Run 452: Slower, safer and Africa hot

Run 452
Average pace: 6:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) – no side trails taken
Distance: 10:03 km
Time: 60:34
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 30ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 158
Stride: n/a
Weight: 157.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3620 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6

I slept in a wee bit this morning–only by about 15 minutes–but it immediately put the kibosh on my plan to run earlier than normal to beat the heat. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. The day started hot and has only gotten a little bit hotter still since then.

When I headed off counter-clockwise at the lake the temperature was 30ºC and stayed there (I’ve made it red above to indicate that yes, it was pretty warm). The first km, through a relatively breezy section of trail, was actually fairly zippy, but after that my pace dropped off steeply. It was really quite warm. The lack of any appreciable breeze did not help, either. At times the air felt thick and hot and then a mysteriously cool breeze would blast in from somewhere off the trail, only to vanish a moment later.

Weather is weird.

Despite having a “people working” sign up today, I saw no sign of the re-surfacing crew on the Southshore trail. It looks pretty much done to me.

Around the halfway mark I entertained the idea of ending the run early, but pressed on. By the 7 km mark–my slowest by a fair bit–I was giving this much more serious thought but I kept on and once I reached the 8K mark my pace actually improved and I managed to pant my way to a full 10K. My pace was terrible, of course. I think I’ve broken 6:00/km once before. Regardless, 6:01/km is definitely one of my slowest runs ever. To be fair, I haven’t run often when it’s this hot, either. Nor would I want to ever again. It was yucky.

Compounding things, I wore my replacement pair of Hokas, which ironically have an even worse case of color bleeding than my original pair. I wore them because a shoelace snapped on the originals. My left foot, perhaps not used to this crazy, color-staining new shoe, was a bit sore for stretches of the run and that may have ticked my pace down even more. Other than the foot and oppressive heat, I didn’t experience any other issues. My BPM was similar to Wednesday because while I had to work harder with the heat, I was slow enough that it kind of balanced out.

I did get through without seeing any pythons, bobcats or giraffes, so there’s that.

I return to my usual run schedule next week and haven’t decided whether to start Sunday and miss my usual two-day break or wait till Tuesday and get a three day rest bonus. If it’s still 30ºC on Sunday that may make the decision a little easier.

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