Best Paddling Ever

When I had a job but would go on vacation, I always used to say that I needed a few extra days after vacation to recover from my vacation. If DW and I travelled abroad, we would always try to book a return flight that would give us at least one full day to rest before returning to work.

I now have the luxury of time after a vacation because I don't have a job to go back to. And this week, I really needed the past couple of days to recover from our trip.

There are some metrics that my Garmin smart watch takes that I don't put a lot of stock into, but there are some that seem to be quite accurate. For example, it has a reading that's called Body Battery, where it measures my heart rate, my blood-oxygen levels, and activities, and determines how energized I am.

Any time I feel exhausted and look at the Body Battery reading, my watch seems to agree with me, showing a low percentage of energy. When I feel that all I can do is rest, for example, my Body Battery reading agrees, showing me at five-percent "charge."

When I awake feeling well-rested, the Body Battery shows a high "charge" level.

Each morning, it shows stats that indicate how ready my body is to tackle activities, and on this vacation, it showed me some interesting numbers.

DW and I spent 10 days in Québec's Laurentian mountain region, including the fjords of the Saguenay River. We camped for the first seven days, did plenty of kayaking and hiking, and sampled some great beer from this region.

Oh, and we saw lots of whales.

We started of with five nights in Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier, a beautiful park that's only a half hour north of Québec City. And because we started our vacation on the Labour Day weekend, it was crowded with day trippers from the city.

Our first paddle was a short one, only a 4.7-kilometre paddle along the Jacques-Cartier River where the water is mostly flat, but on which there is a current that will gently lead you southward. The hills that line the sides of this river are nothing short of stunning, and it was gently raining throughout our paddle, with clouds creeping around the ridges of these mountains.

The next day, we paddled another part of the river, when the weather was nicer and the temperature warmer. We had just finished a gruelling 6K trail that had us climbing steep parts of the hillside below where we were paddling now, and the short 3.7K paddle was just what we needed to decompress.

However, the next day of paddling was going to be a tough one.

DW and I reserved a seat on a shuttle bus that would tow our kayaks along with rental crafts—both kayaks and canoes—and other paddlers up 20 kms to a put-in spot, and we would paddle down to the park's discovery centre, where our car was parked.

This was no easy paddle, even though we were paddling with the current. The river has a lot of hazards, from low water levels to rocks, and with rapids that ranged from Class I (gentle ripples) to Class III (white water with strong currents and slight drops in elevation).

One of the Class III rapids required a mandatory portage for all paddlers. There were simply too many rocks to navigate and it was just too dangerous.

DW and I were nervous about our kayaks hitting rocks but we wanted to use our own boats, rather than rent. Even though our kayaks are designed for open water, they can easily handle Class I rapids and, though tough, should be able to negotiate Class II rapids if you know what you're doing.

They aren't really recommended for use through Class III rapids.

We aren't particularly experienced in waters with rapids. We've run Class I rapids with our old kayaks but have never paddled through rougher water. We had taken a white-water canoeing course more than a decade ago and I never finished it because I got sick halfway through it. I had paddled through a set of Class II rapids in that course, but canoes and kayaks are very different beasts.

After our first set of rapids (Class I), I was very nervous for my kayak because I went over a large rock so hard that it lifted my seat up. When we saw on the map we had that the next set of rapids was Class II, we decided to stop at the portage to check it out. And when we saw that there were a lot of rocks, we decided to portage the 185 metres.

Only when we were carrying our second kayak along the portage route did we see some people in kayaks negotiate the rapids, and we saw the route that they took. They got through easily and we figured we could have, too, if we had spotted that way through.

The next set of rapids were Class III, and again we stopped at the portage spot to survey the rapids. I saw a canoeist get his craft through, and he turned in to the downstream section of the portage, so I decided to talk to him.

The man had been through these rapids the day before but had chosen a different route, and he said it had been a mistake, that he almost hit a large rock and nearly capsized. He explained the route he took this time and told me that I'd have no problem with my kayak if I stuck to this route.

He was right, and though it was terrifying going through Class III rapids in a 14-foot touring kayak, it was also exciting when DW and I got through the other side unscathed.

Foolishly, I forgot to wear a helmet, which was strapped to my deck for such occasions.

Apart from the first portage we did and the mandatory portage, further down, DW and I ran all other sets of rapids. It took us four hours and 45 minutes to paddle the 20 kms back to the park's discovery centre, and we were exhausted.

My watch agreed: when I pressed the button to stop my kayaking activity, my watch actually told me that I had overexerted myself, that I'd need 96 hours to recover. And admittedly, as soon as we returned to our campsite and had dinner, I just wanted to go to bed. I slept for about 12 hours.

And of course, I didn't take 96 hours to rest. We had more paddling ahead of us.

In the 10 days of our vacation, we got into our kayaks five times. We also hiked a lot more and I'll share more of our Laurentian-Saguenay trip next week.

We returned home on Monday afternoon, and after emptying our car, putting all of our camping gear away, washing our kayaks (and buffing out some of the scratches on the bottom hull), and throwing our clothes into the washing machine, I was too tired to even think about dinner.

My Body Battery reading was at only two percent.

I've needed most of this week to recover from our vacation and I'm glad I didn't have to return to a job. It was certainly worth overexerting myself, as my watch said. It was the best paddling we've ever done through some of our country's most beautiful landscapes. We paddled in all kinds of conditions, with whales only a short distance from us in at least one case, and this will go down as our number-one paddle.

I'll have more to say on Monday and I'm currently working on editing the video footage I've captured.

Stay tuned.

Watching Me Sleep

When I used to go into the office for work, I'd get up at about 5:30 to shower, dress, and get out the door so that I could arrive between 6:30 and 7. I liked to get an early start on the day, with few distractions, and leave early so that I could enjoy some time to myself before heading home.

I miss getting away for a bit after work. I should start doing that part again.

I would go to bed around 11:30 but wouldn't turn off my light and rest my head until after midnight, when my newest blog post would release and I could set up automated announcements for that day. This meant that, by the time I fell asleep, I would only get about five hours of rest until my alarm sounded (actually, my alarm went off at 5 but I would have to hit the snooze button a few times before the final, 5:30 alarm got me out of bed.

Assuming I could fall asleep right away, though it usually takes me about a half an hour to fall asleep if I'm tired enough and there's nothing weighing on my mind.

To sum up, I didn't get a lot of sleep when I worked from the office.

Since March of 2020, I've been working from home and I haven't had the need to get up early. I can now afford to rest until I really need to be online, with just enough time to shower and throw on some clothes. I've even made a morning fruit smoothie part of my morning routine.

My alarm is now set for 7:00, though I still continue to hit the snooze button and get out of bed around 7:30. I'm usually at my desk between 8 and 9, depending on my day's schedule of meetings and whether I have to take out the garbage.

I'm still going to bed at the same time—just after midnight—but I get about two extra hours of sleep.

Yet, I'm always tired.

Last night, while watching the news, I saw a story and interview around the fact that many of us don't get enough REM sleep, the part of rest where our body mends itself. Without enough REM cycles over enough time (apparently, humans average between three and five successful REM cycles), our body wears down and we're susceptible to all kinds of health issues.

I wondered to myself whether or not I get enough REM sleep, so I immediately turned to my Garmin heath app, which monitors my sleeping through my smart watch.

While I seem to get enough hours of sleep, I don't often get enough REM cycles. Or rather, I seem to get only the minimum number of sleep cycles and what I get seems short.

I also don't seem to get enough deep sleep and wonder how that's affecting me, too.

I'm wondering what I should do to prepare myself for a better sleep.

First of all, I should start getting away from a computer screen or my smartphone well before bed. That means all blog posts and video editing tasks should wrap up by 10, and I should place my phone in a Do Not Disturb mode starting at 11, when I put it down and leave it down.

I no longer set up blog posts after midnight, but I should break the habit of wanting to play Wordle and Connections before bed. I can do those when I wake up, before I get out of bed and start my daily routine. (I mean, I already post my game results on social media at that time, anyway.)

I'm going to start these new routines tonight. In a month or so, I'll check the results and take stock of how I feel.

I'm glad I have a watch that monitors me as I sleep. It's like a  medical technician, watching me sleep.

A Year In

I haven't used my Aeroplan points to book travel since my trip to South Korea, three years ago. And the only reason why I flew on points was because the taxes (which aren't covered by points) made it so that the flight only cost me about $150, round-trip.

Before Korea, I hadn't used points for a flight since 2010, when I flew to Scotland. I prefer to not use points to fly, as doing so often caused lengthy transit times, with a few connections that cost me unnecessary hours of waiting and going through various security points.

I like to fly direct, taking as little time and making as few connections as possible.

At the start of the pandemic, I had accrued a lot of Aeroplan points, enough to fly in business class, anywhere in the world. But because I knew that it would be some time before I flew again, and I didn't know whether my trove of points would evaporate from lack of use, DW and I decided to go to the Aeroplan site and redeem points for merchandise.

We redeemed points for a kick-ass humidifier, a charger stand that allows DW to recharge her iPhone, Apple watch, and ear buds at the same time. We also got her ear buds with points.

For myself, I redeemed points for my Garmin smart watch. A year in to using it, I have to say it's been one of the best purchases through Aeroplan points that I've ever made.

First, I can't believe how long the battery lasts. I typically go about five days between charges. For example, last February, when DW and I went to Mexico, I charged my watch a few hours before we left for the airport, early on a Sunday morning.

That Friday evening, as I was readying myself for bed, I had to plug in my watch. "Is that the first recharge since we left?" asked DW as I pulled out my charge cable.

"Yup."

DW has to charge her iWatch every other day.

One of the things that made me change my old Samsung Fit Gear watch was that it had difficulties in accurately tracking the number of flights of stairs, and it wouldn't count small footsteps if I was performing chores in the kitchen.

My Garmin Venu has never failed me and is always able to accurately sync with the Connect app on my phone.

I know that I haven't taken advantage of nearly all that this watch has to offer. I've added no apps, no widgets, and I don't use Garmin Pay nor do I play music through my watch. But because I always keep my smartphone close by, I haven't had a need to use these features with my watch.

I love how, with a minimal amount of buttons or tapping, I can start a workout, such as a bike ride or a kayaking trip, or a hike. I wish that there was a dedicated kayaking activity, rather than a generic rowing one, but it works nonetheless.

I get warned when my stress levels are too high and need to settle down. This feature has pleased DW as well as me.

An added bonus is how the watch synchronizes my activities with my Conqueror virtual challenges. As soon as I stop an activity, that activity and the distance travelled through that activity are recorded in The Conqueror app and I'm sent a notification.

One less thing I have to worry about at the end of the day.

So yeah, I'm really happy with my Garmin watch, one year later. It's the best purchase that I've made with my Aeroplan points (though, I may look into seeing if I can use them to fly again—maybe, to Iceland next year?).

Moving in a New Direction

Thursday might be okay.

When my Samsung smart watch told me that I had climbed 127 floors at the end of one day (that's like climbing the stairs to the top of Seoul's Lotte World Tower, plus another four floors!), I knew it was time to look for a replacement.

I'm not saying that I couldn't walk that many flights of stairs in a day, but I'd have to intentionally set out to do that. Typically, on a good week, my average daily floor average rarely exceeded 20.

The watch also started counting floors while I was sleeping or sitting on the sofa, watching TV. Even when I was exercising on my stationary bike, it would tack on a couple of floors during a workout.

And it always bothered me that when I was cleaning the kitchen, constantly moving in a relatively small space, the watch would not count the footsteps that I took.

The Samsung Health app that I had on my phone was much better at recording movement. With my phone in my back pocket, it would record the steps that my watch missed. At the end of the day, the app on the phone recorded more steps than my watch.

And that also bothered me: even though the Samsung watch was supposedly synchronizing with Samsung Health, the steps were never in sync. Nor were some of my workouts. For example, if I completed a workout on my spin bike, the elapsed time would be put toward my overall daily activity. But if I went outdoors on my road bike, the elapsed time would not count toward my overall daily activity. Apparently, only exercise that I initiated through my watch, rather than through the app on my phone, or exercise that was detected by the watch were put toward my daily activity.

My goal for each day was to count at least an hour of activity. Imagine my disappointment, after a 75-minute ride, that my stats would show, as I climbed into bed, that I hadn't reached my daily activity goal.

Even though I would regularly restart my watch and that I kept the Samsung Gear and Health apps up to date, the problems seemed to mount. I had even performed a total reset, twice, without solving my issues.

After three and a half years with this watch, and more than five years with Samsung Fit Gear watches, it was time to look elsewhere.

Initially, I was tempted to upgrade to another Samsung watch: particularly, the Galaxy 3. I loved the Samsung Health app and have been a fan of Samsung products for many years. My last three smartphones, our main TV, and a soundbar have all been reliable devices. The only reason why I upgraded my last Fit Gear watch was because my first one wasn't waterproof, and I wanted to wear it while I swam laps in our local pool.

The Galaxy 3 garnered good reviews, was stylish, and—most importantly—would pair perfectly with the health app that I've used for years and with which I was most familiar. But the price point was more than I wanted to spend and I wasn't crazy that the wrist strap was leather. How would it hold up to a chlorinated pool?

DW has an Apple watch and suggested that I get one, but after being an Android convert, I wasn't interested in going back to Apple. And again, there was the price point. (DW might be all right with spending big bucks on a watch but I wasn't.)

I then began reading positive reviews on Garmin watches. For many years, Garmin has been a leader in sport watches and I found a model that seemed to fit what I was looking for, especially because DW (needlessly) worries about my overall health—heart rate, oxygen levels, stress levels (okay, that one is valid), and breathing, especially while asleep (I haven't used my CPAP machine in more than a year). The watch was stylish and had a plastic strap: perfect for water activities.

And best of all, I found this Garmin watch, the Venu, on the Aeroplan merchandise site, so I was able to use points, rather than cash, to purchase it.

Straight out of the box, I put the watch to the test, plotting my final ride of my LEJOG virtual challenge. The watch has built-in GPS, so it's super-accurate and it also provides ample heath stats at various stages of the ride.

When I set out on a ride, the watch automatically sends a notification to DW, providing her with a link that allows her to track where I am. When I was an iPhone user, I used an app called Cyclemeter to do the same thing. But with the Garmin watch, if I fall off my bike, the watch will send an emergency notification to DW, showing her where I am.

That gives her some relief when I head out on a solo ride.

My first ride with the Garmin Venu.

In addition to monitoring my heart rate, the watch will also warn me if my heart beats exceed a pre-determined rate: I have it set to notify me when I go over 100 bps when I'm at rest and already it has set off one warning (I was fine).

There are lots of features that I haven't used yet, like the music feature or Garmin Pay, where I can use my watch to tap and pay for any purchases. But I didn't use the music feature on my previous watches and I've never used my phone for tap-and-pay purchases, either.

I've also disabled the feature that tracks women-specific health, such as menstrual cycle.

One nice bonus with the Venu is its long-life battery. With my Samsung watches, I found that I had to charge it each night, that it couldn't go two full days between charges, and I didn't want to take it off during the day to top it up. As a result, there were many evenings when I would go to sleep without wearing it and would miss out on the sleep-monitoring features.

The Garmin watch can go about five days between charges, and in the week that I've owned it, I've only had to charge it once (not counting the initial charge). My sleep stats have been recorded every night, as I've been able to fully charge the phone in just over an hour (which I've done while watching TV).

I like how the watch displays little blue footprints that walk all over the screen to mark when my step target is reached, or doubled. It also seems to count the steps that I take as I clean the kitchen, so I'm getting a more accurate count.

I love how, so far, it accurately records the number of floors that I've climbed!

I'm still getting familiar with my Venu. I've customized the face countless times and I've added and removed widgets as I've tailored the watch to meet my needs. But so far, so good. Both watch and Garmin's Connect app have been perfectly in sync. The watch even synchronizes with my Conqueror Virtual Challenges app, so I don't have to manually record my daily distances on my virtual journeys, which was the case with my Samsung watch.

This year has been one that has seen me more active than I have been in decades. And with this new watch, I am hoping to accurately keep track of these activities. I'll let you know how it goes.

And who knows? Maybe, someday, I'll actually climb 127 floors in one day.

The Scenic Route

Ever since I received my fitness (smart) watch, I've tried to make myself better. I've climbed stairs even when I wasn't going anywhere, I've tried to be active for at least 10 minutes a day, and I've paid attention to how much (or little) water I consume.

I know: these are low fitness goals, but when I consider how sedentary my life was before this device was strapped around my wrist, my levels of activity were relatively non-existent. 

One of the most-noticable activities I've performed over the past couple of months is walking, and considering the deterioration in the condition of my feet, that's no small task.

Every day, I have tried to walk as close to 6,000 steps in the office. If I can accomplish this number before I go home for the day, any extra steps are gravy.But walking in my office is no great accomplishment, if I simply walk from my desk to the kitchen, to grab a cup of coffee, or head to the washroom.

In a straight line, it takes me exactly 99 steps to get from my desk to the water cooler. I will walk about 10 steps more to get a coffee. Using a simple floor plan, here's the direct path from my desk to the kitchen.

Heading to the men's room, this is the path that I took. At the most, it is a 90-step journey, including a stop at the sink to wash my hands.

Since I've started using my smart watch, I no longer walk in a straight line to the kitchen or washroom. I zig-zag around cubicles and loop around offices. Just like this:

The path is similar for either destination. You can see where my path deviates. If I'm carrying a full mug of liquid, I take the straight path from the kitchen back to my desk. But if I go to the washroom, I take the same long path back to my desk.
   
Where these journeys were once 90 to 100 steps, the long path now takes between 418 and 432 steps. That's more than four times as far as a straight line.

Of course, people in the office are starting to notice that I walk past them more often—sometimes, twice in one trip. But I don't care.

If these trips get me up, get my blood circulating, and give me a little bit more exercise, it's worth the odd looks.

And soon, when the weather improves and the snow disappears, I'll take to lapping the outside of the building.

Now, if only my office had stairs...

Health Watch

It was already a year of gadgets for me, this Christmas, receiving a drone and a new tablet. I didn't expect a smart watch to be thrown in as an added bonus.

It was DW who wanted a watch to monitor her exercise and her health. She had looked at a Fitbit, had tried one on at Costco. But some negative reviews made her reluctant to settle on this popular device. She wasn't going to get herself an Apple product, especially after she and I had moved away from iPhones and had become Android users.

My new tablet was my final move away from Apple. (I'm allergic to them, after all.)

DW finally settled on a Samsung Gear Fit2. On Christmas morning, one was waiting for her under the tree. (She had picked it out, price-shopped online, found a sale at Best Buy, bought it, and handed it to me. I just wrapped it and put it with the other gifts—like the drone and tablet I picked out for myself and the suitcase that she had ordered for herself, online.)

When DW tried on her new gift, she discovered that the wrist strap was too big for her. When she had tried the Fitbit at Costco, she had to move from a small strap to a large, and assumed that it would be the same for the Samsung device.

She was wrong.

For Christmas Day, though, DW played with the watch, downloaded a new face (she didn't like the default one nor the others that were provided through the accompanying smartphone app, Samsung Gear. She measured her steps, the number of stairs she climbed, the number of coffees and glasses of water she consumed, and tracked her heart rate. She deemed the watch a good device, and vowed to exchange it for a smaller size on Boxing Day.

On the next day, however, she asked me if I would like one of these watches, too, and gave me the large one to wear until she would go to Best Buy. Either she would exchange this watch for a smaller one or I would keep this one (we reset it and I chose my own custom face), and she would pick up another one, in her size.

That's what happened.

I haven't worn a watch in years. The last watch that I had stayed on my wrist, in all conditions, for more than 10 years. When I lived in Korea, I discovered that if I removed the watch, it would stop, and would restart seconds after being secured to my wrist. It wouldn't function without me.

This new watch is sort of the same way. It can't track my activities nor count my heart rate unless it's securely on my wrist, so the only time I take it off, to charge it, is when I'm in the shower or if I'm awake but not moving, such as when I'm at the kitchen table or watching TV.

DW has placed her charging dock in our kitchen: I've put mine in the bedroom, so either of us can plug in when we're upstairs or on the main level.

Since I've worn the device, I've noticed that I pay far more attention to my behaviour than I used to. I set goals for the number of daily steps, for the number of floors I walk up, the number of glasses of water I consume, and the amount of physical activity I do.

The watch will even prompt me when I've been inactive for 50 minutes, and I listen. I get off my butt and I move. At work, I'll head to the kitchen and make myself a coffee (I can track those) or refill my water mug. I'll take the longest possible route to the kitchen and back to my desk, often completing a couple of laps around the inside perimeter of the building.

Sadly, my office is in a one-floor building, so I can't climb stairs. At home, however, I find myself in the basement and racing to the bedroom, so that I can count two flights.

But I can program different types of workouts, which the watch monitors, from walking, to spin classes, to riding my road bike (when I return to that, in the spring).

The watch synchronizes with a Samsung app on my phone, S Health, and I can also count the calories I consume during the day, but I had a similar app on my old iPhone and I found it too time-consuming to enter everything I put in my mouth, so I don't use that part of the S Health app.

I sleep with the smart watch and pay close attention to how much sleep I receive. The device will tell me how long I remain motionless, when I'm in a deep sleep, and when I'm in a light-sleep state. So far, it has rated my sleep as mostly poor, because I receive less than seven hours of sleep, and usually less than six-and-a-half hours of actual rest.

When the alarm on my smartphone goes off, I can control whether to snooze or to shut it off with a simple tap or flick of my finger.

The watch also lets me know when I am contacted through my social-media apps and when my phone is ringing.

This gadget is one of the three that I received over Christmas, and even though I didn't ask for it, it's one that I use the most, is one that I think will help me to keep moving, and will be one that I find valuable in keeping me healthy at a time when my foot, which is working against me, is keeping my drive to stay active at low levels.

And now, I have to get up. My watch is vibrating on my wrist, telling me that I've been sitting here too long. The vibration is it's way of saying, "Okay, buddy, blog time is over. Get off your fat ass and start moving!"

I obey.