Run 432
Average pace: 5:41/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 10.01 km
Time: 56:57
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 15ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 160
Stride: n/a
Weight: 162.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 3472
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
The FIRE DANGER signs are already up on the Brunette River trail and at Burnaby Lake, the earliest I’ve ever seen them, another sign (or two) that the climate is changing. It feels like summer has shifted forward by about a month.
Ironically, it was cloudy and cool today and we may get a shower or two soon, so the signs may come back down pretty quickly. In the meantime, the cooler weather made for pleasant running conditions.
As has been the case of late, I headed out with great trepidation, concerned about The Leg. I took a pre-emptive Advil before leaving and the walk to the lake was of no great consequence. My plan was still the same as weeks past, to maintain a steady but not speedy pace, to be as gentle as one can be when spending 50+ minutes pounding your feet on a gravel and dirt trail.
The first few km were fine and I was cautiously optimistic, but I’ve seen this happen before, only to get hit by the persistent aching shortly after.
Which is what happened. I adjusted my pace down and mulled ending the run at 5K. Instead I pushed on and in the end I don’t feel any worse for having done so. The soreness extended from the hip through the knee (though the knee itself was fine) and into the calves. The ankle, which I had previously feared may be injured, was fine, to my great relief.
The soreness is different than pain. Pain is not just unpleasant to run with, it debilitates. It makes you stop if you’re smart (I’m mostly smart) because it’s your body telling you something is broken and you need to lay off so the healing can begin. This refers to actual physical healing, not the kind politicians talk about. Persistently sore muscles simply make the run more unpleasant and tiring.
In the end I finished with a pace of 5:41/km, my second best pace for a 10K this year. This was not my intention, though at one point near the end I picked up the pace because it felt like doing so was shifting my gait enough to make the aches more tolerable. Looking at the splits, my pace is all over the place, a veritable roller coaster. I can’t say I noticed this while running, but it seems my body was making adjustments on a kind of auto-pilot. Cardio-wise I felt good for the entire run. If my right leg matched my cardio I’d probably feel like a super-powered being while jogging.
The trail was a lot less crowded due to the clouds, which was nice. There were stretches where I didn’t encounter anyone for several minutes. This may not seem like much but given the traffic the lake gets, it’s quite noticeable when you experience it. I wonder how it would feel to do an entire run without seeing anyone else. Would it feel spooky? Weird? Indescribably pleasant?
If seeing something cute at the end of a run is a good omen I should be set for the rest of the summer. Having just finished and walking toward the dam, I spotted a goose about to cross my path, heading to the river. Normally this close proximity would result in the goose hissing at me and possibly flapping its wings in a menacing gesture, as humans aren’t supposed to be part of goose planet and why are we here, anyway? Instead it continued to waddle across the trail. I gave it room and noticed about half a dozen goslings trailing behind it, with another adult goose bringing up the rear, acting as shepherd. It was adorable. It almost made me like geese. But not quite.
I’m going to use the runs this week to make a determination over whether to continue or take some real time off to allow proper healing to take place. So far things don’t seem to be getting worse, but if they’re getting better the pace may be a bit too slow to really count. I don’t want to take time off as this is peak running season, but if I do that should still give me time for the second half of summer. We shall see.