Month: October 2014

Run 360
Average pace: 5:16/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 5.11 km
Time: 26:53
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 371
Total distance to date: 3009
Device used: iPhone 5c

With daylight rapidly becoming a precious commodity, I can no longer walk to the lake to run unless I walk very fast to the lake. Like, running fast.

And that’s what I did.

Tonight’s route started on the Brunette River trail, continued to Burnaby Lake and counter-clockwise through the Spruce and Conifer Loops, then back until I hit 5K, just short of the foot bridge at Silver Creek.

The first half of the run, which was pretty much everything leading up to where I’d normally start my lake runs near the dam, went decently enough. After that I fell flat. Pancake flat. For whatever reason I had no energy and plodded along to finish with an average pace of 5:16/km, which would be okay for a 10K run but is lousy for a 5K.

Is it because I didn’t wear my lucky shorts? A poor sleep? Planetary alignment? Perhaps all of these things.

Also my left leg and foot all hurt at various points, which was weird and annoying. I’m not talking about actual pain, just soreness that turned off and on through the later stretch of the run, like a bunch of faulty lightbulbs.

The goal for Thursday will be to better tonight’s run. This should be easy.

Run 359
Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.05 km
Time: 52: 31
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19-22ºC
Wind: nil
Calories burned: 729
Total distance to date: 3004
Device used: iPhone 5c

This was a weird run if you look at the map made from the GPS.

But first, I must mark the momentous metric occasion (Nike uses Imperial units to award milestones, what with them being miles and all, so what they consider a big deal differs from what I consider a big deal) as this run I hit 3,000 km. I started using the Nike+ system to track my runs in September 2009 so it’s taken five years to get to this point or an average of 600 km per year. I’m still full intact, too, woo.

As to the weirdness of today’s run, I expected to be slower due to a later start (11:50 a.m.), warmer temperatures (19-22ºC so not really bad) and, as it turned out, very muggy conditions. The mugginess was the main villain here.

My first km was a sluggish 5:11/km, though I at least didn’t have to slow to duck under the sagging trees on the Conifer Loop, as they’ve been chopped to bits and tossed into the brush for the mushrooms. The second km saw a huge 14% drop-off to 5:53/km. I regained some form for the third and fourth km then–at the same point where the GPS has wigged out before–my time actually got improbably faster, with the 5K and 6K pace being 3:52 and 3:10. I got awards for fastest mile and km ever.

I do not think these were my fastest km ever, based on how I felt at the time.

On the seventh km my pace dropped 85% (!) to 5:52/km before pulling up again to 5:26 for the final stretch. Even more weirdly, the overall pace of 5:14/km actually makes sense given the total time of the run and distance covered. I think the trees along the field make the GPS go cuckoo. I’ll have to lobby for their removal.

Here’s how the map looked at the nutty bullet train section:

Given that I went in without much confidence, I am fine with the results, dubious recors notwithstanding.

The only negative was the left leg, which at one point or another hurt from the top down. That included the left buttock, upper thigh, Achilles tendon and foot. All of these were brief, however, and none affected my pace. I was fine after the run, though the foot remained a bit sore. It held up for the walk home.

I am thinking I may switch to earlier runs on Saturday because I’m finding the trail a little too crowded on Sundays (even if part of today’s crowd consisted of a group of seven young men running topless and in black short shorts; I both admire and hate them for being svelte, young and spry). There are an awful lot of people with seemingly no situational awareness when in public (these are the ones who stop at the top of an up escalator for no apparent reason) and they like to spread themselves out on the trail, block the way, suddenly stop and do other neat tricks.

By heading out early and on Saturday I’m thinking the worst I’ll face is other runners, who generally have excellent situational awareness. I know I’m setting myself up for a collision on a blind corner by saying this but I’ll take the chance.

At least there were no cyclists today. Hooray.