Run 357 Average pace: 5:06/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.25 km
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-16ºC
Wind: moderate with occasional gusts
Calories burned: 365
Total distance to date: 2989
Device used: iPhone 5c
The only disappointing part of this run was despite feeling pretty good and having no real issues during the run I only managed to tie my previous 5K pace of 5:06/km.
On the other hand, this is a definite improvement over the recent trend of runs getting progressively slower.
I would write more but there’s not much else to add. The biggest complication was probably the pair of downed trees on the Conifer Loop again. I’m not 100% certain but it seemed like they were sagging a little lower than the previous run. I had to make more than a token effort to duck under the second one. If the parks people don’t hack them to bits soon I expect the next decent-sized storm will completely topple them. Hopefully not while I’m there because a) running in a storm sucks and b) running in a storm and getting hit by a falling tree sucks even more.
Given that I tied my previous 5K, I’m hoping this signals the beginning of a trend toward improved performance. I did push a wee bit harder tonight and I think it helped.
Run 356 Average pace: 5:13/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 10.05 km
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 15-19ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 729
Total distance to date: 2983
Device used: iPhone 5c
My goal today was to beat last Sunday’s astoundingly awful pace of 5:41/km. Short of a plane falling on me, this was all but assured because the weather was cooperative and this summer has demonstrated that I have become quite the delicate flower when it comes to running and the weather.
With my phone tucked into its belt, I headed off under mild conditions with a light breeze. The sun was warm but not hot and the temperature only rose to around 19ºC so if the run was going to stink it would be all on me today.
When I hit the Conifer Loop I noticed a rather large tree sagging at an alarming angle, several branches dangling low enough over the trail to require a bit of a duck to get under. I’m referring to the action, not the waterfowl, by the way. A short distance past there was a second tree also askew, either emulating its neighbor or perhaps having been dragged down with it. I expect sometime between now and the next run they will fall and then be chopped up by either beavers or park rangers. Either could happen. Really.
I started out at a decent pace but deliberately moderated it for the second km, thinking it might be better to conserve early and push later. This is reflected in my pace as I plunge an impressive 10% after 2 km.
With no real complications I felt I was keeping an okay pace, maybe a bit slower than I’d like–I was getting call-outs for km after passing each respective sign, eg. hitting 2 km after passing the 2K sign)–but this suddenly reversed itself after the 4K mark and for the rest of the run I was getting the call-outs before the signs.
This was revealed most dramatically when my pace for 5K improved by a silly 20% (the average pace of 4:15/km would put it around the fastest km I’ve ever recorded). The Nike+ app also has the route strangely shoot out into the field along a straight stretch before darting back in to correct itself so I don’t know if the GPS just went bananas there or what. My pace later plunged by 27% at the 7K mark but otherwise the dips and valleys seemed pretty typical.
Given the combination of distance covered and time, the overall pace of 5:13/km seems fairly accurate so even if the GPS got a bit nutty it seems to have not mattered too terribly in the end. This also tied my best 10K of the year, so yay me.
The left foot started to hurt a bit but not until after the run and so was not a factor. I also picked up the pace near the end for a good finish.
I am pleased by the results and my only concern going forward is that the weather may be poop for at least one of the runs this week.
Run 355 Average pace: 5:06/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.65 km
Weather: Clear, humid
Temp: 18ºC
Wind: light to nil
Calories burned: 410
Total distance to date: 2973
My plan tonight was to beat the horrible pace of my previous water-soaked run and to go clockwise around the lake to Still Creek, a distance of about 5.6 km, so a little farther than a typical 5K run. I also opted to use the iPhone again, even though I secretly think it makes my run times slower.
With conditions exponentially better (ie. no downpour) I got off to my briskest start in a good while, with the first km coming in at 4:40/km. I had a 10% drop after that but managed to hold on for my best overall pace in a long time, 5:06/km, a full 20 seconds better than Tuesday’s run and a whopping 35 seconds better than Sunday’s.
Apart from being a bit humid in the more closed-in sections of the trail, conditions were pleasant and despite my left foot feeling a tiny bit sore before heading out, it proved to not be a factor.
The bonus joggers came in the form of a running club of 8-10 people that passed by in the opposite direction just before the 5K mark. Despite the size of the group, I had no problem skirting easily past. This stood in contrast to several other groups who remained oblivious to my approach and also spread themselves across the length of the trail, nearly forcing me into the brackish ditches alongside. The best was a group of three where two looked back, saw me, then failed to alert the third person who didn’t–and the one I was headed straight toward.
People are weird. And unobservant.
Still, I can’t complain too much after posting such a dramatically improved pace. This was the exact sort of result I needed after the two officially awful runs prior.
Run 354 Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.05 km
Weather: Heavy rain
Temp: 18ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 374
Total distance to date: 2968
If Sunday’s run was a struggle through the blasted heat of the desert, tonight’s was trying to dodge the flash flood from the once-a-year deluge.
With a very low bar of beating my previous tortoise-like pace of 5:41/km, I was still not looking forward to tonight’s run, given the soggy forecast. On the first full day of fall the first fall storm was sweeping in, with high winds, rain and plenty more rain on top of that.
The forecast was accurate. It poured throughout my run and my dodging skills were given a full workout as I ducked, weaved and just plain leaped over increasingly huge puddles.
Perhaps because of the uncharacteristic need to leap, my left butt cheek actually felt a bit sore toward the end of the run.
I bottomed out around the halfway mark (3rd km pace: 5:37/km) but was overall fairly steady, just slower than average. Even with the torrential rain, the run was an improvement, if still generally horrible. My pace was 5:26/km overall, slow for a 10K, downright sluggish for a 5K but 16 seconds better than Sunday’s run, so I’ll take it.
It promises to be about the same temperature but perhaps a little drier on Thursday so the bar is still set low: beat tonight’s pace.
Run 353 Average pace: 5:41/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.06 km
Weather: Sunny, hot, humid
Temp: 21-31ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 734
Total distance to date: 2963
This is one to forget.
First, the good:
I finished the run.
Now the bad:
Everything else.
This was my first 10K in two and a half weeks, my first run in five days and to make thing interesting, I overslept and instead of heading out at 8 a.m. when it was relatively cool I went out after 11 a.m. when the temperature was already at 21ºC and climbing.
By the end of the run it was 31ºC. You notice a ten degree rise in temperature over 10 km.
My left foot was also feeling a bit sore before the run, was hurting 5K in and was crying mother by the 8K mark.
The first km was surprisingly spry, with a nice pace of 4:56/km but the bottom fell out after and by the sixth km my run map had changed from a ribbon of sprightly green to hellish red. I managed a minor uptick in the final km but my final pace was a horrible 5:41/km.
Conditions were appalling, with the air a thick, warm soup, the trail clogged with large groups of walkers (some sort of run/event that I never quite caught the name of, though there were hats and t-shirts), not to mention two cyclists–one actually had the courtesy to be walking his bike, the other was with the event and pulling a large carriage behind his bike. He was going too fast and came around a corner on a narrow part of the trail. I narrowly avoided collision. I almost came to a complete stop on the first boardwalk, there were so many people on it.
By the end I was just glad to be done and took solace in the fact that it couldn’t possibly be worse on the next run, unless I got eaten by a bear or hit by a derailed train. It would also likely stand as the last Africa hot run of the year. I can’t say I will miss them too terribly.
Run 352 Average pace: 5:17/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.13 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 24-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 373
Total distance to date: 2953
Five days between runs and missing one due to a cold meant that tonight’s 5K was bound to be slower and it was, neatly reversing the progress I’d made the previous run, with a pace of 5:17/km, the same as two runs back and a full seven seconds off my previous 5:10/km.
Although I didn’t feel especially sluggish and conditions were actually quite nice (light breeze, cooler) it was clear the cold and time off had worked against me. Or maybe it was the phone, which I used again. Yeah, that’s it. Stupid phone.
Speaking of stupid, I chose the option to lock the phone during the run, thinking this would prevent it from accidentally activating or doing weird things. But that’s what “slide to unlock” is for. What this meant is that at the end of the run, while still running (don’t want the pace to fall off) I had to enter my 4-digit passcode. This is not easy to do while running. In fact, I found it impossible. I ended up using the pause button on the earbuds to allow me to slow down enough to unlock the phone. I then resumed pace and then properly ended it. This meant the run stretched out a bit farther than normal for a 5K, to 5.13 km.
The other minor technical SNAFU was at the start. Because it’s a bit fiddly getting the phone into the spibelt I opted for the maximum 9-second countdown before the run begins. Despite this the run still started before I could get the phone securely tucked away. Fortunately it didn’t affect my first km pace.
The second and final km both saw big drops of 9% and 6% and here the phone provides a useful breakdown of where exactly I…broke down.
The second km drop-off happened as I hit the final bend on the Conifer Loop, not too long past the 1 km mark. I lost a lot of gas after a good start but maintained a steady pace after that until the last km. That last km drop-off also happened on a side trail when I did my second trip down the Spruce Loop, though I’m sure mucking about trying to actually stop the run had an effect, too.
Overall a disappointing run but not too surprising given the time off and lingering effects of the cold.
Son of Rosemary is the sequel to Rosemary’s Baby, and is set in 1999, 33 years after the original (and was written in 1997).
The book retains Levin’s glib, breezy dialogue, coupled with terse description that keeps the action rolling along. In the story Rosemary falls into a coma in 1971 and only wakes up after the last member of the Bramford coven is killed in a car accident. During her decades-long nap her son has grown up and claims to have resisted his darker tendencies (being the son of Satan and all), has started a religious charitable organization and orchestrated its crowning event, a global lighting of candles to usher in the year 2000 and a new era of peace, love and all that jazz.
Rosemary has her doubts and Andy’s occasionally nutty behavior underscores them. Without going into spoilers, the story gets increasingly dark, the ends with a twist at the end that will delight or infuriate, depending on how you felt about the story up to that point.
I was left nonplussed.
Tonally this is, despite the potential for worldwide domination by big letter Evil, not to mention Armageddon, a lighter read than Rosemary’s Baby. There’s never much connection to the shallow characters, and those who are more fleshed out waver back and forth like pendulums in their thoughts and actions, making it hard to empathize. The twist ending almost feels like Levin saying, “You wanted a sequel? Here ya go, suckers!” Or maybe it’s too subtly clever for me to properly appreciate.
In the end the book is carried on the strength of Levin’s skill as a writer. If you enjoyed Rosemary’s Baby and think you might be interested in a goofy “What if?” scenario on events following that book, give Son of Rosemary a shot. There are otherwise better horror novels out there.
Run 351 Average pace: 5:10/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.05 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 24-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 374
Total distance to date: 2948
Tonight I got all wacky and decided to use my iPhone and the Nike+ app to track my run instead of my iPod because why not? I grabbed my spibelt, slapped the phone in and headed off.
It was a little warmer than the previous run starting out but because I also started later it cooled off quickly and felt quite comfy. Assuming the GPS wasn’t a dirty liar, I actually started out fairly strongly and maintained a consistent pace up until the last km, which is where the course twisted all over the place (including over the dam) and also went up a steep (for Burnaby Lake) trail.
The phone defaults were a bit off, so it credited me 20 more calories burned than reality (it had my weight set to 170 pounds instead of 159) and it was set to not only call out distance but also time, giving me a km by km estimate of my pace. My pace was improved, so this turned out to be encouraging rather than discouraging. I’ve since turned that part off.
My planned route was to go clockwise to where the main trail splits, then turn left and loop back around on the longer Freeway trail. My ability to calculate distance is apparently really bad, as I neared the end of the route with about another km to go. I decided to keep running, headed over the dam and back up the trail counter-clockwise. After a bit I was thinking I should have heard the 400 m warning but that doesn’t seem to happen on the phone app, so I just sort of guessed where to turn around, doubled back and hoped I would complete 5K before ending up out in the street.
I was successful in not needing to run into the street.
Overall the run went fairly well and my pace was a much-improved 5:10/km.
I think I’ll keep using the phone for awhile. Seeing the route drawn out on a map afterward is kind of neat.
The next big test comes on Sunday when I go back to a full 10K. I vow not to sleep in and run when it is Africa hot. Really!
This is a nutty action adventure that combines Whitley Strieber’s beliefs about the soul, climate change and life after death with the 2012 doomsday prophecies, parallel universes and an overarching plot that has a pulpy L. Ron Hubbard feel to it, right down to a reptilian-humanoid alternate Earth that wants to crush (and eat) soft, puny humans.
It also features an explosive Ann Coulter cameo that proves Strieber still has a sense of humor.
Some spoilers follow, though most are revealed fairly early on in the story.
The story begins on an alternate version of Earth that is mostly the same but with a few notable differences–two moons instead of one, a different geopolitical make-up (no world wars, the British Empire remains ascendant, peace generally prevails). Fourteen ancient sites around the world suddenly blow up, revealing gigantic lenses that have been put in place thousands of years before to allow the inhabitants of Abaddon (evil snake people Earth) to burst through and nosh on the souls of alternate Earth. The soul is presented as a scientific reality, a kind of plasma that persists after a body expires, though it can be permanently extinguished. The snakes know how to bottle and destroy souls and feed on them. With their world messed up, they plan on using the lenses to take over both of the other Earths.
While the story gets progressively weirder and outlandish as the world of Abaddon is fully revealed, there are still plenty of well-executed scenes depicting alien incursions into both of the “good” Earths, and many of the characters have a loopy “what the hell” attitude that keeps things from bogging down. There is a sincerity in the way Strieber writes about family bonds and how they endure, even if I couldn’t stop picturing the enemies in the story as guys in big rubber snakeman suits.
2012 is not a great book and I felt the execution didn’t quite live up to the presentation but it’s an enjoyable enough read.
Run 350 Average pace: 5:17/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.04 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 373
Total distance to date: 2942
Tonight the bar was set low: run only 5K, beat my horrible pace of 5:37/km of the previous run. Given that I was only running half as far and had yet to turn in any 5K even close to being as awful as 5:37, the odds were in my favor.
Fortunately nothing conspired to prevent the gimme of a better run. My pace was slow for a 5K at 5:17/km but a whopping 20 seconds better than my previous outing. The overall pace was faster than the first km of my last run (5:17 vs. 5:18). I was even trending toward my fastest km on the last one. The only downside was a bit of a sag between the 3 and 4K mark. The run was very consistent otherwise.
My stomach threatened to cramp about halfway through but never quite got there and with the shorter distance my left foot and other assorted body parts all behaved.
As a bonus, the low sun meant lots of shade and cooler temperatures. I sweated more from the effort than from the heat.
Overall, an encouraging effort after Black Sunday. Now I need to start getting the times down again.
Run 349 Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.04 km
Weather: Sunny and hot
Temp: 27-30ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 743
Total distance to date: 2937
My original plan today was to get up early and run after breakfast to beat the predicted heat (a high of 27ºC). Instead I slept in and didn’t head out until noon. On top of that the temperature climbed higher than forecast, topping out around 30ºC.
This was my worst run of the year, bar none. With six days off and coming off an unimpressive previous pace of 5:21/km, I managed to be significantly slower again. It was hot, I was tired, I started out poorly (5:18 for the first km) and had no hope of recovering. Although I didn’t make any special effort, I did manage to pick up the pace a little in the final km, the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal run.
My left foot began to hurt toward the end, though I don’t believe it was a significant factor on my pace. My stomach felt off but not bad, just weirdly on the verge of cramping or something.
The calorie count is reduced because I adjusted my weight down on the iPod Nike app, from 165 pounds to today’s more svelte 159 pounds. Lighter me = fewer calories burned. I can live with that sort of trade-off.
Other than it being quite warm, the only other notable aspects of the run were a family of cyclists (grr) and how close I came to stepping on a snake (very). Mr or Mrs Snake was not crossing the trail like others have in the past but was fully stopped, perhaps enjoying the relative cool of this particular shaded section. I spotted it around the same time my foot started coming down directly on it. Fortunately snakes can really boogie when they need to and it hustled off before getting accidentally smooshed. That’s all I would have needed, the added guilt of murdering a snake to go along with being tired and over-heated.
Here’s hoping the next run is better. I’m setting the bar low on this one.
