daily bardo

  • steps for a run

    I’m two months into a year-long step-tracking goal.

    It’s a small metric I’m measuring, a metric that records my walks, runs, and general wandering about the house, the city and beyond, in a long journey towards better health, fitness, and more. As of yesterday I passed seven hundred thousand steps this year, so far. My goal is about five million!

    This also happens to be a year that I’m back to training for a marathon, so while much of the year will be me getting in really good shape FROM training for a run, the first three months of 2023 are me trying to get in better shape FOR training for a run. It’s a subtle distinction, and one I’ve had to start articulating to the people around me who have noticed I’ve lost a bit of weight, am even more focused on regular exercise than I have been for a few years, and am starting to show the effects.

    “All that running is paying off.” They suggest. “You’re really getting in shape from running so much.”

    “No.” I tell them. “That’ll happen in the spring and summer. Right now I’m getting in shape for running so much later.”

  • long pants, longer run

    It’s funny how we are so trusting of technology, even me who works and plays in it on the daily and should know better it’s limitations.

    I checked my weather app last night before bed and noted that the temperature for Sunday morning’s run should be around -8C at 8am. I laid out my gear and got down to the business of resting up for a 10k training run.

    When I woke up and checked the temperature on our outdoor thermometer it read -19C.

    Huh?

    I had a coffee and breakfast, got dressed, and checked the temperature again. An hour or so after my first reading and thirty minutes before my run it still said only -18C.

    I rechecked the app.

    For some reason my location had been set to Toronto. I live in Edmonton, two-thirds of the North American continent away, sort of like mixing up Chicago with Montana, or London’s forecast with Oslo’s.

    Too trusting of tech, I guess. And thus more gear and warmer pants were required for the run. At least it wasn’t windy.

  • reading: the best coffee at home

    If you are living in the year 2023 and interested in good coffee, you likely already watch James Hoffmann on Youtube and glean insights from his seemingly limitless knowledge of the magic brew.

    I discovered his channel last year and my only regret now is that I likely won’t be able to find him and shake his hand when I visit the UK for a few days this upcoming summer.

    The next best thing to a handshake, tho, was finding his new book, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home, in an eclectic store on 8th street in Canmore, Alberta while visiting the mountain town last weekend. It’s a hefty tome, which I bought with my own money, and will tell you that not only is it a beautiful book inside and out, it deserves to live on the bookshelf of any coffee aficionado and ideally within arms-reach of your coffee stash.

    I know that I’ll be curling up the couch with a fresh mokapot-brewed americano this afternoon and continuing my coffee education.

  • dough, soured

    The thing about sourdough is that there is an advantage to a long proof.

    So, when you mix your dough on Wednesday night, say, and intend to rest in the refrigerator overnight and then countertop proof it the next day so that, say, you can bake it on Thursday evening… but you forget and go to work instead and leave the dough in the fridge…

    Well.

    You can countertop proof it on Friday and bake it up Friday evening (instead of Thursday as you had intended) and not only is the final bread fine, it is arguably better for the longer rest in the fridge. Better flavour. Better rise. Better all round.

    Amazing.

    This may have definitely been a true story.

  • hot damn cold

    It’s not just cold out today, it’s damn cold.

    Twenty-five degrees below zero is not the coldest it gets here, nor does it set any sort of record for cold, but minus twenty-five is a threshold for a temperature below which it doesn’t even matter for another fifteen or twenty degrees cooler. It’s just cold… so stay inside where it’s warm.

    It’s bundle up under a blanket even in your own house cold.

    It’s leave the furnace and space heaters running all day cold.

    It’s put a jacket on the dog when she goes to pee cold.

    It’s can’t hear the music in the car over the heating fan cold.

    It’s hot damn cold.