Month: August 2013

The hopefully not de-motivational half-run

Average pace: 5:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: Sunny, humid
Temp: 22-23ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 399
Total distance to date: 2394 km

I was not looking forward to today’s run after the last two dismal outings but off I went just before noon under cloudy skies. It was still humid despite not being as warm and even before leaving the river trail I had started to sweat. This did not fill me with confidence.

I started out and hit all the early points where I wanted to (the most obvious one is hitting the 2K mark before reaching the bridge over Eagle Creek near Piper Spit) but around 4 km in I was feeling tired and the motivation to continue was waning. It didn’t help that the sun had come out, which made it hotter but did nothing to alleviate the humidity.

I made a vow to keep on and do the full run if I hit the 5K mark before or as I was crossing the bridge at Still Creek, the unofficial halfway point. I trod across the bridge and my iPod continued to pipe music into my ears but the Nike announcer lady remained silent. She then announced the 5K mark about three seconds after I had crossed the bridge, presenting me with a conundrum. Since I was so close, should I muster on and see if I could improve on my miserable pace from Tuesday or pack it in, settle for at least having a decent pace now and try to follow-up again tomorrow?

Feeling a smidgen of guilt over quitting, I pressed on for another half km, through the exposed section along the athletic fields, reaching the shaded area at the east end. And it was there that I decided to bail. The rest of the run along the southern side of the lake is generally more challenging with lots of small hills, twists and several areas where you are fully exposed to the elements and I feared the worst.

In the end I managed 5.5 km and an average pace of 5:01/km. Though that’s a full 17 seconds better than Tuesday’s run, it’s only six seconds better than my pace at the 5K mark on Tuesday (5:10 vs. 5:16). Given that the back half of the run is slower, I was probably heading to an overall pace of around 5:14/km. Better than Tuesday but still pretty mediocre. So on the one hand, I feel wimpy having ended the run early, but on the other I’m glad that I get at least a minor psychological boost by finishing with a pace that at least hints at being able to get under five minutes again.

I tentatively plan on doing another run tomorrow, length to be determined.

UPDATE: It’s Sunday morning around 11 a.m. and it is actually showering. How weird. I’m undecided on whether I am willing to run in the rain or not. There’s a novelty aspect to it after such a long dry spell but at the same time it’s running in the rain which is overall kind of yucky.

The Return to Africa hot run

Average pace: 5:19/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 11.41 km
Weather: Sunny, Africa hot
Temp: 23-27ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 825
Total distance to date: 2389 km

Blergh.

For some reason runs always seem to go worse when I run clockwise around the lake. But I get ahead of myself.

I was curious how today’s run would go because I was heading out around the same time of day but with a few differences: it was much warmer (bad) but there was a breeze (good), it wasn’t as humid (good) but it was sunny instead of cloudy (bad).

It was my second run in three days after a slothful five days off.

I started out about four seconds off my previous pace, slipped a little further and ended with a time of 5:19/km, pretty lousy after getting as low as 5:07 previously. On a positive note my feet were both fine, though the left one was a tad sore on the walk back (not enough to slow me down, though).

On the negative…this was a very dry run. I felt parched and with the breeze I had a definite case of desert mouth. The temperature rose rapidly from 23 to 27ºC, the kind of change that is noticeable and not in a good way. Worse, though, the lingering effects of either a nascent head cold or some fun new allergy meant I had a pressure headache before heading out. I dealt with this by taking two Advil. The headache went away but at around the 5 km mark I felt very odd, a mix of light-headed and weak. I was passing by the athletic field at the time and wanted to just lay down on the nice soft grass for awhile. Instead I mustered on, got past the wooziness and even managed a slight uptick in my pace after bottoming out at the 10K mark.

Barring actual injury, I’m all but guaranteed to do better on the next 10K+ run.

On the run itself there were two things of note. The first was a rare triple rule violation. Seeing people walk their dogs without leashing them is pretty common. Seeing people riding bikes on the trail is (thankfully) less common. Today I saw a mother and her son both riding their bikes, with an unleashed dog in tow. Good job, I say!

We met up at the dam as I ended my run, dehydrated and cranky. I still managed to sound fairly polite as I said to her, “Actually, bikes aren’t allowed on the trail.” She didn’t seem to hear and hoisted her bike up and over the stairs on the dam, rolling it to the other side. By coincidence I was going the same way to get a long drink from the faucet nearby. I watched as she walked her bike down the path past me. I kept drinking. She waited for her son to catch up. Then she waited some more for no apparent reason. I finally got my fill of liquid nirvana and headed off. I’m sure she hopped back on the bike as soon as I was out of view. All I can hope is that she skidded out on some horse poop on the Avalon trail and landed face-first into it.

The other odd sight was a man jogging ahead of me. Occasionally I see people running with  smartphones strapped to their arms. This guy was like that except instead of a smartphone it was a tablet, either a 7 or 8 inch Samsung tablet. It looked huge and uncomfortable. The guy had his tablet arm raised straight up, as if hailing a cab. With his free hand he seemed to be making some adjustments and was not having much luck. As I caught up he got things settled and resumed a regular running pace. Or as regular a running pace as you can manage with a freaking tablet strapped to your arm. It was weird.

A July record that won’t be beat

The Vancouver area officially went the entire month of July without any precipitation. We also set a record with 411 hours of sun (the average is around 270).

But as a reminder of where we are, a weak low pressure drifted in and started a shower about an hour after the record was set.

For my runs I think the average temperature has been around 26ºC, a good 2-3 degrees above normal and it’s often been even warmer than that. July was a weird month.

As I write this the low pressure system has gone and we’re back to where we left off (it’s 24, feels like 25 at 11:30 in the morning). I’m not complaining, mind you, I don’t mind the warm weather, even if it makes my runs harder, and as the olde song goes, “Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin'”. Er, or the sunshine. Basically nature is gonna do what nature is gonna do.

And I’m going to drink some lemon lime soda.

The Return from Lethargy run

Average pace: 5:13/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 11.02 km
Weather: Cloudy, humid
Temp: 18-19ºC
Wind: none to light
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2377 km

For reasons I can’t entirely explain I got really lazy after the last run and kept putting off the next, to the point where I’d gone the entire work week without running at all, five days in total.

Come Saturday morning I rectified this by heading out shortly after 11 a.m., weighing on whether conditions and the time-off would favor or hinder me.

Weather-wise, a low pressure system finally bumped up against the high pressure ridge and dropped the temperature down from an average of about 25ºC down to 18ºC. The cooler temperature should definitely work in my favor. Also in the plus column would be the cloudy sky, with nary a bit of sun to beat down on me. On the negative side there was no wind at all and humidity was high — 75%.

As it turned out, that humidity and still air took its toll, making the last few km of the run in particular a real slog. The first part my right Achilles tendon felt very stiff and sore as it worked out its kinks and it really didn’t start to feel okay until the last few km, when I had no energy left to run. 😛

In the end I matched my previous pace exactly, coming in again at 5:13/km. I suppose holding steady under the conditions could be considered a quasi-victory of sorts.

The trail showed little sign of the few showers we’d seen after the month-long dry spell, though the work on the trail along the athletic field is now complete. The fencing is still gone (permanently?) and the freshly gravel-covered section is now at least twice as wide as it was before right up to the corner where it abruptly shrinks back to its original width. The gravel has been pressed nice and firm, so it’s already fine for running on.

I plan on taking a more normal two days off before the next run. Hopefully the conditions will be decent and the foot will be flexible enough to not give me much trouble.