Today was a weird run day:
- I don’t normally run on weekends
- I don’t normally run in the afternoon
- The temperature was 19C, which is something that would happen more commonly in June than in March
- For all of the above reasons, the trail was fairly packed full of people
The reason for running today is I missed Friday’s run due to birding and wanted to keep to my usual three-times-a-week cadence, so today was the day to go. I put in over 24,000 steps yesterday while birding and ran on Thursday, so I was starting to push a bit on the ol’ exercise. Sure enough, my training status went from Productive after the run to Overreaching for the walk around the rest of the lake. Whoopsie.
The run started much the same as last time, which an opening pace of 5:36/km, but after that my body began to soak in that 19 degrees and the rest of the way felt a lot harder. My times began edging closer to the six-minute mark, but I found enough reserve to bring my pace in the final km down again to 5:45/km, giving me a respectable 5:50/km overall average. I was definitely feeling more winded than usual at the end.
I also silently cursed two cyclists, who studied a map of the lake loop for some time before deciding they decided to just ignore it and ride around the lake anyway. I told them as they rode by me that bikes weren’t allowed on the trail, but they were wearing their WE CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALA faces and kept going. They were among the million or so people on the trail, though the only ones I encountered on bikes.
And really, even though it felt nice to run in the warm sun again after so many cold morning runs, I would take the cold and attendant solitude of running on a weekday morning over what I experienced today–just without the rain, thanks!
Monday is looking like another unusually warm day, with a forecast high of 20C, but I’ll run in the morning when it will be a more civilized 12-14C.
Overall, this was an odd run, with the combination of the crowds and the surreal weather proving a bit much both mentally and physically. I didn’t encounter any real issues, though I felt what might have been a ghost of a stitch as I neared the 4K mark, but it ultimately didn’t amount to anything.
Stats:
Run 857 Average pace: 5:50/km Training status: Overreaching Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW Start: 2:04 p.m. Distance: 5:03 km Time: 29:21 Weather: Sunny Temp: 19ºC Humidity: 48-46% Wind: light BPM: 152 Weight: 170.0 Total distance to date: 6170 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (310/573/883 km)
