First outdoor ride on the new bike. Great to be out of the basement, though I swallow fewer midges on Zwift πŸš΄β€β™‚οΈ

Day 7: We appreciate and enjoy our provincial parks πŸ“·

Day 6: Cloud silhouette πŸ“·

Shadowy clouds against a blue sky

Day 5: Earth πŸ“·

Mountain framed by trees with a river

Day 4: LRT tunnelling at _Thorn_cliffe Park (bit of a cheat on the prompt) πŸ“·

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 πŸ“·

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 πŸ“·

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 πŸ“·

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

Tomorrow’s race will be fun! I haven’t been in a proper event for awhile πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ

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 trackπŸ“š

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

COVID and Readiness to Train πŸ¦ πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈπŸš΄β€β™‚οΈπŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ

With two school-age kids, this seemed inevitable:

COVID rapid test showing a positive result

All things considered, my symptoms aren’t too bad, which I’m grateful for. Nonetheless, I’ve mostly been in bed for a couple of days to properly recover.

Since I’ve been monitoring my Readiness To Train (RTT) score, I was curious to see how COVID would appear in the metrics.

Thursday morning was the first indication that something was wrong. I completed what felt like a reasonably strong swim workout, only to suddenly feel really drained of energy while walking home from the pool.

Apple Watch screenshot showing RTT trending down and in yellow

After dragging myself home, we found out my son’s friend had tested positive. So, both he and I took a rapid test that confirmed we were infected.

Thursday night was peak symptoms for me, producing an abysmal RTT.

Apple Watch screenshot showing RTT very low and in red

All morning in bed on Friday helped a lot and then a much better sleep last night layered improvement on top.

Today’s RTT seems rather optimistic to me though. My planned intensity included a two hour bike ride and 20k run. Those are not happening! Today’s planned intensity will be watching the season finale of Severance in my pyjamas.

Apple Watch screenshot showing RTT trending up and in green

My experience with RTT is that it typically reinforces how I actually feel with, perhaps, the occasional early warning. Basically a second opinion that reinforces my intuition. But when we disagree, like now, I’m definitely following how I feel.

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 πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ

pair of running shoes drying on a shoe dryer

Happy Lucy

Completed an FTP test this morning. Important to do, though super challenging πŸ˜“πŸš΄β€β™‚οΈ

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

New trail running shoes πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ

I added a new pair of running shoes to my closet: Saucony Switchback 2. They are a lightweight trail shoe with the BOA Fit System (rather than laces) and good treads for gripping.

A pair of new Saucony running shoes Close up of the thick treads of the Saucony Switchback running shoes

I took them out for a 10k run around the neighbourhood. Not quite the right conditions, since I was mostly on sidewalks and they’re trail running shoes. Despite that, the shoes felt fast and light. For the first couple of kms, I felt a bit like I was slapping my feet on the ground, since I’m used to more cushioning and my feet weren’t making contact quite when I was expecting them to. I didn’t take long to adjust to a better form though. I’m curious to see what the transition back to my usual shoes is like. Presumably with practice, I’ll be able to switch back and forth easily.

Overall, I’m happy with the new shoes and look forward to getting out to an actual trail with them.

Don’t forget to tie your shoes