36k

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do,
to keep in the same place.
- the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll 

I ran 36 km on my long run on Sunday, twice around the 18 km loop from the 42nd street bridge to the Diefenbaker bridge. For variety I ran the second loop in reverse.

Unfortunately, the water fountains get shut off at the beginning of September so I had to carry water. I tried a waist belt with two small (300ml) bottles. It bounced a bit more than I'd like when they were full, but otherwise it worked ok. I stashed a refill bottle in the bushes near the start for my second loop.

It started out a little cool (10c), but I was able to stash my extra shirt when I refilled with water. By the time I was done it was about 25c which is a little warmer than ideal. But it was a beautiful sunny day so I can't complain.

That's probably the farthest I've ever run. I might have gone that far in my younger days but I don't think so. It's not much by modern ultra-running standards, not even a marathon (42 km). But I was happy with it.

Most of the run went very smoothly and enjoyably. I was running 9 minutes and walking 1 minute at a decent pace (for me). My heart rate was consistent up to about 2.5 hours, after which it slowly but steadily rose, even though my pace didn't change. I was pretty beat by the time I finished, but I kept my pace steady for the whole 36 km. I went back and checked my last 30 km run and it looked very similar - steady till 2.5 hours and then gradually losing performance.

It's a change to hit a fitness limit. For the first time in years my knees and feet were not the limiting factor. Although they are the reason I've had to limit my volume of running, and therefore my endurance.

This week has been recovery mode. My foot was a little sore for a couple of days, but nothing like as bad as it used to be. I did an easy 5 km on Tues. and a moderate 7 km today. I'm still feeling a little tired, but performance wise I seem to be mostly back to normal. If all goes well I'll do medium volume next week, and then maybe another long one the following week. Of course, the snow is coming and I tend to lose motivation when the weather turns ugly.

Around the Pond

There is a distinct feeling of autumn in the weather these days, and the leaves are changing color and starting to fall. So these photos from a few weeks ago might be the last of summer.



I haven't seen any of the larger (female) fishing spiders - they seem to become scarce after egg laying. But I did spot this little one. I'm not sure if it's a smaller male or just a juvenile.





I assume this is the same funnel weaver spider I've taken other photos of. At least it's the same web. The web is getting a bit worn, I wonder how long they use it before making a new one? I could see it had something green but I couldn't tell what it was. Zooming in on the photo it looks like the remains of a little green caterpillar. Breakfast!



Harvestmen (aka Daddy longlegs) aren't really spiders, although they are related.



In addition to the mating dragonflies (see my previous post) there were quite a few damselflies around.



And to wrap up the spiders and insects, the cool mornings mean "sleeping" bees. Bees need to be warm before they can fly. Either they have to wait for the sun, or they can "shiver" to generate enough warmth to fly. I think this one was planning to wait for the sun but when I started to harass it, it started shivering and eventually managed to fly away.



Although a lot of the flowers are past their prime, like this one, there are still a few late bloomers around.



Soon after taking this shot of a water hyacinth flower they removed them all from the pond because the nights are getting too cool. See you next year!



I'm not sure what these flowers are, but I like how they open up and the gooey looking seeds (?) descend.







The apples and berries are also out in force.



Some of these shots were taken with the new camera and some with the little ZS100.

See all 33 photos

Life and Death

My alternate title was Unprotected Sex but that seemed a little too much like link bait.

With cooler weather there hadn’t been as many insects around the pond. But this day was warmer and the dragonflies were out in force. Dozens of one kind (some kind of meadowhawk?) were mating over and on the grass beside the water. Perhaps the eggs or the aquatic larvae would be the ones to overwinter.





I think the red ones are the males. They grab onto the female's head with claspers on the end of their abdomen. Then the female bends her abdomen forward and receives sperm from the male.



I noticed what looked like three dragonflies struggling in the grass but I didn’t pay much attention. I took this next photo but I couldn't really tell what was going on. I just thought it was mating battles.



It's not a great photo, but you can see there are actually two wasps and two mating dragonflies.

The activity lasted longer than the fast pace of the rest so I looked closer and realized it was a Bald-faced hornet killing a dragonfly, presumably taking advantage of the vulnerable mating dragonflies. (Bald-faced hornets aren't really hornets - they're related to yellowjacket wasps)

By the time I realized what was going on the dragonfly was dead. (And there was only one hornet and one dragonfly left.)



The hornet was trying to carry it away but it was too heavy and awkward. It solved the problem in short order, biting off the dragonfly’s oversized head. That did the trick and it flew away with the remainder.



And it wasn’t the only hornet taking advantage of the orgy. I saw another one fly off with its prey.

I’m not sure what the were doing with them. Just carrying them somewhere out of the way to eat them?  Or taking them to feed their larvae?