-
running the gaps
As of last night I recorded 1,457 different running activities in the app I use to track my fitness. There’s nothing special about that number except to make the points that (a) it’s quite a lot and (b) when you stack all those individual activities, in particular the GPS maps they generate, on top of each other (which there is a feature to do) you get what they call a heat map, an orange on black map of cumulative routes tracked.
Places you run a lot glow bright orange with dozens or hundreds of track lines.
Places you run occasionally are dimmer with one or two lines.
Places you’ve never run are just empty black streets.
I was surprised to notice recently that even after nearly fifteen hundred activities there are streets near me, in my neighbourhood, even just a few blocks away which I’ve never run down. Ever.
My goal for the next while is to try and run at least once per week down a road which I currently have no track… to fill in the running gaps on my heat map.
-
like a lion
I recall a March three years ago that came in like a lamb and left like a lion. March 2020 started calm and quiet, at least in my little corner of the universe, with big vacation plans and a mild winter and slowly ramping up for a season of marathon training.
By the time March 2020 ended it was definitely growling and snarling and ready to slash at anyone who came close, an angry lion if there ever was one.
This March first I woke up to fresh snow and a clear determination to accomplish some lofty goals before the month is over. This March, my March at least, is coming in like a lion.
How’s yours shaping up?
-
spicy mustard
Sometimes you need to trip over your own little assumptions in order to realize they’re even assumptions at all.
We went on vacation about 10 days ago, and rented a condo suite with a full kitchen. It’s nice to have somewhere to cook regular meals when we’re out busy exploring the mountains. The small minor upgrade to the expense in accommodation makes for much less expense when it comes to dining. We can have simple breakfasts and lunches with ingredients from the grocery store.
We bought supplies to make sandwiches for lunch every day — buns, sliced cheese, deli meat, greens, and…
The store was all out of the regular mustard I usually buy. I won’t mention brands here at the risk of sounding like an endorsement, but sometime you just grow up with a single brand of something and never really re-evaluate it. Basic yellow mustard has been that for me. Same brand. Forty-six years… well, assuming I ate mustard as an infant. Unlikely.
The store was out. So I tried another brand. “Prepared Hot Yellow Mustard” in a little vacation-sized jar.
I think I just tripped over my own assumptions about the mustard I thought I liked. I think I like this new stuff better.