Run 443
Average pace: 5:45/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 8.05 km
Time: 46:21
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21-23ºC
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 155
Stride: n/a
Weight: 159.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 3536 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
Last year I famously set out on the first Monday of my vacation on a 10K run. You can read about it here. Spoiler: it ended in horrible pain and I didn’t run again until January of this year.
Today’s run was started with some trepidation, not just because of the anniversary of that Titanic-like run, but also because when I woke up on Friday morning that same hip/hamstring/whatever it is was aching again. I had felt fine after Tuesday’s run so it again seemed to be associated with something that happened in the night as I slept.
Friday’s walk at lunch was slower than normal because of this and when I ran my time again retreated back to my previous slower pace (though it was also quite warm). By Sunday the achiness had mostly cleared up but I was not to be lulled into a false sense of security!
The walk to the lake this morning went briskly and with no achiness, but the moment I started actually running it hit. The good news is the run did not end like last year’s. The ache modified and by the end of the run had mostly dissipated. The walk home was fine. I don’t think I am in for a repeat of last year but man, I’d love to just run and not have to worry about this stuff.
I may have made matters slightly worse by forgetting to stretch before the run. Oops.
Onto the run itself. I officially set out to do a 7K run, feeling I was still not up to a full 10K yet, with the idea that if I felt good I would run farther. The whole hip thing made me think I’d stop at 7K but I was actually feeling decent by the time I’d covered 7 km, so I pushed on to do 8K and stopped there. Surprisingly, my pace was slightly better than Friday, coming in at 5:45/km. I started to feel a little slothful around 6K but kept pushing and got a nice second wind. I stopped at 8K simply because I didn’t want to push it. I’ll probably set 8K as a goal for Wednesday and see if I can make 10.
Much as it was last year on BC Day, the trail was fairly crowded, with a particularly large number of joggers, including one who was aiming for a head-on collision with me because he wasn’t following the stay-on-the-right rule. Perhaps surprisingly, nearly every runner at the lake does this. The naughty left-side runner darted out of the way in time. And again, no cyclists. Yay!
I am not really sure what to expect on Wednesday. I just hope I can emerge intact, however far I run.
