Run in the Rain
Today was supposed to be rainy. Like all day. So I decided to walk on my treadmill instead of go outside, especially since it was raining quite hard already when I woke up.
But six miles into my walk, the rain stopped. And being the WEATHER WIZARD that I am, I was like, “hey, there’s no way the rain will start up again, so let’s go run outside!”
And so I ran outside.
And about half a mile out, it started POURING. It continued to pour for the whole first half of the run (seven miles).
Pros:
- Absolutely NO ONE was out in that, so I had the trail all to myself. I guess there was that one guy I passed who looked like he’d made the worst decision of his life going out for a run that day, but other than that, NO ONE was out.
- I felt like a badass even though I probably looked like an idiot.
- It was finally cool enough to run in the middle of the day rather than having to get up at ass-o’-clock to do so.
- Uh…my hat got cleaned by the rain?
Cons:
- SPLASHY SPLASHY
- I’m pretty sure one of the puddles that I had to run through was like six inches deep
- There were porta potties at my turnaround point. I had to utilize one and it was completely flooded inside.
- I’m pretty sure my shoes are going to be squeaky forever now, because every time I get a pair of Kinvaras even slightly wet, they squeak.
I’mma go dry off now.
Edit: OH MY GOD I AM SO FREAKING COLD
WELL, THERE WERE SIDE EFFECTS
So unlike the first COVID shot where I had basically no side effects, I definitely had some after the second shot.
Let’s rewind to yesterday. I was actually feeling fine for several hours after I got the shot. I walked home without incident (though my arm was just a little bit sore by the time I got back), cleaned the kitchen a little bit, did dishes, went grocery shopping, all that fun stuff.
Normal.
But then around 9:00-ish or so, I started to feel a little off. All my muscles started to get really sore. Then they all started to feel like they were on fire. Nate and I played a Jeopardy! on the couch and I was having trouble concentrating because ALL MUSCLES WERE BURNING.
Then I started to feel cold.
Really cold.
Like, I’m always kinda cold because I’m basically a lizard with poor blood circulation, but I could NOT get warm. Despite the fact that this was one of the warmer days we’ve had this summer so far, I had to huddle under my heavy blanket on the other couch and even then I was shivering uncontrollably.
I fell asleep under the blanket for a good while and when Nate finally woke me up I guess I was super hot. I have a very vague memory of giving Jazzy her night meds and saying goodnight to Nate and then sitting at my computer and just staring at the screen for like three hours. I took my temperature and it was 103, which is well above my usual temp of 96.
Eventually I made it to bed (somehow) and when I woke up this morning I was feeling a lot better. My muscles were still a little sore, but not nearly as sore as yesterday. And instead of being smart and taking it easy by doing my walk on the treadmill in case I started feeling worse, I decided to be the idiot that I usually am and went running instead. It was probably one of the hardest runs I’ve ever had and my legs were SUPER SORE afterward, but mileage comes first.
Anyway. Party hard. Apart from my throbbing legs, I still feel a lot better than yesterday.
Shot: Part II
So today I walked downtown to get my second COVID shot!
Annnnd…done!
I’m not feeling anything yet, so hopefully any side effects I eventually get (if I get them) won’t be too bad.
Yay science!
JABBY JABBY PART II: MODERNA’S REVENGE
So guess who’s suddenly eligible to sign up for their second COVID shot?
THIS LOSER RIGHT HERE!
Time to get in the virtual queue….
…oh. Okay, so time to sit in the virtual queue for three hours.
Edit: Booked!
GET IT, CANADA
Go, Canada, go!
We got off to a very slow start up here, but things ramped up quickly. Now we’re one of the top countries when it comes to the percent of the population with at least one shot. Hopefully our rate of second shots will start increasing at the same rate.
WOO THERE MIGHT BE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE YET
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOT-SHOT-SHOTS (errrrrrybody!)
I got my first COVID shot today!
It was at the little clinic in Brentwood Mall right behind campus. I got Moderna. It’s pretty late at night and I honestly haven’t felt any side effects at all. Nate had a few and I was expecting at least a headache and maybe some tiredness, but nope.
I AM JESUS
[Edit from the future: HAHAHA WAIT UNTIL YOU GET THE SECOND SHOT YOU POSER]
B-B-B-Bloomsday!
Like last year, I signed up to do the virtual Bloomsday run. Unlike last year, though, when I ran on a pretty warm day, today was cold and windy and rainy and pretty miserable. But running is addictive as hell and so I went outside and did it anyway.
Yes, I know I’m not a very fast runner. Deal with it.
I’m super cold now, haha.
Indoor vs. Outdoor
Prior to last year, I hadn’t run much AT ALL since mid-2017 (pre-knee injury), and even back then I wasn’t at all consistent with it. Maybe a 10K every once and a while.
But over the past year or so, I’ve really found a consistency with it and have enjoyed running twice a week. It’s a good way to break up the walking days (especially since there’s only like two routes I walk anymore due to pandemic-driven fear of public transit) and it lets me get home faster when I’ve got a lot of work to do.
But one thing I’ve really noticed is that running outside is SO MUCH EASIER than running on a treadmill. I had been going to Anytime Fitness at start of 2020 and had been running about six of my 15 daily miles on the treadmill, but of course once COVID hit and the gyms shut down, I spent all my walking/running time outside. My outdoor runs started around 10K in April/May of last year and increased to 14 miles, which is now my consistent running distance. And it’s pretty easy. Some runs are a lot harder than others for various reasons, but in general 14 miles is a nice achievable distance for me.
But inside on a treadmill? There’s no way I could do 14 miles. As an example, the weather was supposed to be pretty cold and crappy here today, so rather than risk getting stuck in wet blowing snow, I decided to just use my treadmill and walk my distance instead of doing the usual walk 2 miles/run 14 miles that I typically do on Thursdays.
Well, I HATE skipping a run when I can avoid it, so about four miles into my treadmill walk, I turned off my Kindle and decided to run a few miles. I did a 10K and it was really, really hard to finish, haha. It’s probably a combination of how warm the house is compared to outside and the fact that you use slightly different muscles (or use them a different way at least) when on a treadmill than when running normally, but BLAH. It’s depressing that I can’t go as far inside as outside.
Anyway. Just complaining.
Running Review
‘Sup?
So as you may know from reading these blog posts, I’ve really gotten into running over the past year. Blame the pandemic, I guess.
Anyway, counting today, I’ve done a total of 110 runs since the beginning of 2020, so let’s see some stats, shall we?
Note: I am counting a “run” as an activity where all I did was run (no walking) and the distance is at least six miles. Just to give “run” a specific definition.
GO!
Here are some summary stats for distance (in miles), average heart rate (in bpm), and time/duration (in minutes):
Here is average heart rate plotted against distance:
Note: a lot of those sub-12-mile distances were early on in 2020, which may explain some of the higher heart rates. I wasn’t used to running yet. However, I’ve noticed that it takes me a good three miles to really get into a run – that is, to get to a point where my breathing calms down and my heart rate seems to slow down a bit. That is, I hit a “groove” that I seem to stay in for the rest of the run. So maybe on those shorter runs I spend more time getting into the groove than in the groove itself?
Here is distance plotted against “run,” which is just the nth run I’ve done since January 2020. For example, “1” represents the first run I did, while “50” represents the 50th run I did. Easy!
Observe the “screw it, let’s go from a 10k to a half marathon” jump around runs 20-23. I’m actually pretty consistent with doing 14 miles. The 18 the other day was an aberration; I don’t think I could consistently do 18 like I can do 14, but who knows. Maybe I could build up to it.
Here’s average heart rate plotted against “run”:
The slope coefficient is significantly less than zero, by the way (α = 0.05), so I guess there’s been a significant decrease in my heart rate as I’ve gone for more runs. Though distance is likely a confounding variable.
ANYWAY. Cool, huh? I’ll probably do more posts like this as I keep running. Lucky you.
18
I ran 18 miles today!
That’s the furthest I’ve ever run by about three miles.
I normally don’t run on the weekends because there are way more people out on the path, but my usual running day (this upcoming Monday) is supposed to be cold as hell, so I figured I’d try to run today instead.
It turns out that the weather was just right for running and there actually weren’t that many people out. I felt like I could easily keep going after I hit my usual 14 miles, so I just continued until I did an additional four.
Supa cool. Here’s the map!
Now I just have not do 18 every single time I run, haha.
Sigh…
CNN.
Like, I get it. Some people need that “bare minimum” number to strive for due to whatever circumstances they’re dealing with. But should we really be lowering the bar from the “standard” 10,000 daily steps? People are way too inactive as is. I think anything we can do to encourage more activity is great, even if it means sticking with a somewhat arbitrary value that’s a bit higher than what some research is showing as the bare minimum to get health benefits.
Sorry, I just saw this article today and my mind immediately contrasted it with the “vigorous exercise” article a while back, even though walking and vigorous exercise are different things.
Press X to Doubt
So Garmin has these little online challenge thingies that you can do through its app where you’re competing with other people for things like highest monthly step count, most monthly running miles, most miles cycled in a given amount of time, etc. Every once and a while I get in a challenge where someone gets accused of cheating and faking their data.
This week, that someone was me.
So a few things.
1) It should go without saying, but I do not fake my data. Anyone who knows me knows that my walking/running/steps are legit. I’m just putting that out there.
2) There are almost definitely people who fake their data in one way or another. It’s inevitable on something like this (even though the only real “reward” you get from winning these challenges is bragging rights I guess?). However, everyone else I’ve ever seen accused of cheating does not share their individual activities – only their totals (miles, steps, whatev). I share my activities. You can see every walk and run I log and you can even look at the map and see exactly where I went. That would be hard to fake unless I was giving someone else my Garmin and having them do the miles for me.
3) The amount of effort that would be required to fake this data is just not worth it, especially for as long as I’ve had my Garmin (fall 2018 I think?). It’s probably less effort to just do the actual steps, honestly.
I mean, I guess I could be flattered by the fact that people think I’m faking the amount of steps I’m taking, but it’s more annoying than anything.
Anyway.
It’s so cold it BUUUUUUUUUURNS
Hey so LOOK HOW FREAKING COLD IT IS
It’s been like this for too many days in a row. It’s sunny, sure, but that makes it even worse because my brain’s like “lawl sun make warm. Go outside!” And then I go outside and my brain’s like “THE FUCK WRONG WITH YOU GO BACK IN GO BACK IN”
Anyway, 16 miles on the treadmill gets super tedious even with Kindle books, so I said SCREW IT and decided to walk to North Hill Mall and back to get my last three miles in today.
Got my mega gloves on, my mega jacket on, my scarf, and my headphones to cover my ears, and went outside. It was cold but it surprisingly wasn’t unmanageably cold (probably because the sun was out and I wasn’t walking directly into the wind). The sidewalks were also covered in compact snow which was too cold to be slippery, so I decided to just run to North Hill and see how that felt.
It wasn’t too bad.
My nose got really freaking cold on the way back because I was into the wind in that direction, but I had little hand warmers in my gloves which helped to protect my fingers and I ALWAYS produce a ton of body heat while running, so it was okay.
I don’t know if I’d want to run 14 miles in it (and my iPod would almost definitely not make it that far), but it was okay.
Woo?
BRRR RUN BRRR
It was 10 degrees outside today but I WENT RUNNING ANYWAY.
Well, okay, I didn’t do my full running distance because I didn’t think my iPod could handle that amount of cold for that long. When I walk, I put my iPod in a protective insulated case and then put the case in a side pocket on my cold weather shorts that I wear beneath my cold weather pants, thus keeping the case next to my body to give it at least a little bit of body heat to keep it warm. But when I run, I can’t fit my iPod in its little protective insulated case AND fit it in my running pants’ pocket, so I either have to forego the case and hope that my body heat alone is enough to keep the iPod warm or I have to put it in the case and put the case in my running pack thingy, where it does not get to sit close to my skin and thus does not get any body heat.
BUT ANYWAY, 10 is pretty cold, so I figured both of those options were kind of iffy. So I did some of my distance on the treadmill and then did about 10 miles running outside. It was brr. Even with the massive amount of body heat I produce while running, it was brr.
But it’s good to know that I can run that far in that kind of cold weather, I guess.
CARDIO LET’S GO
Interesting, but not surprising overall. What is surprising, at least to me, is the following: “there was no threshold where the effects of exercise stopped improving cardiovascular health, the study found.” Especially since other correlating variables such as smoking, drinking, and body weight were supposedly accounted for.
One thing to note though is that their “top 25%” of most active people were doing about 50 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity (like running). It would be interesting to see what their top 5% or top 1% were doing just to see what their “threshold” of vigorous activity was in their sample. Like, if the top 1% is only doing like 100 minutes of vigorous activity per week, how can they really conclude that there may not be a threshold above that level where the effects of exercise taper off or even reverse? Like, if you’re doing 300 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, you may not be represented in the study, and who’s to say what the effect of that level of exercise may be on cardiovascular health?
Anyway. Still interesting.
WALK, FORREST, WALK!
So remember back on June 1st when I made that running total dynamic bar thing that compared how my yearly mileage totals accumulated for each year I’ve lived in Calgary? (This thing?)
Well, I updated it to include 2020 now.
I didn’t even really consider trying to beat 2017’s mileage until about half way through the year. Then it was a push to make it happen – which it did at the very start of November.
Kinda cool!
Walking 2020
Happy New Year!
As always, January 1st is dedicated to reviewing last year’s walking mileage. So let’s get to it! But before we do, a quick disclaimer: I am including my running mileage in all of these totals, too, but I’m just going to refer to everything as walking mileage because it’s easier.
K? K.
ONWARD!
Here are my walking stats for January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.
Total number of walks: 347
Total mileage: 5,160
Total number of steps: 11,687,919
Total calories burned: 355,903
Total walking time (minutes): 78,727.87 [that’s about 54.67 days]
Average speed (mph) per walk: 3.80
5,160 miles is approximately the great circle distance between Juneau, AK and Barcelona, Spain or between Naples, Italy and Cape Town, South Africa.
And for anyone who’s keeping track (probably no one), yes, this is a new yearly mileage record. I beat 2017’s record of 5,100 by 60 miles, which isn’t a fantastic jump in distance or anything, but it is a new record.
So yay!
Runnnnnnn
If you know me in real life, I probably have never struck you as someone who would ever say they loved running (especially if you knew me pre-Vancouver).
But I LOVE RUNNING.
I’m addicted to it now. I’d go 14-ish miles every day if I could. The only thing stopping me is the thought that I do NOT want to go through another injury, either with my knee or with something else. So I’ll stick with a few times a week with the 16-mile walks in between.
But holy freaking crap, running feels so good.
It’s felt even better these past few weeks. I don’t know if that’s my body finally just getting used to 14 running miles the same way it got used to 15/16 walking miles or if the colder weather is just that much easier for me to run in.
It’s so relaxing and so freeing and so empowering.
If any of my readers run and are looking for good running clothes, I’d suggest Baleaf. I bought a pair of running leggings from them and a running jacket/coat thingy and they’ve both become my favorite things to run in. The leggings actually stay up around my waist (my other pairs are all too big around the waist and the Baleaf ones are just tight enough to stay in place but aren’t too tight) and the jacket has zippable pockets to hold gloves/music player, little thumb holes in the sleeves, and has a small fleece lining which makes it good for running in the 20-25 degrees range.
Anyway.
RUNNING!
SUCK IT, DOUBTERS
I just surpassed 5,000 walking miles for the year, and I did it one day sooner than I did in 2007, the last (and only) time I hit 5,000 walking miles.
So for everyone who didn’t think I could do it again, take THAT!
I’m also going to likely beat 2007’s total mileage of 5,100, too.
Ha.
VO2-The-Max!
Aloha. Let’s talk about my VO2 max.
According to this site, “VO2 max, also known as maximal oxygen uptake, is the measurement of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize during intense exercise. It is a common measurement used to establish the aerobic endurance of an athlete prior to or during the course of training. It is one of several tests used to determine an athlete’s cardiovascular fitness and performance capacity.”
Typically, the more endurance sports/activities you do, you are more likely to have higher VO2 max scores. And of course, correlation does not equal causation, but there does tend to be, you know, correlation between these two things.
So what have my VO2 max scores been since the start of the year? Let’s see.
Ohhhh, okay. Random. Cool.
Note that there’s a break in the graph because I had to stitch together two different display screens from my Garmin app.
Of course, another disclaimer here is that I’m not getting my VO2 max professionally measured here; these readings are coming from my Garmin. But I would think any measurement error would be somewhat consistent across time, right?
I just find it weird that there seems to be no pattern whatsoever, and I bet if you looked at this you couldn’t be able to tell if I’d started seriously running at any point during the year and if I’d stopped seriously running at any point during the year.
(Serious 13+ mile runs twice a week started around the end of April I think; I have kept those up ever since, so there hasn’t been a stopping point.)
And like…I am very consistent with the type of exercise I do as well as the duration. It’s not like I’m doing dramatically different exercises on these days. I’m either a) running 14 miles or b) walking 16 miles. That’s basically it.
I also find it weird that I think my circulation has gotten worse since I started running, but that’s whatev.
Body, you’re strange.
Walkie Talkie
Hey NERDS, so up until this point, I’ve walked 4,585.06 miles. At this same time in 2017 (my record walking year), I’d walked 4,573.77 miles. So that means (unless I royally screw up) I’m on pace to beat 2017’s distance of 5,100 miles.
YESSSSSSSSSSS.
(I live for this crap, sorry.)
Yay, a migraine!
So I was just in the process of typing up some nonsense blather for today’s blog post (because let’s face it, that’s most of what these posts are nowadays) when my vision started going. You know what that means…a migraine!
So I guess that’s what I’m goingt to blog about to day.
(I suspect I’m goingn to have to go back in here and correct a whole bunch of typiocs, considering I CAN’T SEE HALF THE DAMN SCREEN…or maybe I’ll leave ‘em in for that sweet, sweet authentic “blogging while having a migraine aura” experience.
Ya sure, let’s do that.)
These freaking auras are usually the worst part of my migraines, since there’s really nothing I can do about them but wait for them to pass, wich typically means sitting around with partial vision (someotmies no vision) for twenty to thirty minutes before it starts coming back.
But I guess I’m lucky, because a) the aura lets me know that the actual pain part of the migraine is coming, which allows me to take some Excedrin in time so that b), the actual pain part of the migraine isn’t too bad. I also never get light- or sound-sensitivity and only rarely get nausea, so as far as migraines go, mine aren’t too bad.
BUT HEY, I REALLY ENJOY BEING ABLE TO SEE.
A fun exercise: I just scrolled up a few pages to get a nice full page of text and took a screenshot, then put that screenshot into Paint and erased everything I couldn’t see when looking straight ahead at the page. Wanna see?
Supa fun! Right now I don’t have the dancing ring of color around the edge of that “no see” zone, but that always comes later.
(Edit: now I’ve got it! Right on schedule.)
So yhah. I’ve also got spagnetti going and who knows ifI’ll be able to competently drain it and put it on a plate rather than dump the whole thing on the ground. I certainly couldn’t see my Excedrin bottle eclear enough earlier to check if I needed to take one pill or two. I’m preety sure it’s two. I hope it is, ‘cause that’s what I took.
THE END!
Edit from a few days later: lol, typos. I’m leaving them in.
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