Summer stuffed

It doesn’t matter how much I try to take care of myself, I over-eat on holidays. Just had a whole pizza for lunch (my wife and daughter shared one), and now, a few hours later, I’ve bbq’d dinner and rather than eating, I just want to nap. But I will eat, and I probably won’t listen to my body and stop when I’m full.

I’ve bbq’d my wife’s awesome honey garlic chicken recipe, and I’ve cooked soaked corn in the husk on my grill. It’s all too good not to eat. To follow this up, my daughter and I are having steak for breakfast tomorrow. It was going to be for dinner, plans changed, and it would be a waste not to eat them.

Yes, I’m on holidays, but I’ve got to get off this gluttonous path that I’m on… after breakfast tomorrow… maybe.

Fishing in a dinghy

The water on Lake Okanagan was nice and smooth this morning. So, after another early hike, I decided to hop into our tiny inflatable dinghy and do a bit of fishing. This is a somewhat comical experience. The dinghy is barely big enough for me. The small oars get in the way of casting. I’ve got a small backpack with my fishing gear, my flip flops for the rocky beach landing, and my phone in a waterproof case with a strap around my neck.

It’s not easy to cast, and trolling is tough because I can’t keep a consistent speed or direction. I did end up trolling for most of the hour I went out. I used a jig and a float so that my inconsistent paddling would help the jig move sporadically, without sinking to the weedy shore.

I didn’t catch anything. I didn’t expect to. I watched an osprey dive for a fish, it too was unsuccessful. Still, I went for a little fishing trip this morning and I might go out again tomorrow.

Upon returning I did the hike again with my wife and daughter. Then I made pancakes and bacon on our outdoor stove. I have to say that starting my day this way is really making me feel like I’m recharging my batteries this holiday break. Dinghy fishing may not be an ideal way to catch fish, but it makes for a pretty idyllic holiday.

External motivation

I usually use an app by Under Armour called Map My Ride to track hikes, walks, and rides, but a few days ago I went on a ride with my brother-in-law and forgot to start the app, and he shared the ride with me on the Strava app. Since my oldest daughter uses this as well, and goes in some awesome hikes, I thought I’d make the switch.

When I looked at the app afterwards I noticed that I had an Achievement given to me for the trip.

Looking further, I was 7th overall on this portion of the hike.

I love the competitive sharing aspect of apps like this. I’m totally motivated to improve my standing. While I’m pretty sure Kelsey is safe at the top, I’m gunning for a spot above Shane, Dave, and Lisa.

I’ll share my progress below over the next few days.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Ok, so for the run above, I crushed this segment time! However, in full transparency, yesterday I did the whole trail in 23:23 and got 6th, then did the trail later with my wife and kid and figured out where this segment is. Then today I walked the 149 steps and steep incline before the segment and even with this fast pace, my total route was done in 26:01… in other words, I ‘saved myself’ just for this one section. Now that I’ve done this, the motivation to do better is gone. I’ll end my updates here and try to beat my full route time of 23:23 next time.

What did we forget?

My wife and I have a game we play when we go on camping trips. We always forget something and we see how quickly we can figure it out. Today it was coffee mugs. We’ll use the provided mugs in the trailer we rented. We arrived at the campground and started to unpack, and then my daughter realized she left her bathing suite. So my wife and daughter are on their way to Walmart, and I’m headed for a hike with my buddy once he finishes dinner.

It doesn’t matter how many times we travel, how many things we have packed in advance, there’s always something we leave behind… and since we make it a game, it doesn’t bother us at all.

Procrastinating workouts

It took me hours to get myself working out today. Everything was an excuse, or a delay. Now that I’ve done it, I feel great (physically).

This is why I like morning workouts before work, there is a deadline I have to meet, and so I meet it. On holidays, it suddenly becomes something to put off until later. The problem now is that I’m heading back into a smokey location, and won’t have the convenience of my home gym. I also won’t have my bike. So I’ll need to figure out a routine that doesn’t involve me breathing heavily in smokey air. I might have to resort to hikes, walks, and a regimen of sit-ups and push-ups… and schedule these so that I actually do them.

I feel so unproductive, even after getting my workout done, when I spend half the day thinking about and delaying my workout, even if I get other things done in the process. So, this is my ‘out loud’ commitment to do better. And to be specific, doing better means setting a time for my workout, then sticking to it!

Favourite steak sauce

I love steak. Seared, medium rare, moist, chewy, with a thin slice of crispy fat. Tonight I bought an eye of round roast cut and made my own steaks out of it. I’ve cooked the end piece in 2 slices for myself and the rest have gone into the fridge, seasoned, and in a ziplock bag, for a future, shared dinner. These will taste better than ones I ate today, after having the marinade soak in longer, but I enjoyed my steaks so much that I wanted to share my simple 2-step recipe.

1. Sprinkle la Grille Montreal Steak Spice liberally onto both sides of the steak, forcefully pushing the spice into the meat with your palm.

2. Mix 50% HP Sauce and 50% Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce with some of your favourite (liquid) hot sauce to taste. Dip your streaks in.

That’s it. That’s all you need.

Cook on the BBQ, turning only once if you can, so as not to dry out the sides. I tend to have the BBQ above 500° when I add the steaks, and drop the temperature a bit. Then I flip onto a hot, unused part of the grill, put the lid on and lower the heat. I don’t always get the timing right and sometimes end up with medium rather than medium rare, but the moisture stays in cooking it this way and I’m not disappointed.

A simple recipe that you probably already have the ingredients for in you kitchen.

Enjoy!

Olympic winners

Today I watched some Olympics after our 7+ hour drive home from Nelson BC. It was as a good way to spend the evening, with low motivation to do much else.

I love watching athletes achieve personal best times in their events. While the cameras focus on the likely medal winners, there are always athletes that, while representing their country as their best in an event, have no chance of getting a medal. If your personal best is several seconds slower than the top 8 or more athletes, chances are you aren’t making the finals, much less the podium. So for these athletes, gold is only a dream, and unlikely a reality. Yet, they’ve made it to the Olympics!

Seeing these athletes achieve personal best times is inspiring. To make it to the Olympics and then do the absolute best you’ve ever done… that’s an outstanding achievement. Many athletes leave the Olympics without a medal, but there will be more winners than medals given out. Making it to the Olympics and doing your absolute best that you can… it’s hard to ask more of an athlete.

Still a hopeful timeline

I’ve been saying since before Christmas 2020 that, “Things will start to return to normal by January 2022.”

With the Delta variant being very contagious, and new variants like B.1.621.1 showing up on the US east coast, I don’t think school is going to start in September anywhere near as normal as we might have thought it would in June. Going into a busy coffee shop this morning, I was the only one wearing a mask, including the employees. The only covid precautions I saw were hand sanitizer at the entrance and the barista using tongs to put a straw into a cold drink.

I think new variants are going to give us a bit of a spanking, then we’ll smarten up and re-tighten up our precautions enough to slowly move in the right direction.

Although it may have seemed a bit pessimistic at the time, I am now hopefully optimistic that my prediction can be met. Despite the evidence of a 4th wave, it could be smaller, less alarming, less dangerous (thanks to the vaccine), and better managed. The ‘better managed’ is the key. We move forward with caution, or we move backwards.

Even if you are double vaccinated, wear a mask in public indoor spaces. Let’s keep these variants away.

Hikes at Kokanee Park

Yesterday the air in Nelson was much better. The day before, thanks to nearby forest fires, Nelson and neighbouring Castlegar had the worst air quality in Canada. With better conditions we decided to take a couple hikes in Kokanee Provincial Park.

Hike 1 was along the river, among some towering old growth trees.

Hike 2 was around a beautiful lake.

m

After the previous day that took our breath away with smoke, these hikes were breathtaking in more ways than one.

—

This morning we climbed Pulpit Rock. It’s smokier than yesterday, but we couldn’t even see this spot from the city across the way 2 days ago. Hopefully the worst of the smoke is over.

The big thumbs up

Yesterday I went for a very short run, not quite 3km. It was enough. I’m currently in Nelson BC, which had one of the worst air quality indexes in the world due to nearby forest fires. My pace was slow to begin with, and after stopping mid way to do some abdominal work and chin-ups, my heart rate was up pretty high, and the run back was very slow. My breathing felt like I was jogging inside a plastic bag, and I could taste the smoke. I was struggling.

Running back along the water, about 3 minutes from where I started, I approached a park bench with an elderly man sitting on it. He had a huge smile and he was enthusiastically giving me the thumbs up. As I approached I slowed down and took one of my earbuds out. As I did so, the man began to speak, “Run while you can, man, run while you can.”

“I am”, I replied.

And the old man continued, pointing to his knee as he flexed and straightened his leg, “They told me 8 years ago that I had to replace this knee but I’m still kicking. So you run while you can, enjoy it!”

“I will, have a great day!” I said as I passed him, turning to keep eye contact.

“You too! Keep running.” He said returning to the thumbs up.

It was a simple exchange but it completely changed my jog from a laboured effort to an enjoyable experience. An energetic thumbs up and a brief, passing conversation were enough to fully alter my disposition, and my short workout felt much more like an accomplishment rather than an effort.