Outdoor runs

Today is September 16, which means we are one day past the replacement of the foot bridges at Burnaby Lake, so I should have been able to run a full loop. However, I noted that the first six days of the scheduled work saw no evidence at all of any work, equipment or anything else that could be considered work-related in this matter. Therefore, I was prepared to see detours still in place today.

I still held out some optimism as I headed out, so chose counter-clockwise, hoping I might be able to do a full loop. Alas, no. The main and side trails were both blocked off, leaving only the Spruce Loop open on the north side. I could have done 10K there, but would have had to circle the Spruce Loop about 15 times. Which would have been interesting. And dumb.

(In reference to the title of the post, I’m unsure why they are working on both the side and main trails simultaneously, because they could easily keep the loop open by working on one, then the other. It’s not like they are replacing a dozen bridges that will take months to do. Also, the detour signs are placed where the main and side trails intersect, so a lot of people will walk the 500 m or so and then realize they have to turn around. If there was a sign at the dam saying the loop was closed, people could choose which way to go accordingly.)

I backtracked and went clockwise, choosing my turnaround point where the trail intersects with the path to the Glencarin parking lot, just west of the rickety old bridge over Deer Lake Brook, a distance that Google Maps tells me is about 275 m:

I maintained a pace very similar to Tuesday’s run, but conditions were quite different.

For one, it was only 13C when I started (and ended), marking the coolest run in a while. I should note that it didn’t actually feel cool–13C is still pretty mild. But it showered on the way to the lake and once I arrived, there was a brief actual downpour, so I was pretty much drenched to start. After that, it showered intermittently, but eventually eased off. It brightened a little, but remained overcast, which is what I was hoping for. There is something strangely awful about running in the rain, then having the sky suddenly clear, the sun comes out, the temperature shoots up, and the humidity remains sky-high (and ground-low). But this did not happen, it stayed cloudy until after I got home.

As I type this, it’s sunny, 18C and the humidity is 52%.

I was reminded of two semi-annoying things about running in the rain:

• My glasses get speckled with drops of water. There is really no good solution to this, other than not wearing the glasses (which I need). I can fudge it by looking over the top of the rims if it gets really bad.
• The Apple Watch is clearly not suited to rainy day activities. I locked the display early on, which means you can’t really interact with it during the run. Normally I only glance at it to check BPM or intervals, but sometimes I want to change the music or do something else, and you simply can’t. What happens if you don’t lock an Apple Watch in the rain? Fun (?) and weird things! When water drops hit the watch face, it will make the watch do utterly random stuff–launch apps, switch faces, things that would never seem possible from a few errant drops of water, but do, in fact, happen. It’s one of the leading reasons I am eyeballing a Garmin watch, which conspicuously lacks any touch controls.

I felt pretty good for the run and actually kept a fairly zippy pace, save for two km– at the 5K mark I had a pace of 6:00/km even, then inexplicably slipped to 6:17/km for the 6th km. I have no idea what happened here. I swear I wasn’t running this slow! Maybe the watch GPS went a bit crazy. After that, my pace picked back up, and I managed my fastest 10K for the year at 5:48/km. Overall BPM was a bit higher at 154 BPM, which is fine. I will probably ease up a little next week and stick to 150 BPM.

Overall, a fine run to end the week.

Fun Fact: If I take the total run distance I’ve tracked and drew a straight line across the country, I’d end up…somewhere in the water off Newfoundland.

Stats:

Run 715
Average pace: 5:48/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW and CW)
Start: 10:17 a.m.
Distance: 10.06 km
Time: 58:17
Weather: Intermittent showers
Temp: 13ºC
Humidity: 87%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 159.4
Total distance to date: 5252 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (360 km)

After taking yesterday off to recover from my many days o’ activity, I headed out this morning under sunny skies, pondering how best to do a 10K at the lake while negotiating possible detours.

I settled on running clockwise, knowing I could get at least 8K or more before hitting a possible detour. At that point, I’d probably turn around, do 2K more to finish the run, then probably walk to the nearest SkyTrain station and ride home, as it would otherwise be a lot of extra walking after the 10K.

But I didn’t need to do that, because there was a detour way earlier in the loop and although technically I might have been able to squeeze through, I chose to just turn around and head back, knowing I’d be able to finish the run relatively close to where I started.

They have been doing some sewer repair/replacement near the bridge at Still Creek:

Today they somehow were doing something right at the bridge itself, with a large truck and a giant hose or something. Who knows. I mean, the people operating it know, but I could not suss out what it was doing. It looked crowded, though, so I opted to just turn around. I was just past the 6K mark at this point, so it meant retracing about 4K of my route, then walking 5K+ after.

The weirdest part was probably not having a sense of where I was on the trail as I turned back, in terms of distance/pace.

As for the actual running part, conditions were downright reasonable–it started out at 18C and stayed there for the entire run. Humidity was around 72%, which is high, but fine when it’s 18C. I sweated, but not a lot. My first km was 5:38/km, but I felt good, so I only eased up a little. I slowed somewhat toward the middle of the run, and on the 8th km I hit 6:00/km. I was determined to not go over 6:00/km, so kept goosing the pedal, as it were, and finished with an average pace of 5:50/km, my best 10K of the year. Weirdly, the watch gave me an award for my fastest 10K ever, which it is definitely not, so the stats must have gotten reset at some point. Still, the award is very shiny looking:

My overall BPM was higher at 153, but was fine in context. Thanks to the cooler temperature, I did not feel at all like I was overexerting myself.

I’ve updated to iOS 16 and watchOS 9, so there are more stats to look over, like a breakdown of heart rate per km, rather than just overall. I’ll look through these and see how they make me feel about switching to a Garmin Forerunner 255, which I’ve pondered for a few months. SOMEWHAT FAKE EDIT: I don’t know if it’s a one-time bug or not, but the map of my route only shows the starting location and nothing else–no finish and no actual route at all. So that’s a bit of an oops.

Overall, a good run under pleasant conditions. I like it.

Stats:

Run 714
Average pace: 5:50/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, then CCW)
Start: 10:40 a.m.
Distance: 10.05 km
Time: 58:38
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 18ºC
Humidity: 72%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 160.1
Total distance to date: 5242 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (350 km)

Yesterday I felt off. I didn’t want to run, skip, walk, think or engage in any other similar activities.

I wanted to eat and just float away on a big puffy marshmallow cloud.

Today I vowed to change course and headed out in the morning, determined to do a 10K–and I did! But to say it did not go as planned would be an understatement.

First, the good news: I beat the heat. With a projected high of 29C, I made sure to get started no later than mid-morning. It was 17C when I started and 21C at the end. This kind of jump is very noticeable when it’s warmer, but starting at 17C, not so much. I actually sweated very little, so little I didn’t even need Nipple Guards™. I also ended up running mostly under canopy, so I probably could have skipped the sunblock, too.

I started counter-clockwise and as I approached the bridge at Silver Creek, near the start of the run, I saw tractor treads in the gravel–the work on the foot bridges had begun. Dun dun dun. I continued and at the fork between the main trail and the Spruce Loop, I noticed the treads heading down the Spruce Loop, so I took the main trail, being a smart runner and all.

But my smartness was to no avail. When I got to the next fork, between the main trail and the Conifer Loop, a sawhorse was blocking the main trail. Undaunted, I went down the Conifer Loop, only to find the Spruce Loop also had a sawhorse (with bonus KEEP OUT sign), forcing me to go back to the start of the trail. As I did, I contemplated what to do for the run and decided after hitting 2K just past the dam, that I would run clockwise until I hit the 6K mark, then double back to complete the run near the Avalon parking lot. A solid plan.

This is also the only time in recent memory that I’ve run twice over the dam. The new mesh they have on the surface to prevent ice build-up tends to kabong when you run over it.

But even this solid plan was thwarted, once again, by trail work. As I progressed along the Southshore Trail, I passed a sign reading MOWER WORKING AHEAD and rolled my eyes. Of course there’s a mower working ahead. I went a fair way without any sign of the mower (nor its melodic buzz saw song) and was beginning to think it was actually finished. But no, on a curve just ahead of the second boardwalk, there it was, just sitting on the trail, engine shut off, not mowing a thing. I don’t know why it was sitting on the trail doing nothing, but it had the trail completely blocked on both sides. I probably could have paused my run and gently picked my way through the vegetation on the sides of the trail, but this was close enough to where I was going to turn around that I just turned around, anyway.

I’m sure I confused some people, as I ran by a few up to three different times during all of this.

By the ninth km I was coming down the Avalon Trail again and was starting to feel tired. I don’t know if my body just assumed the run was over or what, but I was flagging and still had a km to go. I decided to run to the 0K marker, turn around and head back up the Avalon Trail, then turn with about 1 km left to make it feel like a “proper” finish. I even put on the gas a little for a final pace of 5:45/km, but my overall was 6:00/km even.

Still, considering how many times I had to change my route and backtrack, I’ll take it. I felt pretty decent otherwise, save for some creakiness in my lower back right toward the end (I think I slept funny/poorly). It was a perfectly cromulent way to end the week.

Here’s the map of the router. The long yellow stretch doesn’t really show it, but it actually forms a loop. Again, the maps of the runs are pretty terrible. Pour a couple of billion dollars you find under the corporate couch into improving this, Apple!

Stats:

Run 713
Average pace: 6:00/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (all directions--see post for details)
Start: 9:55 a.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 60:06
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 17-21ºC
Humidity: 64%
Wind: light
BPM: 150
Weight: 161
Total distance to date: 5232 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (340 km)

My first rule of running on statutory holidays is: Never run on statutory holidays. Today is Labour Day, which is a stat holiday. But it’s also a regular run day for me, the conditions looked surprisingly pleasant, and I didn’t want to reschedule, so off I went for a mid-morning start.

Today’s predicted high/low of 23/12 actually matches the average high/low for this day and indeed, it was an entirely pleasant 17C when I started the run, with humidity probably somewhere in the low 70s (and falling to 68%), and the temperature rising to a still modest 19C by the end.

The lower temperature, combined with a light breeze and partly sunny skies, meant the dreaded H+H combo (heat and humidity) did not manifest. It felt like the first time in a long while when I was running against my own limits, not those imposed by the weather conditions. It was very nice! Even my left hip kept pretty quiet.

I opted to forgo sunblock and that was fine, because the sun was low and not ever-present. I also elected to skip the nipple guards because they’re a nuisance and this was also fine–but only barely. While I sweated far less than on most summer runs, the place where I sweat most is around the chest and both nipples were feeling tingly by the end of the run, but nothing worse happened.

As for the people, the trail was definitely much more crowded than usual, but everyone was aware, courteous and all that. Even the few unleashed dogs (bad dog owners!) were well-behaved and caused no issues.

As for the trees, it looks like the rain that fell yesterday–the first significant precipitation we’ve had in many weeks–was too much for one tree, and it nearly took out one of the markers near the Avalon parking lot at the start of the trail. This is also pretty close to the Jiffy John™ and one can only imagine the horrors if the tree had clobbered that.

Due to its particular position that is in the gap between the parts I run, I didn’t have to negotiate it while jogging, I just stepped over it as I was heading out.

With a relatively blazing pace of 5:53/km–and running the “harder” counter-clockwise route, as well, I am quite pleased with today’s run. Here’s to more comfy weather and complication-free runs.

Oh, and the ex-tree:

Stats:

Run 712
Average pace: 5:53/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:30 a.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 59:00
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 17-19ºC
Humidity: 68%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 160
Total distance to date: 5222 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (330 km)

The weather finally changed today, giving me a break from my least favorite combo of heat and humidity.

It was a mere 18C and cloudy, with even the very slightest bit of drizzle around the 7K mark. It was refreshing! Even with the humidity at 78%, it was still fine. In fact, I sweated very little after the first half, thanks to the cooler conditions and a nice breeze.

The hip was present for the back half of the run, but it wasn’t exactly sore, more just there. More annoying was the right foot mentioned in the title–right near the start pf the run and until some point between the second and third km, the sole was hurting in some weird way, kind of like an arthritic kind of pain when I stepped on it. It wasn’t hugely hurting or anything, just random and annoying, as I’ve never had issues with the right foot. It went away and after that was back to normal.

The body is weird.

Speaking of weird, I decided to skip the side trail since I started back of the zero marker and because the sun wasn’t going to be beating down on me. However, after having a woman with a stroller suddenly push the stroller directly into my path at the last moment (she apologized as I deked around) and a couple with a dog mildly freaked on my approach, forcing me to awkwardly run between them, I abandoned the plan and cut up the newly-resurfaced connector trail that leads to the Conifer Loop, then stuck to that. I also stayed on the Piper Mill Trail. I’ve learned my lesson in experimenting!

And speaking of experiments, two kids were on a bike midway between the 6-7K mark, careening all over the place and laughing. I told them bikes weren’t allowed on the trail as I ran by, annoyed. I could clearly see their drunken path in the dusty trail right by the sandwich board that says NO CYCLING. I hope they rode the bike into the bush, punctured both tires, fell into a giant bush of poison ivy, then had a deer pee on them. Sure, I’ve never seen deer at Burnaby Lake, but this is my fantasy, so deer it is.

As for the run, my energy level was much higher thanks to the more favorable conditions, so I finished the full 10K without issue. I did flag a bit at the 7K and 8K marks, but picked up after that to finish with a pace of 5:57/km for the last stretch and an overall pace of 6:06/km, which is perfectly cromulent (and matches my 5K-shoulda-been-10K on Wednesday).

Overall, a nice way to end the week.

Stats:

Run 708
Average pace: 6:06/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:36 a.m.
Distance: 10.03 km
Time: 61:18
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 18ºC
Humidity: 78%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 160.4
Total distance to date: 5197 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (305 km)

I won an award for today’s run. Hint: It wasn’t for the fattest pace ever!

Now, my pace today was 6:10/km, which is fine, but far from spectacular. It’s a full 16 seconds off last Wednesday’s pace, in fact, so how did I manage to burn a record number of calories? Well, there are a lot of factors involved–hydration level, amount of sodium I’ve ingested recently and so on. And then there’s that one persistent thing that has accompanied me on pretty much every run this summer:

HUMIDITY

Go ahead, pretend I somehow re-enabled the <BLINK> tag on the above, to get the full intended effect.

Once again, high humidity plagued my run, and I have resigned myself to facing it for the rest of the summer. I’ll probably have to wait until the cooler temperatures of fall before it no longer factors into how my runs go. Today felt like a slog, due to the combo of warm temperatures, sun and the H-word.

That said, I did manage a full 10K and the left hip started out fine, then started being a mild bother about 2K in before settling down and not particularly being an issue for the last few km. What kind of threw me was starting farther up from my usual spot today due to trail work. Every time I’d expect to hit a milestone, I would still have a ways to go, and I ended the run right at the dam, instead of well before it. It felt weird and made the whole thing feel even more slog-like.

My pace was actually pretty consistent, though. Observe:

Also contributing to the slog-like effect today was the return of the No-wind. This is another peculiar phenomenon that has only occurred this summer. I mean, here we are two-thirds through the season, with little precipitation in the last month, and the forest fire danger is still only Moderate (one step above the lowest level, which is cleverly called Low).

Anyway, enough kvetching, here are the stats:

Run 705
Average pace: 6:10/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:58 a.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 61:47
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 22-24ºC
Humidity: 51-59%
Wind: nil to light
BPM: 152
Weight: 161.1
Total distance to date: 5172 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (280 km)

Quite often I will think about what I will write about a run while I’m still actually out running. For example, I knew that today’s entry would be titled “The internal battle” shortly before the running part ended (and when the internal battle also ended).

When I went out today, I was planning on taking it a bit easier, because I was expecting it to be warmer and still humid. In fact, the forecast this morning even specifically mentioned it would be humid:

When I left it was 22C, but it rose to 24C by the time I got to the lake and ticked up another degree during the run. Humidity was in the mid-60s, which is gross, but if you look at the previous run, you might be thinking, “Humidity was even higher then, yet you did a lot better. Why? Has science been lying to us all this time?” And the answer is: I don’t know why, exactly!

But there seems to be some magic line where if the temperature is X and humidity is Y, then the run will be POO. Today it reached into the POO zone. I did handicap myself a bit by running counter-clockwise, which is the “harder” route–it starts out all technical and windy and doesn’t offer any nice straight stretches until you get to the Cottonwood Trail about 3 km in. Conversely, running clockwise starts you on the Avalon Trail, which is perfectly straight, save for one gentle curve. After that, the trail tends to slope gently downhill for much of the way.

So, there was that. But I started out okay. The hip was fine for the first few km, then when I could feel it, it was muted, not really a factor. But the humidity really wore on me. By the sixth km, the bottom began to fall out, with a pace of 6:22/km. After 7 km, it had fallen further to a yuck-o 6:32/km. This is where the internal battle began and while it lasted only a few moments, it went something like this:

Sensible Me: You’re not going for a personal record, you planned on taking it easier today, there’s no shame in ending the run a bit earlier than planned!

My Ego: Do you want to be a quitter? You can make up time on the Avalon Trail. If you stop now, you’ll only have done one measly 10K this week! Sure, no one will really know or care, but YOU’LL know! Keep going, hoser!

My Ego, after some more thought: You know, if your pace continues to flag, it’s going to drag down your average and look bad. Maybe cut your losses now and look better!

Yes, in my mind, my ego calls me a hoser.

The call was pretty easy to make. My pace was falling off a cliff, so I listened to both Sensible Me and Me Ego, after some more thought. To prove the hip was fine, I did run a decent amount for the remainder of the 3K around the lake and felt fine.

However, when I was trying to do the same on the river trail, I started experiencing stomach cramps and about half an hour after getting home had to make a beeline to the bathroom to attend to an urgent nature call. So the roiling of my gut may have had some impact that I was not fully aware of, too. At least that’s what My Ego is telling me!

In the end, it was not a bad effort and I think if I’d run clockwise and conditions had been better, it would have been perfectly fine. But I’m content with settling with “just okay” after Wednesday’s faboo run.

In fun resurfacing news: I was surprised and delighted to see that they have done some patching along the trail that borders the athletic fields. As I’ve noted before, the trail here is narrow and floods even when they just run the sprinklers on the fields, due to strangely poor drainage. Sometime in the last two days workers came in and did a couple of things: they filled potholes, shored up parts where the trail is a bit sunken and laid down what appears to be a preliminary section of new gravel along the eastern part that right-angles past the row of trees that you can see in your favorite map software:

I’m hoping this is all leading to a Grand Resurfacing™. I should know the next time I am on the trail. It may seem weird that I am kind of obsessed with this, but until you’ve had to choose between going through a long, deep puddle in the middle of your run route or detour into a marshy field that will have you sink into water past your ankles, you just can’t appreciate the anticipation of this being addressed after more than ten years.

Stats:

Run 704
Average pace: 6:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:30 a.m.
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 43:44
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 24-25ºC
Humidity: 54%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 151
Weight: 162.2
Total distance to date: 5162 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (270 km)