I decided to do some stair training today.
Yesterday I had gone on the treadmill for ten minutes. My ankle actually looked better after the run than before. There is still a little pain, and it is swollen at times. But I have to get back into training. There isn’t much time left before the big race.
So I did 16 sets of a staircase into the river valley known for having 100 steps. (And there is a small escarpment I have to go over on the way back that has seven steps.) I noticed a few things about it.
The ninth set is one of the easiest, because that is the first one after the halfway mark. You feel better because you know that every step you do now is one you won’t have to do again. (The logic is very shaky, but then your brain isn’t really working at that point.) The hardest set is the tenth as you realize you still have a long way to go.
I actually noticed that the trips down started to get harder than the trips up. You have to brake constantly, but it might also be imagination is making you dread what is coming up worse than it actually is.
Anyway, my legs feel like rubber.

It’s like something doesn’t want me to run the Death Race.
Or really make any of my running goals…
Let’s recap my Death Race travails.

• Doing it alone. My friends have better things to do. (Like having children.) Fine. I’ll show them.
• I hurt my knee. Thought to be a torn meniscus, but possibly only bruised. I got better.
• My hotel reservation is cancelled. Okay, I’ll go with Tent City. Not nearly as nice, but approximately 14% of the price.
• Possible job in another country: Will they even let me run the race?

Well, we get to add another item to the list: Twisted ankle.
I was running today, along a route I’ve run dozens of times. I stepped on something incorrectly and a lot of pain. A LOT OF PAIN. I hobbled a couple of kilometres to my friend’s place and was able to get a ride back home after they finished the run I was supposed to accompany them on. My plan to run 50km today was cut down to 9km. My ankle is very visibly swollen. I have faith it will heal quickly. But all these setbacks are getting discouraging.
In other running information, I drove all of 60km in Canada last week. I ran approximately 85km. But I also took a flight to Seattle and drove 50.8 miles. And I don’t see me doing better this week. I’m staying off my ankle as much as possible.

Scona road has been shut down. So far, I’ve been enjoying this.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Scona road. It is my route of choice if I am returning from downtown. But since it has been closed for construction, there is a lot less traffic on Saskatchewan drive. It is so easy to cross it now when I’m out for a run.
If I want to run that route though, I figured I could take the secret path down to the running trails. Then there is nothing stopping me from enjoying the fully operational river valley. I wanted to do that today. With the fact that I was sleeping most of the day, I wanted to cap off my total laziness with a 20km run. I would go down to the river valley and then head west. But I had a lot of trouble finding the secret path today, so I had to use a street instead. It removed a bit of distance, so I had to make it up later.
But, I would take the secret path back. It is impossible to miss from below. So, after 18km, I went up the muddy trail and started climbing the stairs back to Saskatchewan drive. Wait a minute. Where are those stairs.
They were gone. All that remained were some piles to prove that they had been there. So, with some death defying stunts, I clambered over the railing and back up to Saskatchewan drive, next to a sign I had missed earlier. “Stairs removed for safety reasons.”
What safety reasons?! I nearly got myself killed because you decided to remove them! I certainly didn’t feel safer.
Who authorized the removal of a running trail in Edmonton? That’s a hanging offence!

My opinion of driving in America has been somewhat tainted by Los Angeles. I assume it will take forever, and be confusing, to drive within a US city. But Seattle was nicely laid out and I didn’t have too much of an issue. I drove 50.8 miles though, so I don’t think I will reach my running goal this week. If I tracked from Wednesday to Wednesday I would totally have it made, but that would be unethical.
There were two interviews. I think the first one went well. It was actually fun; I was given a programming problem and had to find a solution. The second interview didn’t go as well. I didn’t flub it, but it was dealing with an area I wasn’t too familiar with. Could have gone better.
In any case it was a nice experience. The company had a wonderful layout and an impressive building. Interesting art too. It would be nice to work there.
Yesterday, when I should have been studying for the interview, I was dealing with another interview test with a different company. I thought I had provided a good answer, but I just received an email saying “No, thanks for trying.” I’m hoping I can get from them a reason why; where did my program fail. It worked on my machine.
So I’m feeling a bit down right now. I’d like to believe I’m intelligent, and employable, but evidence is starting to mount otherwise. Are my skills out of date?

I’m not in Seattle yet. But the Vancouver airport appears to have free wireless.
I’m nervous and I didn’t get enough sleep. I should be studying a bit for the interviews, or I could take a nap.

Okay, my plan to run more than I drive hit a speed bump today. On Thursday I need to be in Seattle. So the drive to and from the airport is going to slap on at least 50km. Who knows how much driving I’ll need to do when I’m there to get to and from the job interview.
It will be a lot of driving. And I don’t want to overtrain to try and beat the car. I’m still going to pay attention to odometers. It may work out. And there is always next week.

It’s hard to make scientific progress when the variables are too variable.
I am trying to figure out the best way to improve my running. When I ran the first 30km since my injury, I went through Millcreek ravine and headed east, eventually turning around to return. That time I felt horrible by the end. No energy left. I was even walking flat parts. I figured that the reason it went so badly was that I started the run going too fast; I used my energy up too quickly and burned out. Sounds plausible.
On Thursday I did the same route. I kept slow, and I was able to keep running for the entire time. It was even a few degrees cooler. And at the end I felt powerful.
And apparently I was thirty seconds slower?
That’s disappointing.
Today, for the second consecutive Sunday, I ran 42.2km. (I you are running around that distance, you are going to end it at the perfect distance to say you’ve done a marathon.) The first Sunday felt horrible by the end. No energy left. I was even walking flat parts.
This time I started slower. The route was slightly different, but mostly the same. But I was able to keep running the entire time. And this time I brought enough water that I could keep hydrated the entire time without mugging people in their garage. It was even eight degrees cooler. With all these factors, I should be a lot faster. But in the end I was only seven minutes faster.
That’s disappointing. Still, progress.
I’m going to try and focus on the fact that I was feeling fairly good by the end. I could have probably kept running if I had wanted to. But I had gotten my route to end nearly in front of a Subway restaurant and I needed calories. Stat!
I’m thinking of giving myself a challenge. One of those things that prove nothing, but can become a personal accomplishment. The conditions are fairly good that I could try and run further this week than I drive, or am driven. I’ve run 42.2km. The only driving I’ve done today is about 6km to pick up a large pizza that I just inhaled. I don’t foresee much more driving at all this week. Nothing I need to get to except to help a friend move. If I pile on the running, I should be safe even from unanticipated automotive use.
It’s too bad stair training causes so much exhaustion for such a short run.
When I do run, I seem to be trying to make my routes go over trails I know about but aren’t on OpenStreetMap. That way I can add them in when I plug my GPS in. Today’s route followed that pattern. However, my GPS seems flaky lately. It keeps track of distance travelled and speed, but every so often it decides it doesn’t want to keep track of the exact route. So nothing I can use to add to OSM. Especially annoying today when I purposely went down into a rather daunting ravine/cliff near Cameron Heights. I suppose it might not be a trail that can really be navigated safely, but it is still a trail. And once you are in the ravine, there is a realistic trail that should be included.

In the near future my life could go in one of two completely different directions. On Friday I had two job interviews. Both went well. (I think. They did in my head.) One is located in Edmonton, the other is in Pasadena.
Both jobs look exciting and interesting. But the one in Pasadena terrifies me. If I get offered it, I would be a fool not to go. Unless I’m already employed locally. Will I be offered one job? Will I be offered both?
This feels a lot like when I first came to Edmonton. I was employed in Winnipeg at a job that didn’t use my programming talents to their full potential. A company in Edmonton offered me a job related to my skills for quite a bit more money. So I left behind all my friends, family and the only home I knew and moved out west.
This feels very similar. Except in Edmonton I built my life here. In Winnipeg it was essentially handed to me. Here, I had to make friends from scratch. I purchased my own home. I learned all the good running trails. It will be hard to leave that. But because it terrifies me, is one of the biggest reasons to actually go. I should try and be uncomfortable. It can only be good for me.
In sitcoms, if the show is retooled by moving to a different city, they find excuses for the rest of the cast to make the move as a whole. The real world doesn’t work like that.
At least in Pasadena I would have some friends nearby.

I went for a 35km run in the Kananaskis foothills today. It was a learning experience. Which is annoying because I have to learn things that I already learned before.
Apparently I’ve forgotten some basic running rules.
1) Use Body Glide. Chafing hurts.
It started out nice and cloudy and then got surprisingly sunny. And hot. The wind the weather report threatened me with, wasn’t providing near enough coolness.
2) Sunscreen is a good idea when you are at a higher altitude.
I was on a new route that I had never taken before. It worked out rather well. There are three types of roads out there. Major ones that try and get from point A to point B in the most direct route. Minor ones that are probably laid out in a grid and don’t care about what’s in the way. Medium roads that were probably first designed by settlers who had to take horses everywhere.
3) Medium roads will actually try and go around hills. This is a good thing.
I listened to an iPod most of the way. An audio story would have been nice, but then you might miss part of the story if a motorcycle roars by. However, music isn’t always appropriate.
4) “Eye of the Tiger” while on a hill will not end well. Ignore the music and slow down.
A lot of the route was possibly on the Cowboy Trail. Well, I think I saw a sign marking it as such, but Wikipedia seems to disagree with me. In any case, Highway 762 was actually part of Google Street View. Surprising! It is not a major road or in a urban centre. So before the run, I could take a look as to what the route looked like.
5) In Google Street View, roads look a lot leveller than they are when you are on foot.
It wasn’t horribly hilly, and the road skirted around a number of them. But it certainly wasn’t completely flat.

I’m a big, fat, slob.
In my head, I’m just as healthy as ever. I could probably go run 100km and be fine. Why wouldn’t I be?
But I went out for a run yesterday, planning to do 30km. (I need to get the distance up.) The first half went okay, but I did find I had trouble with the hills and needed to walk parts of them. On the way back though it got worse and worse. Eventually I was walking even the flat parts. I was out of it.
This scares me. A lot.
So, since I’m a disgusting slob I went out and ate lunch (at 6:00 pm) at McDonald’s. Seemed appropriate.
Now, the hope I’m going to cling to is that the reason I did so poorly was that I was running by myself. Usually on the long distances, I’m with friends who slow me down to a reasonable pace. This time I was going at a faster speed, and maybe that burnt out too much energy too soon.

A while ago I discovered Open Street Map.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, having bigger things on my plate. But I’ve gone back to it, and I like what I see. It is basically a combination wikipedia and google maps. All the mapping data is there, and anyone can edit it. I noticed that there was a small paved trail in Edmonton that wasn’t shown, so I added it.
Felt empowering.
But now I have to wonder what evil I can do with this new knowledge.
At the very least, I can start adding in all the running trails that are in Edmonton. I know several that aren’t listed, and it would be nice to have a repository of all of them. (Hmm. Not much information about Grande Cache. That’s not right.) At the very least, it should help for times when I forget my GPS and have to manually figure out how far I ran with a website pedometer.
In other news, I am actually out and pounding pavement as a real runner again. I did 27km on Sunday even. My goal is to be able to run 40km by the end of the month; the sooner the better. In June my goal is to have a 50km and 60km run under my belt. If I can do all that, I should be ready for the Death Race. I know I should go slow and temper my recovery, but I have a deadline looming.
Unfortunately, I did stair training yesterday for the first time since January. My legs are hurting.
Knee feels fine though.

I’ve been getting interviews from several out-of-town companies. This makes me nervous. The idea of leaving Edmonton is scary. But I should do things that scare me.
I don’t make friends easily. Starting over from scratch in a new place; dread. I’ve made very good friends here. Interestingly, when most hear about me possibly moving, a lot of them express interest in visiting whatever new place I might be going to. I got a (weird) interest from a company in Pasadena. When a friend heard this, she promptly said that she would visit me if I was there. I pointed out that she already knew someone in California. “Yes, but you are so welcoming.” That makes me feel nice; I’m apparently learning to be a good host.
The last time I moved was over fifteen years ago. Very few of my friends from before have ever visited me. I can only think of one couple who were happy to visit me when they passed through, and a friend after he had moved to Calgary.
I think I’ve made more friends in Edmonton than I ever did in Winnipeg.
And to this day I still think of a girl I knew in Winnipeg. We briefly played D&D together, but then she moved to Vancouver in a surprisingly short time. We had a number of things in common (things I didn’t even realize at the time we had in common) and I wish I had a chance to know her better. Or at least take her on one date. (I was an idiot back then.) I wonder what life would have been like if I had stayed a bit longer after my university convocation. She was apparently there, graduating too, and I never saw her.
Life is full of regrets. I wonder what she is doing these days?

I tried to do a good amount of exercise today. I’m supposed to run every second day, to allow my knee time to recover. But I lazed out yesterday. So I did an hour on the treadmill and then went to the pool immediately after and aquajogged for nearly two hours. It is coming close to approximating what I used to do for running.
I also, quite literally, drop-kicked my iPhone into the wall. I had it lying on the treadmill so I could listen to it while I ran. Then I accidentally caught the headphone cord with my hand. It yanked it off the ledge, where it fell right into my foot and from there into the wall. Still works, but somewhat embarrassing.
But on Tuesday I will go outside and do an actual run. It will be the first time I’ve actually pounded payment in months. (I’m of course forgetting about the embarrassing incident with running the dog in deep snow.) Then we’ll see what the future holds for me.

I think I understand addicts better now. They waste their life in hopes of getting the thrill that the roll of the dice, the slurp of liquid, or the puff of the joint, will get them.
For me it is the joy of figuring something out about my program. It makes me feel good about myself. When I look for a job, I don’t feel good about myself. Instead it fills me with self loathing. It needs to be done for me to get on with my life. But with programming I get satisfaction now.
Today I discovered a solution to a problem I’ve been pondering.
My map program looks fairly good, but I’m not sure if it is correct. I can generate the surface of a planet, but is the shading looking anything accurate? Do real mountains look that way?
I’ve been able to get real-world data in, but only incredibly detailed information on a small area. It comes out looking quite nice. But my program usually thinks in terms of entire planets. And I’ve noticed that the mountains don’t have shading, because relatively, they are too shallow. If only I could compare them to what the real world would show in my program.
But today I discovered a way to get real world data into my program. There are web services out there that will return the elevation if they are given a coordinate. I just need to use that appropriately, and I will be able to get the real world displayed.
I wonder how it will look?

I got back my MRI on my knee today. Well, I got a summary over the phone. I don’t have the actual radiologist’s report. I can summarize it easily enough:
Knee looks fine.
Which means I have no idea what is going on with it. I still feel pain in it occasionally, but that has been going down. The past while I’ve been very gentle on it. It has probably helped that I’m not going to work; no uncomfortable desk to sit at or awkward stairs to navigate.
I saw the physical therapist today, and told her the summary. Her theories include, a false positive, meniscus has healed, or it was only an irritated meniscus. In any case, the inflammation was nearly gone.
I will still continue to be gentle with it, but because of the MRI, I actually got to run today. For the first time since January 26th, I was able to jog. Only one kilometre. And the entire time I had a goofy grin on my face. I was allowed to go further, but there was some soreness, and I didn’t want to push anything. Afterwards there was some more inflammation, but it went away after awhile.
Could this be the road to recovery?

I’m wondering how much of my current problems can be related to my knee injury.
Its injury has caused two direct effects: I can’t run anymore, and I have to do physical therapy.
Because I am doing physical therapy, there are many evenings where I came home from work, do the exercises I need to, and don’t get to dinner until after nine o’clock. I was exhausted constantly. And most importantly, I didn’t have a chance to read computer books to better myself. Would I have, if I had had the chance? We’ll never know for sure. But more knowledge may have let me keep my job.
Because I couldn’t run, there are two effects from that. First, I have one less way to deal with stress. I can’t recall the last time I had an endorphin rush. Any I have been very stressed lately. Secondly, my long sunday runs gave me a good support network. I could talk to my friends about issues over a long period and get their advice. And I could be sure they couldn’t walk out on me, because, well, they couldn’t. I trust their opinion, even if it does cause me to sign up for stupid-distance runs. I don’t have that outlet anymore.
Note: I love the Friday Feasts, but they are not a good outlet for support. There are too many people there sometimes, and I don’t like speaking about personal issues in front of a crowd. I get better support from the quieter movie nights.

This isn’t entirely unexpected, but I still am not happy that I got laid off today.
I’ve been sensing that I wasn’t performing to expectations for the past month. I’ve been working hard to try and make good software, but not everything went well. It didn’t help that the software library I was using was totally inadequate for the needs. But, for the four months and a week I was employed I did a lot of learning and I’m a better programmer for it.
I got a hint that I was being let go when yesterday I was asked to write down everything I knew about the big project I had started with. And when I was finished today I was laid off. That part actually went fairly well. They complemented me on my skills and intelligence. The big problem was that I wasn’t able to quickly adapt to new projects. Since the company is entirely focused on new projects, that was a problem.
I said my good byes and tried to make it as easy as possible for everyone. My co-workers seemed rather shell-shocked. Before leaving I did my best to help whoever took over my projects to transition easily; I left notes on problems to look out for and commented on the feasibility of future plans. Being upset and being difficult will not help anyone, so why do it.
Although I’m hoping that whoever takes over the last project will have as hard a time as me. That library sabotaged me, and if it continues to cause problems for the next person, I’ll look better.
Surprisingly, when I was going out the door, one of the partners came from across the office to give me a final goodbye. He had liked working with me and was sorry to see me go. That was nice.
I don’t feel bad about the company, and I wish them well. But it was very stressful working for them; I never felt I was doing good enough and since I was having difficulties with the code and requests, I rarely got complimented for doing good things. I like being told I did a good job. And it’s hard to get that, when you haven’t done a good job.
I found it difficult to come home. Well, the journey wasn’t the problem, but the being alone with myself was. When things are going bad, I don’t like to think about it. If I dwell on it, I get depressed. Thankfully I was able to go to the Friday Feast and talk to friends.
Unfortunately, the most frequent subject to come up was jobs. Someone is thinking of transitioning, someone else got a new job, and someone is leaving their job to go traveling for a year.
I’ve had better days.

I suppose I should do an update on my knee. It is a somewhat depressing subject for me, so I have been avoiding it.
It has been getting better, but for the past few weeks it hasn’t been improving much.
Last week I went to see an actual doctor about it. She chewed me out for not seeing her earlier. (My physical therapist did say that they would have likely just prescribed six weeks of physical therapy. Maybe I’m not that bad.) She agreed it was a meniscus tear. She wants me to get an MRI.
I got an X-Ray on Friday to prepare for it. It didn’t reveal anything, so I’m good to go for the MRI. However, the appointment I was given was in the middle of May.
But in Alberta we have a two-tiered health system. So I can pay for an MRI out of pocket and go earlier. Hopefully my recovery will then go faster. I do not like the idea of supporting the two-tier system, but you go to battle with the health system you have, not the health system you want.
I could have gone tomorrow for the MRI, but I’m going to wait until Tuesday.
I’m losing hope of doing the Death Race.

I just finished watching The Book of Eli. I enjoyed it. I have made no secret that I’m an atheist, but I liked the religious angle of this movie. It made no excuses that it was Christian and even gave some hints of divine inspiration. But because it was upfront about it, I found it better. If it had tried to be broad and appeal to all religions, it wouldn’t have felt sincere. The Christian mythology made it feel complete.
I feel the same way about the show Supernatural. I’m in the fourth season and there is a war going on between angels and demons, heaven versus hell. But it is also following Christian mythology there. It makes it feel realer that they are going with this scenario and not going to pretend to take other religions into account.
I suppose it is because they have picked one religion, it has a theme that you can relate to. You know some of the rules. If it had tried to go too far into political correctness, it would have had to invent its own mythology from scratch. And then you wouldn’t know the rules.
And then when the rules are broken, it becomes more effective. In the show, the angels are not that caring. Defeat hell is the first concern. If wiping out a town of innocent humans would help, then let’s do it.
I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer suffered from this a bit. They never explicitly backed any religion. So the big bad was always something of their own creation. It loses some of the impact if you have to be told something is evil and nasty, than just being told it’s Lucifer.
Nazi’s make the best villains.

Today, my mother and father were expressing their concerns about ultra-marathons. They were saying something about how it would lead to injuries (pfft) and that it would cause me problems in my old age.
I asked them about their smoking habit when they were young.

I think ultra-marathons make me look cool.

Yesterday a co-worker was mentioning that the price of car registration was going to be increasing in April. So if you haven’t registered yet, now would be the time. I thought I was lucky because I registered back in January.
Wait a minute… I don’t actually remember registering back in January.
Because my car is illegal, and it would be better for the environment I decided I would do a bunch of walking today. Exercise might help my knee?
I walked to the car registration office, and promptly realized that I had forgotten to bring my car’s insurance. That wouldn’t have been a problem if I had driven. (I was able to get the information by phone.)
Afterwards I walked to Earth’s General Store to pick up my half-pound of worms for use in composting. There I find that half-a-pound of worms comes in a lot of dirt. Oh, and I should buy a better composting bin. If only I had a way to carry this all…
I returned later in my car.
Being environmental is hard.

Life is hectic. I have time for four things these days.

1. Work
   Work is going well. It is incredibly busy though. I feel pressured to perform and finish things as soon as possible, and there is a chance I’m under impossible deadlines.
   I had a talk with an old co-worker who got laid off a year before me. He is making a lot more money than I am. But the way I’m thinking of it, is that for the last couple of years at my previous job, I was unfulfilled, and not doing my best. I probably did not deserve the salary I was getting. Now I’m learning again, and I enjoy my work. I get to create. I’ll start deserving a good salary eventually.
2. Exercise
   This is taking up an insane amount of time. I’m going out and exercising more often now than when I was running. I leave work, go aquajogging, then go home late at night. As a friend pointed out, I’m exercising and not training. Which is a big difference. Training was accomplishing new heights in preparation for a big challenge. Now I’m just exercising to get back to where I was. Not nearly as fulfilling.
3. Eating
   Still have to do this. I’m trying to cut down my intake so I don’t get fat.
4. Sleep
   I’m not getting enough of this

I have no time for recreation. On the weekends I usually have to spend time recovering from the week and getting my life in order. Cleaning up messes the busy week has created is a big part.
I’m tired.

I like to keep busy. Maybe it makes me a more interesting person, but I also hate being left alone with my thoughts. They are invariably dark and depressing. Better to not give them a chance to fester.
Today is a good example. My family is visiting and there was an incident. I don’t want to go into details. And I will admit that I shouldn’t have been yelling at my sister, but in my defence, when someone is yelling at you to stop the car, maybe you should stop.
At breakfast, I tried to put it behind me. Be happy and forget it ever happened. It is very important to me that everyone around me be happy. But then my sister did something that hurts me a lot. She sulked. She wanted an apology. I felt I was in the right, but eventually it became apparent that she was holding the vacation hostage and would not let it go. Until I apologized, she was going to ruin it for everyone. So I did, and the vacation continued.
I had to leave the family for awhile to go to the pool and do aquajogging. For 90 minutes. And for 90 minutes I was alone with my thoughts. There was nothing to really distract me. The synchronized swimmers were too young, and no one was diving off the high boards. Boring.
So in my thoughts I realized some things. I don’t recall my sister apologizing to me. She hurt me a lot by preventing me from making people happy, and so I apologized. But since the favour was never returned, I’m essentially in the wrong. How I feel is not important. And I bottle up my feelings so that people can have a good time, so she may not even know that I’m really angry with her.
Was she manipulating me? She is a therapist so she probably knows how to. Or is this just another example of how men are always wrong? I always thought that only applied with girlfriends and not sisters.
Anyway, I’m hoping by venting here I can continue to bottle the feelings and give my family a good vacation. Thanks for listening.

I’m getting better. My physical therapist says it is happening quickly. And I really want to get back to running. But with the news that things are progressing well, I’m starting to wonder if I should go back to my plan of doing three ultras this year. For some reason, ultras sell out quickly, so if I want to sign up, I need to do it sooner than later, or there might not be a later. But the first one would be in May. Is that too soon?
I’m having trouble with my eating habits. Now that I’m not running, I’m cutting down on what I eat. I worry about getting fat. The problem is that I’m not sure what my intake should be. When I was running stupid distances each week, I could gorge myself more than I wanted to ear. Since I’m not running, I’ve cut down and stopped impulse buying pies. But that is starting to backfire. My exercise regime includes aquajogging, and that has been increasing quite steadily. I’m aquajogging three times a week, when I used to run only two times a week. Maybe I do need more calories?
Aquajogging is boring, but it is also frustrating. I suppose I should be thankful I got injured in winter, so I don’t have to miss out on nice outdoor running. Unfortunately, many other people have the same idea. Or I should say, many other clubs have the same idea. I keep finding that the Kinsmen pool is booked, completely, and I can’t do my swim except at odd hours. Yesterday I couldn’t go until 9:00 at night. On Sunday, my plan to go in the morning was thwarted by an organized game of canoe polo. I could only go after 4:00 when they were having a celebratory beer in the change room.
I definitely need to get better by May; that’s when road access home from the Kinsmen gets shut off.

I tried speed dating again tonight. It was sort of an impulse thing. I got an email from them giving a big discount for men; they didn’t have enough. I had no plans for tonight, so off I went. I figured it would be better to do it at the last minute, that way I don’t have time to dwell on it in my head and overthink things.
It was held at the zoo, so while waiting to start, and during the “interviews” the zookeepers came around with various animals and showed them off. I got to fondle a ball python, a bearded dragon, a skunk and an armadillo. A ferret did get a little friendly with me. Pant legs are apparently interesting.
The event itself went okay. I did find it mentally exhausting though. Wait, that’s not right… Socially exhausting! By the end I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
There was one girl there that I would have liked to talk to, but I missed her by one number. I tried talking a bit at the end with her, but I didn’t have the social energy to do it for long, and she fled the event fairly quickly.
Overall, good time. But I’m cranky and tired now.

I was all set to hate the Kinsmen Sports Centre today. I was going to put them in the same hole as MEC; places that pretend to be good for you but secretly hate you. But, they went above and beyond the call of duty, so MEC stays in the “hate hole” alone.
The physical therapist I saw yesterday wanted me to do aquajogging, but only for fifteen minutes. Aquajogging is just being in the pool with a flotation belt and pretending to jog. It exercises your running muscles, but without impact. Don’t lean forward and do real swimming though; I forget why, but I was told not to.
The only pool I really know is the Kinsmen so I headed back there. I even checked yesterday and they said they always keep a lane open for people doing aquajogging. Before I entered, I checked with the front counter to see if there were any options that would be cheaper for someone only wanting to do fifteen minutes of aquajogging. No. So full price. $8.
I go in, change, and then go to the pool. I don’t see where I’m supposed to go. After consulting with a lifeguard I find out that the deep pool is completely used. Synchronized swimmers abound, next to swimming lessons. There is no place for me to go aquajogging. The best I could do was the warm up pool which comes up to my belly. I still went there, doing fifteen minutes of improper aquajogging. I was more horizontal than I should. Silently, I grumbled.
Afterwards I went to complain about the scenario. I had to wait awhile and I did have a nice conversation with a police officer keeping watch. I was only expecting to have my complaint registered, but they gave me two free passes. So, I think I’ve come out ahead. Go Kinsmen!
My knee does feel a bit better now. Use it or lose it?

Okay, after seeing the physical therapist, there is new news on my knee. Her prognosis is torn cartilage. There is some inflammation and swelling. This is not good. I’m going to have to try alternate exercises for awhile. Hopefully it will heal quickly.
This is making my plans for ultramarathons in May look untenable. And if I can’t do those, I’m not sure I want to do the Lost Soul in September. I mean, what is the point if I can’t make it part of the Alberta Triple? Well, hopefully it won’t sell out in the near future and I’ll have a better idea before it does.
No chance of me skiing though.

My knee still hurts. I am displeased by this.
Occasionally I wonder if there is a higher power (or a time traveler) that is watching out for me. Okay, a twisted knee sucks, but it is preventing me from doing some other activities that might be a higher risk. For instance, my work is planning a ski-trip to Marmot Basin next weekend. I do not think I can downhill ski (which I’ve never done before) with a knee that hurts. So there is a good chance I’ll have to opt out.
Or is this my knee’s way of telling me it doesn’t want to run an ultramarathon in May. (Big baby.)
I’ve been assuming I got injured because I helped some man move his car, but there are other factors leading up to it. On Sunday I ran 40km on uneven terrain. My muscles were aching afterwards, so on Tuesday I wallowed in a hot tub for an hour. On Wednesday I was running outside in the shorts right before the incident. So my knees have been through a lot.
I’ve accepted that I should not run this Sunday. I’m going to see about aqua-jogging instead. Half an hour after the incident I had made an appointment with a physical therapist. I’ll discover what my fortunes are on Wednesday.

Bugger.
Today’s run started so well. It was warm enough for shorts, and it felt great. My workplace was too hot, so being out in the cool was nice.
Up until we tried to help move a car stuck in the snow and I twisted my knee. It hurts, which I’m told is a good thing. But I have big plans for my knee this year! I don’t want it hurt. So I’ll try putting ice on it and hopefully it will get better quickly.

It’s been a fairly rough week.
The problems all started several weeks ago when my parents visited. Their car is nicer than mine so I let them park inside the heated (and probably better protected) garage while I parked outside. This was about the time we had a huge dump of snow and freezing temperatures. When they were done staying in my parking place, I brushed the snow off my car, drove it to the entrance, buzzed myself in and parked. That was where the problem started.
Ever since that time, my driver’s side window has been sticking a little. It felt fairly hard to roll it down. So on Tuesday I got suspicious of it and did something stupid. It was only when I had rolled it all the way down that I realized that I had left myself open to disaster. What if I can’t close it? Sure enough, I couldn’t. It looked like it wasn’t in the track anymore. And the whole door rattled like the window was loose.
Fortunately this was about the time the chinook hit Edmonton, so it wasn’t too bad. I could get it halfway up and if I had the heater on full blast, I was fine. When I parked I had it open all the way, so it could be mistaken as a window instead of a half open window.
It was two days before I could a professional to look at it. A Honda is a solidly built car; well the engine is. You can drive it while everything else is falling apart around it. And that is what happened. When my car was very cold and I opened the window to buzz myself in, the stress of ten years finally hit the window mechanism. They were able to close it, with the advice that I don’t use it much. I’m going with the plan not to use it at all. Until I can get it replaced.