Microposts

First outdoor ride on the new bike. Great to be out of the basement, though I swallow fewer midges on Zwift ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Day 7: We appreciate and enjoy our provincial parks ๐Ÿ“ท

Day 6: Cloud silhouette ๐Ÿ“ท

Shadowy clouds against a blue sky

Day 5: Earth ๐Ÿ“ท

Mountain framed by trees with a river

Day 4: LRT tunnelling at _Thorn_cliffe Park (bit of a cheat on the prompt) ๐Ÿ“ท

Construction site for tunelling the Eglinton Crosstown LRT

Day 3: One of my experimental setups in grad school was a tinfoil room with a hive of bees ๐Ÿ“ท

A room that is covered in tin foil with a bee hive inside a cage

Day 2: The oldest photo in my library is of my grandfather in his navy uniform from 1945 ๐Ÿ“ท

A portrait photo of my grandfather as a young man in a navy uniform

Day 1: Ran up a lot of switchbacks to get to the top of Signal Hill in Newfoundland ๐Ÿ“ท

The Toronto Half Marathon was great! So nice to be out for a proper group event again. And I had a wonderful race crew for cheers and end of race snacks

Family photo of my kids with me at the end of the raceFamily photo of my wife with me at the end of the race

Tomorrowโ€™s race will be fun! I havenโ€™t been in a proper event for awhile ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Race bib for the Toronto half marathon

Finished reading: Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Trilogy Book 2) by Tamsyn Muir is really imaginative and well written. I found it rather confusing though. Lots of characters and plot points to track๐Ÿ“š

Severance is fantastic. An intriguing premise, with great acting, and careful attention to detail in every episode. Well worth watching

The weirdness of Raised by Wolves shifted from intriguing to distracting between seasons 1 and 2. Although the second half of season 2 was better than the first, overall the season wasn’t successful for me

Although it seems like a luxury, $70 for always dry shoes is worth it. Especially with spring weather ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ

pair of running shoes drying on a shoe dryer

Happy Lucy

Completed an FTP test this morning. Important to do, though super challenging ๐Ÿ˜“๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ

I’m letting my Pinboard subscription expire. I’ve added 3,500 bookmarks since 2010 and the service was valuable when actively engaged in research. I haven’t looked up a bookmark in the past few years though. Now I’ll rely on Apple Notes and Micro.blog Bookmarks

Donโ€™t forget to tie your shoes

Just fixed a small issue with my Elite Suito bike trainer: the magnets stopped working, so the resistance couldn’t be automatically adjusted. This is obviously a major feature of the trainer and particularly important for Zwift rides.

Fortunately, a quick conversation with their support team identified a fix that required replacing the trainer’s circuit board. Having recently built a gaming PC with my son, this wasn’t too complicated, though someone with less experience would likely be intimidated. The process took about 20 minutes and I took the bike for a quick Zwift ride to confirm all was well.

Although I’d much have preferred that the trainer hadn’t broken, Elite support was quick and helpful.

I’m really enjoying these videos by Mark Lewis on fitness and motivation

I appreciate his message of only striving for above average and carefully considering the trade offs between training and the rest of your interests.

Finished reading: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse is a great story about a monster hunter on a Navajo reservation after a climate apocalypse๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi is a fun โ€œsoldiers in spaceโ€ book with some interesting ethical concepts๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is really good. A strong emotional core with an intriguing sci-fi structure๐Ÿ“š

Busy morning so far

One of the highlights from last night’s Stout Beer Festival: Beeramisu Imperial Stout from the Third Moon and Bellwoods breweries

A photo of a can of beer and full mug

Although I was disappointed to miss out on attending Micro Camp March 2022, I’ve enjoyed catching up on the videos. A nice diversity of topics, each very well presented

I think I liked season 1 of Raised by Wolves? A curious mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror that overall was more about mood than plot. I’m not sure what to make of the ending yet.

As a follow up to my post about swimming with an Apple Watch, Iโ€™ll note that the watch only records activity when your arm is moving. So, things like kicking drills arenโ€™t recorded. Not a serious issue for me, though this can make stats inaccurate.

Despite this, I still appreciate the simplicity of using the Apple Watch to train for triathlons.

Pancakes for dinner

A fun one