A little while back, I checked my running stats and discovered that I hadn’t completed a 5K since September 2020. Egad. And I haven’t even been injured. The global pandemic, for all the terrible stuff it has wreaked upon the world, actually gave me more time to run, but the will evaporated.
I vowed to get in another 5K before the first anniversary of my last run came up, and today was that day, woo!
I did my usual walk down the river trail but when I got to the end of Cariboo Place, I stopped the walk and started a 5K run, the first in 342 (!) days.
I knew my pace would be slow–and it was–but surprisingly, it was actually better than that last run in September 2020, though BPM was a little higher, but still in a comfortable range.
I actually felt fine, though had forgotten just how dry your mouth can get when you run in the summer. Apparently doing little 2K runs isn’t enough to fully dry you out, but a 5K is more than plenty. Given how it’s generally getting hotter now, I may have to think about some sort of water bottle again.
My bad foot (the left) behaved. I was starting to get pretty tired by the 4K mark and almost thought of pausing the run when lo! My left shoelace came untied (for the second time), giving me the perfect excuse to stop and catch my breath. I continued on fine after that.
In terms of splits, I was faster than expected for the first km at 5:46/km and stayed under 6:00/m for the second, but began to lose steam after that.I finished stronger, though, so that brief respite to tie my show really seemed to help me tap into my last energy reserves.
Conditions were not great, but could have been worse. At 27C, it was warmer than I’f prefer and it felt humid, but at least the smoke of the last few days had cleared up.
Overall, it felt good just to pull it off. I’m not exactly sure when I will run next, but it will be sooner than 11 months. 😛
Stats:
Run 651 Average pace: 6:08/km Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 3:45 p.m. Distance: 5.02 km Time: 30:51 Weather: High cloud, some sun Temp: 27ºC Humidity: 43% Wind: light BPM: 156 Weight: 177.1 Total distance to date: 4865 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12 Shoes: Brooks Caldera 4 (15 km)
