Friday, January 3, 2014

AMA Whoopsie!

So long, so hard, so wrapped up, I was too tired to blog yesterday.

Water ran with Katie first thing. I ran a bit over an hour, but she had been in the pool for a while already. Her idea of "taking a break" is water running at least 1.5 hours. Almost 2.

Home. Novel stuff.

Ran 45 minutes at lunch time, such a beautiful day out! Ran 6.25 K, in 45 minutes, nice and easy. 7:10 per K or so. I was choked to see that Runmeter provided no map data at all. It used to be the getting a bad map was a rare thing, now it's rare to get a good one. I upgraded it to the recent version and will see if that makes a difference. A run buddy has suggested Irunsmooth, or something like that. It looks really good; the problem is that it needs iOS 7, and I've been resisting installing that on my iPhone 4. Everybody that does that regrets it.

Maybe its time. Ive been looking at the 910XT off and on for a while. Calgary people, how well does it work here?

My neighbor, supposedly, is going to Dominican Republic this morning. The plan was to have a limo come get them a little while ago. I didn't see one leaving, but I was busy with important things like making coffee and placating a cat. They may have a problem.



I spent much of the day buried in my book, going through a text doc version of it, looking for things to fix. Let's just say lots. Up to 88K words, and one section that needs a bit of smoothing.  Linda will start reading it later today, and if it passes muster with her, I'll be looking for Beta readers. Wait! why are you all running away? Not looking for line editing, I'm more interested in finding out if people think the story is interesting, and if they care about at least some of the characters.

Last thing last night I went crazy! CRAY CRAZY! Look.

My goof, one more AMA question from Janice.
Janice L
AMA: What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done besides an ironman?

This sort of implies that Ironman is the most adventurous thing I've done. That was fairly straightforward, actually. I think there were other things more adventurous. Here's a selection, see what you think:

  • Once upon a time I packed almost everything I owned into a 78 LeMans and drove from Streetsville to Calgary. 2.5 days. Alone. That went fairly well, with only a minor adventure in Pence, and fixing a radiator hose somewhere along the line. I had a job lined up, and a place to live. It's all moved forward from there.
  • Getting married/buying a house. Sort of a package deal, when you think about it. I didn't know what was going to happen, and certainly never predicted where I am now. After a life where I had lived in 9 homes I can remember, I've been in this home for longer than all the others put together. Maybe you should have asked Linda about HER most adventurous thing.
  • In more specific things, one day I packed up my bike, drove down to Longview, then into towards the mountains. I drove up to the top of Highwood pass so I'd know what I was getting into. This is the highest paved road in Canada. On the way back down to my starting point I saw a big grizzly bear was sitting on the side of the road. There is no cell phone service on this road. I was riding alone, except for the other traffic on the road. Details.
  • Exploring my head space while doing a crazy shift work schedule for years. Some crazy things happened there, some of which made it into the first book I wrote, which is currently on the shelf awaiting the completion of the NaNoWriMo novel this year. (See Beta reader note above.)
  • Visiting a job site way north of Fort McMurray. Watching this in action. You can't tell from this shot, but the business end of that would be glowing red hot in spite of it being -40  or so, and the ground frozen solid. Getting back out again was an adventure, what with a cement truck dropping the tailer across the only bridge out, and rush hour traffic in Fort McMurray. The camp with the inedible food, and snowdrifts in the hallway between the rooms.
  • Now that I  think about it, I've actually lived a fairly sedate life. When I think of the adventures my office roomie has had, just in the not quite two year's I've known him, I'm a positive recluse.
And now, back to the novel, that one last bit of smoothing. For now. No doubt other things will come up.

Comment please, 910XT users in Calgary? What is your experience with it?

7 comments:

  1. Did you SERIOUSLY bury that little tidbit about registering for your first STANDALONE marathon as if it were no biggie!

    WOOOOOOT! Congratulations on taking the leap, Keith! You are going to rock it! And you won't even need to do that pesky swim or bike first so it'll be a breeze!

    Can't help on the garmin thing - I've only ever had a forerunner 201 and a forerunner 405CX.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I now know I have 3 readers actually paying close attention. This is reassuring. I even have an invite to go to vancouver for a half marathon in May. To warm up. I'm considering this. The Police half has been more of an adventure that I'd like some years.

      Delete
    2. Go for it - BMO Van Half is BEAUTIFUL! and the first 5k are downhill ;)

      Delete
  2. Congratulations on registering for the marathon!!
    What would you like to know about the 910XT? I have one and love it. Feel free to e-mail me any questions!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mainly I'm thinking about using one instead of iPhone apps. Does it get good GPS reception here?

      Delete
  3. A marathon! That IS a big deal! We need to run sometime! I'm back in the world, so I'll stop ignoring your invites. :) (Really I just never got around to replying till it was too late.)

    I have a 910 and love it. I've pretty much never had problems with GPS reception. I have had problems with the vibrate function on it, and actually ended up returning my first one (during the warranty period) for another. (It was a charging issue, but I think it was related to the vibration that was dying). The vibration alerts aren't working dependably on my second one either anymore. (I like using the vibration for alerts, so not everybody hears it.) I'd suggest getting it somewhere like MEC, where the return policy makes it easy, just in case.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome that you've decided to run the marathon, Keith! I'm sure you're going to do great. Predictably, my first instinct was to join you but, since this is the year I'm supposed to run less, I'm going to resist. :-)

    That ride into the mountains sounds as adventurous as hell. Glad you made it back in one piece and didn't meat the grizzly on the bike. Thanks for answering my question!

    ReplyDelete

Looking forward to reading your comment!