Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.3 km
Weather: High cloud, somewhat humid
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 802
Average pace: 4:51/km
Total distance to date: 1426 km
Ran: Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loop.
June continues to be Random Weather Month. Where Wednesday was unseasonably cool and drizzly, today was warm and humid. The only common factor was no real sun to speak of (we’re at about half the usual sun for the month, apparently).
I maintained a decent pace for the first half of the run and may have bested my record but the second half felt a lot harder with the humidity. There was a point where I definitely felt I was pushing hard to maintain the stamina needed to keep up the pace. It was the kind of condition that I would probably adapt to fairly quickly except, as I said, June runs give you something different weather-wise every time you go out.
The left foot felt better overall today and was reduced again to mild irritant for just the last stretch of the run.
The title comes from the model airplane guy who was flying his plane again out in the athletic fields. I’ve seen him a number of times but while running by I’ve never managed to catch sight of the actual plane — until today! I watched as he circled it low and brought it in for a landing. It touched down on the grass, rolled forward slightly then flipped over, tail over nose. Since it was almost at a standstill I’m going to guess it was not damaged at all by this. Had it been a real plane mayhem and death would have been much more likely. What’s odd is that as I was walking down Fader Street en route to the lake, a mere block from home, I noticed someone putting a large model plane into the back of an SUV and driving off. Unless New West has a sudden influx of model airplane fliers I’m pretty sure it was the same guy down at the field. The plane itself appeared to be based on a WWII fighter, though I couldn’t ascertain the actual model. Something British or American seemed likely based on what I was able to glimpse. The wingspan was probably over a meter.
Apart from the model aircraft the run was otherwise unremarkable. Several stretches of the trail have been transformed into Cottonwood seed hell (or heaven, depending on how you regard cottonwood seeds). Let’s just say if each of those seeds successfully grew there would be a strong lobby to change the name of the planet to Cottonwood. Fortunately the zany high number of seeds did not cause a repeat of the mysterious throat incident of the last two runs and I finished with my second best pace to date at 4:51.
Tiger Woods also piped up at the end of the run: “This is Tiger Woods. Congratulations, you’re faster than me being chased by my ex-wife!” I may be paraphrasing a little but apparently I put in (or tied) my fastest mile at 7:29. I also noticed my fastest 5K is now under 24 minutes at 23:54.
Chart:
| km | Jun 15 | Jun 13 | Jun 11 | Jun 6 | Jun 4 | Jun 1 | May 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4:34 | 4:35 | 4:34 | 4:37 | 4:37 | 4:42 | 4:37 |
| 2 | 4:45 | 4:48 | 4:47 | 4:45 | 4:42 | 4:46 | 4:45 |
| 3 | 4:50 | 4:54 | 4:56 | 4:49 | 4:45 | 4:49 | 4:48 |
| 4 | 4:52 | 4:51 | 4:57 | 4:51 | 4:47 | 4:51 | 4:49 |
| 5 | 4:51 | 4:50 | 5:03 | 4:49 | 4:49 | 4:51 | 4:50 |
| 6 | 4:48 | 4:49 | 5:01 | 4:49 | 4:51 | 4:52 | 4:50 |
| 7 | 4:54 | 4:51 | 5:07 | 4:51 | 4:52 | 4:53 | 4:51 |
| 8 | 4:56 | 4:55 | 5:10 | 4:54 | 4:53 | 4:54 | 4:52 |
| 9 | 4:54 | 4:58 | 5:14 | 4:53 | 4:53 | 4:55 | 4:52 |
| 10 | 4:58 | 4:57 | 5:15 | 4:52 | 4:54 | 4:56 | 4:53 |
| 11 | 4:52 | 4:58 | 5:09 | 4:45 | 4:54 | 4:56 | 4:52 |
