no movement, I would exit. At the 7 minute mark an announcement came on that it would be another 20 minutes before the metro would start, so I exited the station and walked the 3600m to get from where I was to where I caught the 211 bus to get home. Fortunately the bus was turned off and the driver was absent but the bus was present, so I had paid already at the metro where I didn't catch a metro and then boarded a bus without paying as I had already paid.

when all else

Now that it has gotten much colder I have ceased outdoor running. I ought to be replacing this with going to my local municipal (indoor) pool to swim laps, but I haven't done that yet.

Canada's soccer team is participating for the first time since 1986 in the World Cup with their first game tomorrow against Belgium. I find it interesting that the Belgian team is quite highly ranked and yet as a country has only a bit less than a third of the population Canada does. I wonder if population density may have something to do about it.

At  my church we are doing a garage sale fund raising event this Saturday with many different parishioners donating stuff from their houses and all funds raised to go towards things like repaving the parking lot and other capital expenditures. I am the one directing this, so I will be going most of the next evenings and then will spend the day on Saturday from very early to make sure everything runs well. I hope this works out well as a fundraiser, especially given the amount of effort I and others are putting in.

Finally; my plan is to replace my 2019 purchased Moto Z2 Play mobile device with a Google Pixel 7 which is currently discounted. My current mobile device is no longer very battery reliable and though rarely, actually crashes some times and requires a full power down/up. As I have done in the past, I will buy it unlocked so that I can continue with the mobile plan I currently have which is an inexpensive one that is no longer publicly available.

image

I go to the gym (at the YMCA) between two and four times a week, during the day time as my work allows this flexibility.

Examples of exercise routines I do:
1. Run 5KM.

2. 3 sets of 6 pull-ups and 10 reverse lunges (each leg) while holding 12.5 lbs in each hand

3. Do as many push-ups in one set that I can, row 500m, do 20 push-ups, row 1000m, do 20 push-ups, row 2000m

There are a few others that I do, but it is in the same vein, mostly body-weight stuff, and I usually throw in a one or two km run on the days I don't do a 5km run.

Along the wall to get to the gym is this:

It shows all of the personal trainers that are available for hire at the gym.

A few weeks ago I passed by the front desk and asked how much a personal trainer would cost, and the person said between 50-75$ an hour, depending on the trainer's level of expertise.

An issue with me working with a personal trainer is that I haven't really any specific goal. Yes, I do 5KM and 10KM running races, and also Spartan Races; but the general routines I do are mostly just to maintain fitness and to very gradually increase my strength and ability. For example, in the number 2 routine above, I'm just about ready to either increase my pull-ups to 7 per round, change the weight held to 15lbs for the lunges, or do both of these things. In the number one exercise above, I'm always trying to be able to run continuously for the whole distance and get my 5KM time to be under 23 minutes.

Today while at the gym I noticed a trainer working with a person and she (the trainer) seemed to be well engaged and gave a nice variety of exercises to the person she was training. I approached her and asked her her name, and she right away took mine, as well as my mobile number, and she said she would text me some details. This is who I am talking about:

I mentioned briefly to her that I may not commit, but she was still with her current person so I didn't want to lengthen the conversation. She responded that she would just send me the details.

So my vision is to meet with her twice a week, a half hour each time, for ten weeks. What program she would develop for me is not at all clear as I haven't a specific goal. I suppose I will have to have a discussion with her to see if she could have something in mind. I'll also confess, since this is my blog and few people read it, that a part of the reason for doing this is purely for adding another avenue of social interaction. Yes, it is transactional in nature, but still.

As of the moment of submitting this post I haven't heard from her; but I will update this blog once I've made progress in this.

palindromic time piece

One, two, three... these are the numbers normally used to start listing out a quantity of something.

Zero, one, two... these are the numbers I use when I start to count the laps that I run around a track.

-1, 0, 1, 2... This is how I count the train as it pulls in to the station. The train present value is -1 at all times that no train is present, when the engine comes in, that's the zero, and then the train cars themselves are counted in order with one being the first one after the engine.

when all else fails, fail again

I don't know why I didn't post about this last Friday or since then, but here it is.

Last Friday I ran my first ever 10K distance in a race, the Ultra Night Run of Montreal. I got there at around 20h10; there were lots of people already there mulling about. Many had flashing lights attached to their shoes, so I asked a person where I could get one; and went and got one.

There was the 5KM distance to start at 20h30 and the 10KM distance to start at 20h40, though the 5K distance race probably started at 20H45 and the 10K race at 20h50 as there were people still picking up their registration package on the site which delayed the start of the race.

After the 5K people departed the 10K people queued up, and as I've never run this distance before, and I wasn't sure how quick I would be, I lined up in the long queue at about the 5/7ths distance from the front. It turns out I should have started much closer to the front as I had to pass reams of people before it started to open up for easier running. In fact, I passed quite a few people who had started the 10K, and also caught up with the slower runners of the 5K who had a five or six minute advantage.

Here is my result (click to see it enlarged).

In my practice runs I managed to run 10K in about 55 minutes; a difference, however is that my training runs were in a place with some hills while this race was almost totally flat.

I was quite pleased with how it all went and have signed up to do the race again next year already.

Hopefully I'll convince a few others to do it with me.

running uphill using only my left shoe

Yesterday the town I live in had its annual 'demi-marathon' of which there is a 1, 2, 5, 10 or 21.1KM distance. I ran the 5KM distance and finished in 23:14, finishing 26th out of 657 participants. That's a top 4% finish. I'm pretty pleased about this.

My next race is a Spartan Race on June 29; it is the longest distance one and I haven't really trained sufficiently for it. I'll try to get a few long training rounds in before the race.

That's about it.

when meet and meat meet meat

The sousterrain race for 2020 is already on sale; I'm not going to do it.

2020 I'm going to Tokyo to attend the summer Olympics. I may also do a Sprint Spartan Race if I have coworkers who will do it; and I will do it with them. The only other race I'll do is a 5KM in the fall, the Classique du Parc Lafontaine. This is a race I've been doing for quite a few years and it is one of the least expensive ones. I need pecuniary savings to pay for this Tokyo adventure.

This summer (and fall) I have
June 16, 5K race of Pointe-Claire
June 29, Spartan Race - Beast Distance
July 27, Spartan Race - Sprint Distance
July 28, Spartan Race - Super Distance
October 20, 5K race of Classique du Parc Lafontaine

Still to be scheduled are the Exo walks, I'll preliminarily schedule them this way:
May 25, Exo Vaudreuil Walk
June 6, Exo Candiac Walk
June 20, Exo Mont St-Hilaire Walk
July 2, Exo St-Jerome Walk
August 12, Exo Deux Montagnes Walk
September 5, Exo Mascouche Walk

As the Exo walks can really happen at any time, I will allow myself some flexibility with the dates so that I can take advantage of better weather conditions. The only limitation is that only Exo Vaudreuil operates on weekends and holidays, the other five lines do not operate on weekends or holidays.

I'm looking forward to doing these walks, maybe I'll make a habit of it. After I do this the first time, I may also see if I can organize something publicly to get other people to join me. Of course, the Exo's affected by the REM may need to be skipped until the REM is up and running. What would be interesting is that each person who joins gets to walk home, so from the start we'd be together, but eventually our routes would diverge. If a dozen or more people ended up doing it, the diverging would take place at different points so sub groups would form for part of the distance.

let us all sing at the top of our toes

So when I got to the starting line for the race this past Sunday, I got there about 48 minutes before we were to start. I found a spot against a side wall, about ten paces behind the start line. I know I am not the fastest so I didn't want to be in front.

As I waited, more and more people showed up, some in front most in back. Almost all were Francophone Quebeckers. It is at events like this that I am reminded that I live in the midst of a vibrant and rich culture/community of which, at best, I am only peripherally aware. If I spent more time reading about news in Quebec from French media, if I attended more cultural events and if I engaged more in meeting people from that community, I wouldn't feel so out of place when attending events like the one I just did.

To be clear, 'feel so out of place' is way too strong an expression to describe how I felt at the time; mostly it was just an awakening feeling, coming to a realization anew, that there is a wider world right at my doorstep.

That there is no absolute need or requirement for me to engage with, learn about or immerse myself in a French-Quebec culture is the reason why it hasn't really ever happened.

While waiting, I was accosted by another runner, clearly older than I. We chatted a bit and I asked him his age, he said he was 64; the inverse of my age. I hope to still be able to be running races like this when I'm that age, and beyond. I suppose if I keep at it and don't ever stop, there shouldn't be reason, barring serious injury, that would prevent me from meeting this goal.

underground, where the anthills smell of bark

Yesterday morning I participated in the second annual classique sousterrain de Montréal, a 5KM race through the underground of the city.

It was fun to do as we got to run in places that normally we shouldn't be running. It was tougher than a regular 5KM as there were lots of going down staircases and going up them too. It was also on the expensive side, in terms of races; it cost me about 67$ to enter. For this reason I may not do it again.

I finished in 28:06 which placed me 77th out of 676 participants.

If I was to do this again, as part of my training I would run a certain distance, then do some stairs, then run some more, than do more stairs, and repeat. That would be a better training regimen.

screen cracks, arg!

On Saturday I went running, I was to run 800m, six times, each time in 3:29 or less, with a short break between each run.

I used my mobile device to track my time, and invited V-8 (9yo) to assist me. She would press 'start' on the timer on my device as I crossed a crack in the pavement adjacent to where she was sitting in the shade, and when I crossed the crack in the pavement again when I completed the lap, she would press 'stop' to get the time.

After my second lap I noticed there was a crack in the screen of my device; she delayed a bit but then owned up to having been the cause of it.

Fortunately I do not get too upset about these things but I did express to her how disappointed I was as a cracked screen on a mobile device is a sign of a careless person. A careless person I am not.

My times were:
2:57, 3:09, 3:19, 3:09, 3:30, 3:19

In that fifth lap I ended up walking about eight seconds half way through the run. This explains the longer time. In the first one I burst out of the gate with lots of energy and so I got the sub three minute time, but that really wore me out.

Today I am supposed to do 3x1km 4:23 per, 90 sec recovery between each lap. I'll be timing myself this time so as not to have more cracks made in my device; carrying it with me as I run. My goal is to be able to run 5KM in 20 minutes or less, so really I should be doing each of the three KM's today in 4:00 even. I will see what I can do.

on a side note (a G major)

If you can believe it, I've managed to squeeze a portable treadmill into this golf cart spaceship of mine. What I do is raise the steering control so it is out of the way, and then on the floor in front of the single row of a bench seat the treadmill belt acts as the floor while cruising along, and I can raise the roof to allow for standing (and running) on it.

Traveling at this speed on Earth would cause enormous amounts of drag when the roof section is raised, however, here in space I just need to protect the flexible wall material that allows the roof to be raised with some guar gum epoxy so that tiny micro dots of space dust don't break the seal as I zip towards Proxima Centuari B.

Today I managed to run 5KM in 23:14; not too shabby for a space cruiser like me. Later in the day I had a Kit-Kat bar; I still have plenty of those left for this trip.

When the gargantuan tarantula eats her soup

We are having a desk decorating contest at work. I am considering to participate.

It is cloudy and drizzling on and off today with a forecast high of 7C.

Tomorrow is March 16th, 2016. This is likely a relevant date for someone, for me it is just another day.

I hope to get to the gym today to run 5KM in less than 24:47. The last time I ran 5KM, it was in 24:47.

There is little else to say, especially concerning kelp.

when waxing doesn't wane

A deliberate swing and a miss left the broken bottle empty.

Bad Santa 2 is being filmed here in Montreal and today, likely a very small scene, is being filmed right outside our building.

The crazy thing is that they needed to bring some snow in to make it look more wintery as el nino has made it, oddly, that we haven't very much snow right now.

I didn't see the first 'Bad Santa' movie and this kind of movie is really not one I am interested in seeing, but this one being filmed now I may just see so that I can pick out the city places that I am familiar with.

I may start going to the gym again next week, we'll see if I can do it. As a traditional first trip back to the gym after a long absence, I will attempt to run 5KM. If I can do this in less than 30 minutes I will be pleased.

I never played rugby.

It has been a long time since I've climbed a tree. I may do that this weekend to trim our crab-apple tree. I prefer to do this in the winter when all of the branches are dormant.

The days here are getting noticeably longer now, the sun rose this morning at 7h10 and will set at 17h06.

The method of telling the time in 24hour format with the 'h' in the middle is a very Quebec way of telling the time. Midnight is expressed as 0h00 and noon is expressed as 12h00. I find it to be the cleanest way to indicate time.

My analog watch doesn't tell time in a 24h format.

The Paper Gods tour of Duran Duran is coming in April and I have a ticket to go. I polled a few of my closest friends and no one else was interested, but that has never (and likely won't ever) stop me from going. The band gave to all people buying tickets a copy of their latest album on CD and I have received it already and quite like it. I've got their setlist from the first leg of their tour that happened in Europe - if they play the same set when they come to North America I'll be a little disappointed that their setlist doesn't include anything from 'All You Need is Now', their second most recent album.

It would be coined a 'mocking' had the cerebrally cantankerous belched ignominiously. I should know.

uphill ventilation components

So I am keeping track of my training to participate in this triathlon and yesterday I ran my personal best 5KM distance in 22:55. I have not ever done sub 23 minutes before.

running outdoors in Brookline

So I used this:

http://soc.li/eh3Jfyd

And more or less followed it precisely... at one point where Washington street and Harvard street branch, around the 4KM mark, I took a wrong turn, but I found my way back in short order.

The Emerald Necklace was nice, though not so emerald as it could be as we are, after all, in March even though the weather is more like June.

I promise to stop posting these incessantly incongruous posts as soon as I find I am capable.

parenthetical interlude

I started running again yesterday afternoon. It seems the last time I ran was December 4th.

While running I came upon the conclusion that I would most likely stop posting how my running, push-ups and all else is going. What is the purpose of posting that kind of information to my blog?

One purpose is purely personal in that I can see very easily how I have progressed.

Perhaps there are other reasons for posting this information that I do not allow to move into my consciousness. I will have to ponder this.

Run Update

Yay! 23:51 today, I pushed past the mental weakness to get the run in at a still lower time than the last time. I felt rather consumed once I finished the run.

Run Update

I stopped due to mental weakness today. I only ran 3.48KMs in 17:39 minutes.

It could be I have less mental energy due to not having eaten any cookies today. We'll see if I have any other withdrawal symptoms.

Run Update

Yay!

I ran 5km in 23:55, I broke the 24 minute mark!

I'm going to give blood again tomorrow so I won't be able to run again until next week.

Have a great Thanks Giving for all of my American blogmates!

Run Update

I just ran 5KM in 24:08, that elusive 24 minute mark is tough to beat!