View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Calm and warm again.
Today’s run was mostly a replay of Wednesday’s, with almost every stat and condition being very similar to the last run:
Similar temperature and humidity
Similar pace and BPM
It was marginally better overall (and air quality was much better), but mostly it’s a rounding error. I started out stronger with an initial pace of 6:09/km, but that dropped off after the 2K mark. I detoured to the Nature House and got a drink at the fountain. This revived me enough to improve my pace…for exactly one km. After that, it was slow again, but in the end the watch declared the run Productive, so who am I to argue?
I minimized the overall workout by doing a short loop, running about 2.75 km CCW, then turning around and heading back. I originally planned to skip the side trails on the return, but the main trail is a lot more exposed to the sun and the shade was very inviting.
I feel there were a few more runners out today, but maybe that’s just a Friday thing.
Other than sweating a lot and feeling like the whole thing was a bit of a slog, I experienced no real issues. In all, a perfectly okay run, but I’m really feeling that six-week gap when I was recovering from surgery and the weather went from pleasant to kind of hot. 25 feels like 30 to me. At least it’s not actually 30.
Brunette River, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,051 Average pace: 6:23/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: +1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop) Start: 11:00 a.m. Distance: 5.02 km Time: 32:05 Weather: Sunny Temp: 24–25°C Humidity: 54–51% Wind: light BPM: 152 Weight: 169.8 pounds Total distance to date: 7,060 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (40/92/132)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Haze in the distance.
Canada has a colour-coded weather alert system and when weather is fine, it is colour-free. When it is bad, it can be Yellow, Orange, or Red. Today it is Yellow.
Environment Canada described today’s alert thus:
Issued By
Meteorological Service of Canada, CA, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Affected Area
Metro Vancouver - central including the City of Vancouver Burnaby and New Westminster
Description
Smoke is causing or expected to cause poor air quality and reduced visibility.
Yellow Air Quality Warning in Effect (High Health Risk)
Limit outdoor activity. Reduce activity duration and intensity.
The weather app on my phone described the air quality as “unhealthy”:
I ran anyway.
Did I regret it? Not exactly, but I can also say the run did not make my socks roll up and down in excitement, either.
It was not as hot as Friday, but humidity was significantly higher and I sweated like crazy. The first few km were fine, but the heat/humidity/haze triple combo began wearing me down just past the midway point. I kept going because to the west the sky looked more blue than yellow, and I was running toward the west.
Along the way, I noted precious few other people out jogging, so most were smarter than me. I didn’t experience any specific issues while running–no cramps, creakiness, or whatnot, the whole thing just started feeling like a long, sweaty slog.
Which it was.
In the final km, I reached the rowing pavilion parking lot, crossed over and was greeted by a Trail Closed sign. The last time on this stretch there was only a Trail Closed sign on one end and no sign (ho ho) of any work activity. I paused to contemplate whether to turn back, ignore the sign and assume no work was actually being done (which was the case last time), or go up Roberts Road and reconnect with the trail somewhere over yonder. I couldn’t recall where Roberts Road came out in relation to the trail, so decided against that and could not hear any activity, so I decided to continue running past the Trail Closed sign, telling myself I’d turn around if I saw any people and equipment.
I saw people and equipment right at the very end. Whoops. I felt bad, but at least they were working on the little spur of the official Burnaby Lake Loop and not the part of the trail I was defying the sign on. Ironically, my run ended about 20 seconds later, anyway.
Despite the conditions, I ended up being only four seconds slower than Friday, which surprised me. I guess that’s good. And the watch, which does not know anything about air quality, declared the run productive, so also good.
Now I am off to drink three kegs of water.
Still Creek, post-run, with bonus geese and a not very blue sky.
Stats:
Run 1,050 Average pace: 6:24/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: 0 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 10:40 a.m. Distance: 5.01 km Time: 32:11 Weather: Sunny Temp: 22–24°C Humidity: 62–57% Wind: light BPM: 153 Weight: 170.0 pounds Total distance to date: 7,055 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (35/84/119)
Lately I’ve noticed people shortening the word podcast to just pod. I understand the reasoning–a podcast originally referred to an audio program meant to be played on an iPod (kids, ask your parents) but with the iPod dead and buried, if not forgotten (I still have two) I can see why people might want to use a different term now. And this is before you get into what even counts as a podcast now, since a lot of them are now also on platforms like YouTube, where they are…videos.
Still, “pod” bugs me because it still retains the “pod” part of “iPod”, which seems to me to be the part you’d want to replace. But mainly it just sounds just too twee (yes, I have a kind of twee meter in my head that tells me when something crosses the “too twee” line) and doesn’t really make sense because peas are in pods, not people talking to each other. Also:
Podcast > Pod
Broadcast > Broad
If the latter becomes accepted usage, I will embrace pod.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Boundary Bay (Delta) Weather: Sunny, 18–23°C
The first birding of August, just before the fall fliers1bird and consumer joke rolled into one start arriving.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Marshland and distant mountains at Reifel Bird Sanctuary.
We started at Reifel, which was packed in the morning with both hardcore birders and their Very Big lenses, and assorted families and holiday goers (today is BC Day here in, well, BC).
We did a reverse of our usual route, which isn’t especially radical, but does give a slightly different view on things.
As expected, no fall arrivals have shown up early, but the barn swallows are still hanging around. In fact, we saw one actively maintaining a nest, so at least one more batch of babies is on the way.
Nic shot a billion swallows in flight. I shot a few and the results were not horrible, nor good, but somewhere in the middle. Horrigood.
Most of the ponds were devoid of any waterfowl, but we did see some:
A pair of Spotted Sandpipers in the pond by the viewing platform
A pair of Greater Yellowlegs in one of the small ponds east of the viewing platform
A large group of Long-billed Dowitchers in one of the large main ponds
The dowitchers and sandpipers were not very close, alas, but the yellowlegs compensated.
Sparrows seemed to be mostly hiding from the sun, but some chickadees and House Sparrows were out. And we saw a scruffy young Yellow-rumped Warbler, who was just starting to show some of its yellow.
The geese had filthy mouths and fluff beards, but were well-behaved. A large gaggle on the shore past the marshland may have been migrating.
The oddest moment came when a bird of some sort flew directly over us on the outer dyke and landed on the trail ahead. The profile seemed to be a hawk of some sort, but having one land on the trail is very weird. It flew a bit into a shadier spot, and we got some photos before it…walked into the grass, then popped out and finally flew off. I correctly ID’d it as a Cooper’s Hawk because it’s one of the few I know are local.
And near the end we saw the Sandhill Crane family, so in all, a fine outing, even if many of the ponds are a little too green.
Boundary Bay
Boundary Bay minus the bay, due to low tide.
We originally went to Centennial Beach, but for some reason it was so busy the parking lot was full and backed up. Nice weather + holiday = overcrowded? Whatever it was, I finally relented and agreed to go to Boundary Bay. As always, the scenery was nice, but the tide was extremely low, so seeing shorebirds meant walking about a km across the mudflats to find some water and hoping for the best. We did not do this.
Instead, we walked a few km along the trail mostly populated by cyclists and a few people on horseback, and shot a lot of grasshoppers. We did see a few errant birds, such as some Cedar Waxwings, but that was it.
I am sated on this stretch of Boundary Bay for, let’s say, the next year. Or more. 😛
But overall, the weather was lovely (not too hot) and we saw some birds we don’t see often, so a good time was had.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted. Coming soon.
First, this photo I took midway down the path to Lower Hume Park, showing trees and the park further below beyond them. I like the spot of sun on the centre tree.
My camera is a Samsung Galaxy S26, which I keep meaning to write a mini-review on.
And looking at the photo, which nicely obscures that it was taken in the middle of an urban sprawl…
The green to the left is Burnaby Lake Regional Park, where I jog. On the trails, not in the lake.
…I was reminded of an infection I got back in 2018. That might seem odd, and it is. Let me explain (or read this post, because I tend to chronicle all of my health issues and injuries for some reason). It was a kidney infection, which turned out to be a much gentler version of another I would develop six years later. This first one still resulted in me not being able to walk very fast as without a lot of discomfort while I recovered. Being forced to slow down made me pay more attention to my surroundings and I started snapping photos of local scenery and especially flowers. I dubbed this “flower therapy” because I found it very soothing to find some flowers, frame them, then snap a few shots.
And I still find it soothing. Lining up the shot of the trees above put me in an almost meditative mood. I’m sure there’s some science about chemicals being released into my brain. Maybe just plain old dopamine. Whatever it is, I like it, and it’s a simple pleasure I still indulge in eight years later, even without any infections (that I know of).
My first official™ post for Blaugust 2026 comes with me at a crossroads when it comes to blogging.
A few years back I began exploring options to move away from WordPress, which started as a blogging platform but has evolved into something that does way more than what is needed for a simple blog with words and images.
Also, the head of WP started making…interesting public statements and committing actions that left me uncertain about the platform’s future.
I explored many different sites and platforms, and several came close, but always lacked something. I admit I am a fussy person, and it may be impossible to fully satisfy me. WordPress works, not because it’s exactly what I want, but it gives me flexibility to bend it to my vision, such as it is.
But it’s also complicated, and much of its UI and way of accomplishing tasks are things I’ve simply grown used to and tolerated, never enjoyed.
And now, with seemingly everything tech-related going up in my price, my Dreamhost unlimited plan is seeing a significant price increase, no doubt to move me over to one of the limited plans (the unlimited plan is already no longer an option for new customers). This huge price increase has rekindled my interest in thinking how and where I blog.
More thoughts on this soon–my billing renews on August 15th, so I’ll have to commit to some course of action by then, even if it’s just paying the increased cost of sticking with the Dreamhost unlimited plan.
(I will quickly add that I very recently saw a reference to Pure Blog on Mastodon [somewhat hilariously, I initially misread it as Purple Blog and was a bit disappointed that’s not the actual name] and it’s intrigued me. It looks like it’s Static Site Generator software, but tailored more specifically for blogging. I also feel like I’m more willing to get “to the metal” again with CSS and the like now than I was in the past. Anyway, what I’m saying is I’m actively looking for new options and this is one of them!)
Meanwhile, I remain as cool and collected as typing cat.
I wasn’t sure what to expect heading out later than usual today, except that it would be hotter and probably more challenging as a result.
I was half right, because it was indeed a full six degrees warmer, with humidity also way down, though curiously it still felt humid, so a dry mouth was not a problem.
But I was wrong about it being more challenging, because I posted an overall pace two seconds faster than Wednesday at 6:20/km and my BPM dropped from 149 to 147. Nice. The BPM likely benefitted from a brief pit stop at the Nature House to hydrate at the water fountain there, just past the 2K mark, but not too much, as I really did just sip and run.
I did begin to feel the heat, as they say, later in the run, but managed to keep a consistent pace from beginning to end, with a variance of only five seconds from slowest to fastest km. I think this worked to my benefit.
And despite the sunny conditions, there weren’t as many people, dogs, or geese around as on Wednesday. I have no explanation for this.
The Pavilion Trail has been resurfaced, and the water is being held at bay for now. Parts of the trail seem a bit unfinished, making me feel there is more work to do. When I got to the end, where it reaches the rowing pavilion parking lot, there was a Trail Closed sign. But there wasn’t one at the other end, so it is existing in both a closed and open state at once, a paradox unto itself. Or someone nicked the other sign.
Keeping above the water, but only just.
In all, this was a nice way to end the week, doing back to back 5Ks, seeing improvement and having no issues.
View from the bridge at Deer Lake Brook, post-run. There is an actual lake here.
Stats:
Run 1,049 Average pace: 6:20/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: 0 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:35 a.m. Distance: 5.01 km Time: 31:48 Weather: Sunny Temp: 25–26°C Humidity: 38–37% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 169.4 pounds Total distance to date: 7,050 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (30/76/106)
The weird part is I actually ended the month at the same weight as last month and the same weight as January 1, so in seven months I have achieved no weight loss (or gain) at all, which is impressive in its own way.
And that weight is 169.4 pounds.
Stats really didn’t shift too much. Body fat % is up a little, everything else is flat. I was bad when it came to snacking multiple times throughout the month. I had Pop-Tarts. I sought solace in food.
I again vow to do better. It could happen! I don’t have any handy snacks as we head into August, so that’s a plus.
Stats:
January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds
Current: 169.4 pounds Year to date: Unchanged
July 1: 168.5 pounds July 31: 169.4 pounds (up 0.9 pounds)
Body fat: July 1: 26.0% July 31: 26.4% (up 0.4%)
Skeletal muscle mass: July 1: 29.8 kg July 31: 29.9 kg (up 0.1 kg)
View from the Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Sort of cloudy, but calm.
I figured I was ready for another 5K, so I attempted one today and succeeded, woo. Also good: my training status is productive, which pleasantly surprised me, and my BPM was a nice 149.
I was slower, but deliberately so. The first two km especially were done at a very measured pace, coming in at 6:30/6:29/km. I did get faster each km and by the fifth I’d improved to 6:12, basically matching the pace of my previous shorter run.
The weather was fine. I got lucky in that there was just enough high cloud to blot out the sun for pretty much the entire run. Much of it burned off shortly after, so the walk back was under sunny conditions. It was 19-20°C and humidity was in the mid-60s, which helped prevent any dry mouth.
There was a fair number of people on the trail, but it’s midsummer and the weather is nice, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone was friendly and courteous. I even saw the spitfire, but for a change she was walking and I was running. It felt weird.
The trail was in decent shape after Sunday’s day-long showers, but I had to double back on my walk out because apparently they are finally addressing the floody parts of the trail to the north of the rowing club:
You shall not pass.
I started to get a bit tired the last few km walking back home and may regret it tomorrow, but I’m pleased at how today’s run went. Yes, my pace of 6:22/km was slower, but it was planned and all other signs are good.
Oh, and the title of the post? When I was walking the river trail to the lake, a guy jogged past me. Pretty nondescript–dressed in a dark t-shirt, black shorts, black running shoes, no cap. A few moments after he passed, I caught the distinct and piquant body odour emanating from him. I think the light breeze managed to waft it perfectly to my nose, as I can’t remember the last time I could smell a runner. But I did today.
Still Creek, post-run: Return of the sun.
Stats:
Run 1,048 Average pace: 6:22/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: +1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:01 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 32:02 Weather: High cloud, some sun Temp: 19–20°C Humidity: 67–63% Wind: light BPM: 149 Weight: 169.7 pounds Total distance to date: 7,045 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (25/68/93)
