Outdoor runs

Run 695: 10K threepeat!

I actually really dislike the world “threepeat.” 😛

But I did indeed do my third 10K run this week, the first time I’ve done such a feat since…August 2017, apparently. Yikes.

I ran counter-clockwise and the weather was similar to Monday, overcast, cooler and even more humid than before. For the first half I sweated like a person who has devoted his entire existence to the idea of sweating as much as possible. Once I got onto the south side of the lake, the sweating diminished, possibly due to a combination of breeze and the humidity starting to ease up a little. I assiduously kept my pace to a heart rate of around 150 or slightly under and discovered two things:

  • After stopping to tie my left shoelace at the 2K mark, I apparently felt zippy enough to get my BPM up to 162. I had to make myself slow down!
  • The trail along the south side of the lake is a lot more technical (very windy and with lots of small hills and dips), so maintaining that BPM of 150 meant my time dipped during this section.

I do like sticking to a specific BPM, though. I think it makes it easier to gauge performance, while insuring I don’t get goofy and overdo it.

As for how I felt, pretty good! In the final km I did push a bit on the speed and that’s the only time I felt a little soreness in that left upper thigh. Apparently if I stick to 150 BPM I remain in the “upper thigh is content” zone.

Overall, a good run and a nice finish to my most runningest week in five years (which is still kind of crazy to think about).

Stats:

Run 695
Average pace: 6:02/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:24 a.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 60:36
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 17-18ºC
Humidity: 74%
Wind: light
BPM: 149
Weight: 164.8
Total distance to date: 5095 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (208 km)

Run 694: For the first time in two days, another 10K!

View from Cariboo Dam, just prior to starting the run.

It was forecast to get up to 28C today, so I opted for a mid-morning run to beat the heat. Here’s my run report in handy list form, because I like lists.

  • Good News: I ran another 10K. Yay! I can now say it’s been two days between 10K runs, instead of 988 days.
  • Less-Than-Good-News: Around the 5K mark, an upper left thigh muscle began to twinge a bit. It settled after a few km and is fine now. I blame my body for being weirdly asymmetrical. It may also not surprise you that I am also left-handed.
  • Bad News: None, really. This run felt a lot harder than Monday due to the warmer temperatures (though they were not bad), but mainly the still-high humidity. Humidity is like a superpower designed to drain all energy from your body. It works very well!
  • Fun Fact: For whatever reason, I mistype “humidity” almost every time. I didn’t this time because I was concentrating hard enough for Mavis Beacon to sit up and notice.
  • Trail update: They are putting the final touches on the trail resurfacing near the dam. Where will they resurface next? (Please please please be the trail along the athletic fields.)
  • Sensitive subject: A few years ago I had a weird issue when running if my chest got wet, whether through perspiration or precipitation–my nipples would become strangely sensitive. It almost feels like this might be making an unwelcome return. It’s both weird and annoying. So far it is only hinting. I will give it a hint to go away and see if that works.
  • Award time: I got an award in the Apple Watch Fitness app for most calories burned in a running workout, 723. I find this somewhat odd that it didn’t happen years ago. Maybe I have more calories to burn now.

Award:

Finarly I did it.

Stats:

Run 694
Average pace: 6:12/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:00 a.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 62:08
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22-25ºC
Humidity: 64%
Wind: light
BPM: 150
Weight: 165.6
Total distance to date: 5085 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (198 km)

Run 693: For the first time in 988 days, 10K!

I knew it had been awhile since my last 10K run, but was astonished to find that it was on November 3, 2019 (Run 642)–988 days ago. Yikes. Reading the entry for that run, there’s nothing to indicate why it was my last 10K run. The next entry, three weeks later, does refer to having recovered from a pulled back muscle and pulled upper thigh muscle, so that those would seem to be it.

I’m not sure why I then spent the last 50 runs continuing to skip 10Ks, because at some point I must have been ready.

Regardless of the long delay, today was that day. I knew I wanted to at least match Friday’s 7K and was feeling pretty good as I started out, running at a moderate pace, and keeping the heart rate below 150. It turned out to be a fairly easy decision to keep pushing and end up doing a full 10 km for the first time in that 988 days. I experienced no issues during the run and feel fine as I write this later that same day. My pace was even decent, at 6:05/km (I was not focusing at all on being speedy, but seemed to find a good rhythm).

The weather was unseasonably cool heading out, and it was kind of misty to start, with the cloud cover quite low. It brightened up toward the end of the run, but remained cloudy and cool. The cooler temperatures actually helped during the run–sweating was minimal, even despite the high humidity.

I didn’t see many others on the trail, so it looks like swapping in early fall weather in the middle of July is the key to keeping people away.

Really, the only downside today was not being able to take any pictures. Well, I could have taken some from the dam or turtle nesting area, but they look pretty much the same as always. I was delighted to see that they are indeed resurfacing the trail right up to the dam, with much of it already done well ahead of the August deadline. Now they just need to work on the stretch around the athletic fields and the entire lake loop will be good until the next big storm wrecks everything.

Stats:

Run 693
Average pace: 6:05/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:32 p.m.
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 60:56
Weather: Overcast, some drizzle
Temp: 16ºC
Humidity: 86%
Wind: light
BPM: 146
Weight: 165.8
Total distance to date: 5075 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (188 km)

Run 692: Now with bonus running

I opted to head out for my run in the morning again because:

  1. The upstairs neighbors were being just annoying enough to provide incentive to get out
  2. The afternoon looked like it might be wetter than the morning (this proved accurate)

As mentioned previously, I planned to ease up on the pace today and try to push past 5K for the first time this year. I succeeded on keeping the pace lower, with a commensurate drop in my BPM. After a very light shower at the start, the run settled into being cloudy and somewhat humid, though the sun did eventually poke out a few times, so I was right to not skip the sunblock.

As I closed in on 5K, I checked how I felt and decided I could keep going. I checked again at the 6K mark and still felt good, so pushed on. At the 7K mark I felt fine, but it seemed like a good point to stop, as I wanted to end the run feeling like I could have done more, rather than doing more and regretting it later.

Still, 7K, woo. As a bonus, I had less walking for the rest of the lake loop.

No issues at all during the run and despite the slower pace and BPM, I still finished with a perfectly respectable pace of 6:05/km. In fact, my pace actually increased at the end.

Two items of note: A pair of women were jogging alongside the field just past the 5K mark, and a bunch of geese were gathered by and on the trail. The women smartly maintained pace, waved their arms slightly as they approached, and the geese that were on the path reluctantly gave them (and me) room without any hissing or drama.

The second note is the trail resurfacing is almost complete. For some reason, they stopped just a few feet short of the bridge at Silver Creek. I don’t know if they plan on resurfacing the trail beyond that and up to the dam–it’s never been done in all the years I’ve run here, but maybe this could be the year! It would cover up a lot of goose poop if they did.

Stats:

Run 692
Average pace: 6:05/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:13 a.m.
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 42:44
Weather: Cloudy, some sun, some sprinkles (not the candy kind)
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 56%
Wind: light
BPM: 149
Weight: 164.6
Total distance to date: 5065 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (178 km)

Run 691: Breaking fast

Today my plan was to go longer, not faster (off-color joke goes here) but once again I was accidentally a lot faster on the first km than expected, at 5:43/km. The good news is my BPM was low, so I eased up a bit and was around 6:03/km for the next couple of km. On the fourth km I weirdly sagged to 6:17/km. I swear I wasn’t moving that slow! But I noticed it put my rolling average at 6:01. This meant if I pushed a bit on the final stretch, I might be able to break the six-minute mark for the first time at the lake this year.

I changed plans and went for faster. My final km was a zippy 5:38/km, bringing my average to…

5:57/km. Finarly I did it! Woo!

It probably helped that it was not as hot or humid as Monday. I also had no issues at all–no cramps, weird mystery pains or anything else. It was nice.

My plan for Friday is to again try for longer, not faster. I’m going to try for 6 km, possibly 7 km. We’ll see how I feel.

Stats:

Run 691
Average pace: 5:57/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:59 p.m.
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 30:00
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Humidity: 56%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 166.3
Total distance to date: 5058 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (173 km)

Run 690: The sweatbox

When nature calls before a run at the lake, I use the port-o-potty located at the corner of the Avalon parking lot (pictured above in all its glory). It’s just off the trail and near to where I start, regardless of whether I’m running clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Today was such a day, so I popped in and well.

Have you ever wondered how they clean port-o-potties? Neither have I. But if you figured they just house the thing down, you’d be right. Apparently I was the first one to use the port-o-potty this morning post-hosing. It was already warm–22C–and as you can see from the photo the potty is sitting in the sun. Plus it’s humid again, around 69% at the start of my run.

What this meant was that when I opened the door to the port-o-potty it was like stepping into a greenhouse set to emulate the very end of our future climate meltdown. The entire interior was dripping with water and the humidity felt like it was sitting right around 2000%. No one had even broken the wrappers on the toilet paper yet!

I got out of there quickly, afraid I might pass out otherwise.

Oh yeah, and then I did a run!

I went counterclockwise today and originally thought I had miscalculated because the Cottonwood Trail was mostly in direct sun, but the Avalon Trail at the opposite end was much the same, so no matter which way I was going, it was going to be with lots of sun. I was smart and wore sunblock, though!

As this is the first run of the week, I focused more on keeping a steady pace and hitting a specific heart rate range. I surprised myself by still being faster than expected and knew that if I did a burst in the last km I could break the six-minute mark, but it was very humid, I was out in the open sun at that point, and my energy was being steadily drained, so I only put on a bit of a boost and finished with a pace of 6:01/km.

Other than just feeling drained by the humidity, there were no other issues on the run, a pleasant and welcome surprise. I passed a few other joggers, plus a bronzed Adonis sans shirt who also chose to run. I’m not jealous at all of his perfect abs. Who wants to be perfect, anyway?

Stats:

Run 690
Average pace: 6:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:28 p.m.
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 30:17
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Humidity: 60%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 165.9
Total distance to date: 5053 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (168 km)

Run 689: Unplanned intermission

Today I decided to go clockwise around the lake and started without any complications–well, except for one. I forgot to put the phone in the belt, so it would have jostled in my pocket throughout the run and been a terrible distraction. I realized this and paused the run around four seconds in. Phone secured, I started off again and was astonished when the first km came up and I found my pace was 5:43/km–this was way faster than I intended.

Fearing burnout, I eased up to 6:03/km for the second km, then it happened.

Yes, I had to heed nature’s call. I paused the run, then had to search for a discreet location. Since much of the Freeway trail is closed due to sewer work being done (how appropriate), I went up a nearby connecting trail and took care of business. I resumed the run, but rather than feeling refreshed, I felt a bit off and a little crampy. The crampiness was not run-related. My pace slowed a bit more, dragging to 6:14/km for the fourth km. Even though I finished at 5:57/km, my overall pace fell a little shy of breaking the six-minute mark, But so close!

The humidity also did not help. At times, it felt like the 60% humidity was closer to 600%. I suppose this is marginally better than having my mouth go dry, but I have a water bottle now! And haven’t really needed it to date.

After walking the first km post-run, I began to feel a bit better and ran fairly consistently after that. Perhaps next week I’ll finally start pushing beyond 5K.

Still, it’s another week of 5K runs under my belt, my body is intact (and lighter) and I maintained my schedule even after an unplanned shifting of each run day.

Stats:

Run 689
Average pace: 6:02/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:44 p.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 30:22
Weather: Sun and cloud
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 60%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 166.2
Total distance to date: 5048 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (163 km)

I know crampiness isn’t a real word, but I have to say, I am delighted by the suggestions that LanguageTool came up with as replacements:

Run 688: Early, zippy and a little damp

I got up around 5 a.m. because I had a headache and couldn’t sleep. I took some Tylenol, caught up on my email (this went rapidly, because most of it had not yet arrived), then after an early breakfast did something truly wacky: I went for a run!

Because the weather was showery, I opted to run on the river trail today instead of doing a full loop at the lake–it’s still a 5K run, just with less walking on either side of it. When I started, it was 7:50 a.m. So early! And as luck would have it, the rain tapered off as I started my run (and only sprinkled briefly again around the 3.5 km mark).

I wore my long-sleeved shirt, but in retrospect would likely have been fine in a t-shirt. It was 15C, and did not feel cold at all. As befits the river trail, I moved faster, and turned in a pace of 5:45/km–my fastest of the year–and with my BPM actually a little lower than my last lake outing two days ago.

As a bonus, I ran without my phone, so the watch GPS had to do all the work and apparently the “no weather recorded on runs” thing may be phone-specific, as the weather stats were recorded for this run.

In all, I’m glad I went out. I dodged the rain, had a good run and have the entire rest of the day free to loaf around and eat bags of cookies.

(I won’t eat bags of cookies, I promise.)

Stats:

Run 688
Average pace: 5:45/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 7:50 a.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 28:55
Weather: Cloudy, light showers
Temp: 15ºC
Humidity: 94%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 167.5
Total distance to date: 5043 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (158 km)

Run 687: Apple Watch out!

The first run of the week, a day late because I was totally not feeling it yesterday, or in the parlance of 2022, the VIBES were not happening.

Today, the VIBES were on, and I headed out under very nice conditions, with mainly sunny and warm but not hot weather. It was also just humid enough to stave off the dreaded DMS (Dry Mouth Syndrome).

But starting the run was thwarted by technology, specifically my Series 5 Apple Watch. I decided to run clockwise because I didn’t feel like running the fairly long and straight stretch on the north side known as the Cottonwood Trail. I wanted more twists ‘n turns and stuff.

So I headed out from near the dam and noticed that my heart rate was not being picked up, which happened the last time I ran clockwise as well. Annoying, especially since I heavily monitor my pace based on current BPM now. I decided to pause the run to see if the sensor could detect that I was an actual living person, but accidentally tapped End Run instead of Pause Run. As I’ve noted before, the buttons are beside each other and the End Run button does not ask, “Are you sure?”, it just ends the run. YOU ARE DONE.

Here I was, then, about a minute and a half into a run and having to start over. I mulled and decided that I’d just go counter-clockwise anyway. Shortly into the run, the ever-advancing trail resurfacing team had moved closer to the start and I had to dodge the guy operating the machine that compacts the trail surface nice and flat. I cannot think of what this machine is called. It’s like a steam roller, but without the steam. Or the roll. But it basically does that same thing.

After passing this minor obstacle, the rest of the run was trouble-free, with the only issue being my shins feeling very slightly sore near the beginning, but feeling fine once I’d warmed up (and they feel fine post-run).

My pace was pretty consistent, though a bit of a burn at the end (5:52/km) put me at an average pace of 6:07/km. Pretty decent, especially given the humidity. I sweated copiously. When I finished I had enough gas in the proverbial tank to run pretty consistently the rest of the way around the lake. I also supped on every drinking fountain along the way.

And I wore sunblock!

I see no evidence of further burning at this time. Hooray!

Stats:

Run 687
Average pace: 6:07/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 1:42 p.m.
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 30:48
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 22ºC
Humidity: 55%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 167.4
Total distance to date: 5038 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (153 km)

Run 686: Anomaly

The mind is a funny place.

I didn’t really feel like running today. I even thought of taking the day off. But I got dressed, went out and progressed through this chain of thought:

  • I’m kind of tired, maybe I won’t run today
  • Maybe I’ll run the river trail–in and out in about one hour
  • OK, I’ll walk to the end of the river trail (about 2K) then start my run
  • All right, I’ll run at the lake, but I’ll do a short loop, where I run 2.5 km, then turn around and retrace my route back, avoiding the extra 5 km of walking around the rest of the lake
  • Well, looks like I’m running a 5K around the lake and doing the full walk back!

And I actually felt pretty good, most notably due to it being 18C instead of 32C like it was on Monday. I decided to start at a moderate pace, then judge how I felt after the first km, and go from there. But something weird happened. When the first km dinged on the watch, I looked and saw my pace was 6:43/km. This is not just slow, it’s extremely slow, like “barely running” slow, and I am sure my pace was better than that. I also noted that the total time so far in the run was over seven minutes, which should not have been possible unless I was RUNNING THROUGH TIME. My BPM was fine, so I picked up the pace and blasted to the finish line with a pace of 5:46/km for the final km. This brought my average pace to a reasonable 6:10/km.

Still, I am pretty confident that first km was off by a good 30 seconds or so.

Despite the weirdness, I otherwise felt fine and my overall BPM was basically the same as on Monday, despite having a much better pace. I am feeling some soreness (not pain) in my upper thighs from all the running, but suspect that the muscles will adapt soon™. If they don’t, I’ll begin to ease off on the extra walking and stick more to just the 5K part.

Stats:

Run 686
Average pace: 6:10/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:05 p.m.
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 31:00
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 18ºC
Humidity: 55%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 168.6
Total distance to date: 5033 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (148 km)

Run 685: I am not dumb

When I first started running in 2009, I was dumb. I was dumb because I would run too hard, too fast and wouldn’t give myself time to recover. This resulted in various ailments, ranging from shin splints to cramps and just running (ho ho) myself ragged.

Today I knew the predicted high was 33C and decided to go out for a run, anyway. But because I am no longer dumb, I had already planned to just walk if I found it too hot and uncomfortable.

An early tip-off to how it might go came when I first headed out down Fader Street. I could feel sweat beading up after only a few blocks. But I was walking out in the sun and on a sidewalk, pretty much the worst conditions for heat in the city.

It was better at the lake, especially with plenty of shade from the trees, but it had also climbed to 32C by the time I got there. I started off with a moderate pace and actually came in at 6:10/km for the first km, faster than expected. I dropped on the second km and a bit more on the third, but my BPM stayed steady, peaking around 150. Still, as I passed the 3K mark, I could feel my energy being sapped by the heat/humidity combo, and I also realized I had miscalculated by thinking running clockwise would provide more shade, and that the last 1.5 km of the run would be pretty much out in the open. I ended the run at 3.19 km and walked the way out. I drank 50 liters of water after.

Until the heat finally got to me, it wasn’t too bad—I experienced a little dry mouth, but there was just enough humidity to keep it from being gross and awful. Still, I saw a few other joggers, and they all looked kind of miserable or miserable/stoic. I imagine I looked the same.

And this is where I am no longer dumb. I knew when to call it, instead of stupidly pushing on and then feeling horrible after. As it was, I only felt a need to drink a swimming pool’s worth of water. The walk home, which was now over 11 km, did seem to stretch on forever at times.

But I’m glad I went out and at least tried to keep to my current run schedule–and managed 3/5ths! The weather is due to change tomorrow and go back to seasonal temperatures, so this should be the last Xtreme Heat™ for at least a few weeks.

Stats:

Run 685
Average pace: 6:22/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 1:50 p.m.
Distance: 3.19 km
Time: 20:21
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 32ºC
Humidity: 33%
Wind: light
BPM: 146
Weight: 168.6
Total distance to date: 5028 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: 5Brooks Caldera 5 (143 km)

Run 684: Three in a week, plus pooped

I headed out in the morning again, aiming to beat the predicted high of 26C today–and I did. It was around 20C, which is warm for the morning, but perfectly fine. Humidity was high enough to prevent DMS™ but not so high to make me sweat like some great big sweaty thing.

I did decide that since this was the third run of the week and my third also at the lake that I would moderate my pace a bit, in order to not blow the proverbial gasket or other analogy to a part of my body. This worked. And like the previous run, I also felt more confident picking up the pace and surprised myself with an average pace of 6:12/km, which was nice as I was running counter-clockwise, which is the “harder” more technical route.

I didn’t encounter any issues during the run, except for one near the end, where a tree had fallen across the trail, making me test my jumping skills.

Overall, I’m pleased that I was able to stick to my preferred running schedule. The weather helped, as it’s not terribly motivating to get out and run when it’s raining.

Stats:

Run 684
Average pace: 6:12/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:20 a.m.
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 31:09
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-20ºC
Humidity: 56%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 169.5
Total distance to date: 5025 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (140 km)