Outdoor runs

A not-so-turkey turkey run

Average pace: 5:03/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce Loop, Conifer Loop and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.04 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 10.5-16ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 364
Total distance to date: 2470 km

The Thanksgiving weekend has featured unusually pleasant weather given that mid-October is definitely into The Rains category. Today was no exception as I headed out on the first run in quite awhile to follow another on a normal schedule.

I started around the same time, a little past 11 a.m. and it was a touch cooler. Despite the temperature rising over 5ºC during the run I didn’t notice it much, mainly because even 16ºC is not exactly sizzlingly hot. It is, in fact, rather pleasant.

My goal on this run was to best my previous pace of 5:07/km. My secondary goal, as it turned out, was to not bump into other people as apparently everyone decided a sunny Thanksgiving was the perfect day for a stroll around the lake. While there were plenty of joggers, great roving bands of walkers were even more prevalent. A few times they even briefly blocked my way. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but it actually takes more than a few carefully positioned people to slow me down when running.

The run itself went fine. The left foot started out a bit sore again but it seems to level off a lot earlier now, so even at its worst it’s fine to run and even walk on, just annoying. Bollocks limbered up a lot quicker, too, and was not an issue. I achieved my target by setting an average pace of 5:03/km.

Sadly I am going away on a trip in another day that will last six days so I’m probably looking at another week between runs. Once back I should be able to get back into a more regular routine.

I look forward to some normalcy on my runs. Pretty please!

The cooler and faster run

Average pace: 5:07/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 12ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 364
Total distance to date: 2465 km

My plan today was simple: run 5 km and do it faster than last week’s super-sluggish pace. I was not feeling especially motivated to get outside but the sunny weather provided just enough to get me off my duff and I headed out shortly past 11 a.m. with the temperature a brisk 12ºC.

With the lower temperature I opted to wear my long-sleeved shirt but this proved unnecessary. I wasn’t overdressed or uncomfortable, I simply would have been fine with a regular t-shirt as it wasn’t that cool and I warmed up quickly.

I ran clockwise, starting precisely at the 0 km sign by the parking lot. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly, distractingly stiff Bollocks was. I ran somewhere between one and two km before it finally started to limber up and once it had it was fine. I still find it a little weird how this happens. It’s like it needs to be worked out to feel ‘normal’.

My left foot was being a bother before the run and remained so throughout but it never got so bad that it slowed me down. As I walked the remainder of the lake and back to the SkyTrain station (around 6 km, in addition to the 4 km to get to the lake) I was able to maintain a very brisk pace. That pleased me.

In the end my average pace was 5:07/km, a huge 12 second improvement over my previous pace, even if it’s rather mediocre for a 5K run. My next goal will be to nip a few seconds off that as I continue to work back into better form.

Despite being a sunny early Saturday afternoon, the trail was not overly crowded and everyone was polite and friendly. Overall I was happy with the experience. Also there are a growing number of black and brown striped caterpillars on the trail. I’m not sure if they’re hostile invaders or I just never noticed them before but they are beginning to challenge the black slugs for supremacy. The geese seem to have moved on.

The flabby run

Average pace: 5:19/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 6.15 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 18ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 444
Total distance to date: 2460 km

It’s been over two weeks since my last run and with so few runs over the last month and a half I am officially in kind-of-out-of-shape territory.

Witness today’s run.

Conditions were surprisingly pleasant. Our early winter temporarily retreated and it was a balmy 18ºC and sunny, with a light breeze blowing. It was entirely comfortable, weather-wise.

I walked to Burnaby Lake and pondered whether to do 5K or 10K. I chose 10K but knew I’d probably bail partway through. The run started out fine, though I could feel I was definitely off my usual pace. By the second km I could feel much more clearly that I was slower. I even started developing a stitch, something that normally only happens when I’m pushing too hard, which was absolutely not happening. My pace fell 9% in that second km and I decided a shorter run would give me less depressing results than a 10 or 11K run.

I felt an odd sense of obligation to make up for lost time once I reached Still Creek and the halfway mark, so I continued on, deciding to stretch the run to 6K and then walk the rest of the way around the lake. That last km seemed to stretch on forever, partly because I misjudged where I’d be at the end and partly because I just really wanted to stop running. I wasn’t in pain, I was just tired.

I did improve my pace in the last km, ending on a high note but with a terrible overall pace of 5:19/km (my prior run on September 22 was 5:05). The only real way to fix this is to run more. It’s more complicated now with the sun setting so soon after I get home but some combination of running around the golf course at lunch (the college is next to it), combined with treadmill runs at the Canada Games Pool and maybe runs at a lit track may help during the week, with the usual longer run on the weekend.

It’s hard to imagine my times getting even worse unless I take even more time off but there’s always hope!

The first day of fall run (2013)

Average pace: 5:05/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Cloudy, light showers
Temp: 15ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 364
Total distance to date: 2454 km

And 20 days later…

Having my next run delayed by a) a throat infection b( overtime at work and c) gorging myself at a birthday dinner, it was finally 20 days later that I took my first tentative steps back running. In that time we saw the end of summer (yesterday), which was a sunny and pleasantly warm day and the first day of fall (today) which was noticeably cooler and monsoon-like. The Rains have returned to the Lower Mainland.

As often on rainy days I held off, hoping to catch a break in the weather. By mind-afternoon such a break arrived and I headed out, opting to wear my newly water-proofed jacket, not because it was cold (15ºC is still pretty mild) but to ward off any incoming precipitation.

For the first 4 km it looked like it was actually clearing up and the jacket made me feel a bit warm, though not uncomfortably so. The last km it did start to shower but only lightly so the jacket was a bit of a wash, so to speak.

The biggest change I noticed today, apart from the changed weather (it was 26ºC and sunny on September 2, my last run day) were the leaves, Mainly they were everywhere, along with lots of branches freshly blown down by today’s storm.

Fortunately none of this proved to be a negative on the run. I did decide when I got to the lake to only do 5K to avoid pushing myself too hard and I switched back to my Nikes over the minimalist MT110s. I got off to a surprisingly strong start and held up fairly well, coming in with a 5:05/km pace that I deem perfectly acceptable. Bollocks was a non-issue, though the left foot was just starting to complain as I walked back to the Sperling/Burnaby Lake SkyTrain station.

Overall it was an encouraging return. Yay, I sez.

You don’t run on your throat (which is a good thing)

Another non-run update:

I didn’t run on Thursday as my recovering throat still felt a little too raw. At first blush it may seem odd that the condition of my throat would determine whether I run or not but consider: when I do an 11K run I am breathing at an accelerated pace for 54-60 minutes and the only way to reasonably scoop in the large amounts of oxygen I need to keep from toppling over is through my mouth, as my nose does not have elephant-sized nostrils (this is, on balance, preferable).

This means that for those 54-58 minutes my mouth and throat are exposed to a constant rush of air. A raw throat would move onto bloody raw after such treatment. Or so I suspect. I’m not willing to test my theory.

I do think I may finally be ready to head out Sunday, which will make it precisely two weeks since the last run, enough time to get me rested to the point of flabbiness. The forecast is for a high of 24ºC with the chance of precipitation starting low in the morning and climbing through the day. I’d likely run in the morning so it may be a bit warmer than seasonal but probably cloudy. Not too bad, then.

I still dread it.

And I finally get my feet/Bollocks looked at when my doctor is back from vacation on October 28th. I want a month-long vacation.

Just not the seven years of medical school.

The not-quite-running update, September 2013 edition

The last month has really sucked for running, as I’ve mentioned before.

I’ve only been out about once a week during this stretch instead of my more typical three times and this week when I was planning on getting back into a regular routine I got hit by a throat infection. I’m tentatively planning on resuming runs on Thursday, which will mark ten days since the last run. That’s enough to lose a decent bit of conditioning, although perhaps the rest will help offset some of that.

The current forecast for Thursday is for a high of 27ºC (unseasonably warm) and humid, the two things that go great together for a yucko run. But it would only be 5K so maybe it won’t be so bad. I’m hoping that writing this out will make this assessment seem more convincing. You know, I read it on the Internet, it must be true and all that.

The kind of tired of the humidity run

Average pace: 5:20/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.05 km
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 22-26ºC (felt like 23-28)
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 799
Total distance to date: 2449 km

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than to labor through a run? I started out later than usual, not leaving until around 11:30 and despite showers earlier in the morning it had cleared enough to convince hordes of people to head on down to the lake for a holiday stroll/jog.

I did indeed wear my new New Balance MT110s after using a second holder to move the Nike+sensor over to it. The results were mixed. On the one hand, I don’t feel the switch back to a minimalist shoe had any major effect on the run and yet my left foot was quite sore at the end, enough that I didn’t even entertain the idea of walking back, instead heading straight to the Production Way SkyTrain station.

However, my left foot was feeling a bit sore even before heading out, so I suspect the result may have been the same. I’m undecided on whether to switch back to the Nikes for my next run, which will probably be only 5K.

My time on the run was bad. After a lousy 5:16/km pace on Saturday, I was that much worse today, coming in at a pokey 5:20/km. The first km tells the story:

Saturday: 4:41
Monday: 4:57

Sixteen seconds is a dramatic difference. I started out like a tortoise and although I actually started to close the gap I still fell short. Why? Possibly the left foot, though it only really hurt after the run was over. Possibly the new shoes, though they actually felt fine to me. Possibly the stupidly high humidity.

Yes, that was the likely culprit. The humidity started out near 80% and though it dropped, it remained near 60% at the end of the run. That, combined with the sharp rise in temperature, generally being warmer and a breeze that was either minimal or non-existent made for rather unpleasant running conditions. I almost long for the days when it took several minutes just for my hands to warm up. Almost.

My only feeble hope at this point is that I can actually break the 5:00 minute mark on a 5K, though at this point even that may be beyond my reach.

This summer has kind of sucked for running.

UPDATE: The morning after the run and for the first time in quite awhile my calves are actually a bit sore. This is likely due to only running once for each of two weeks then doing two in three days. In other words I am falling out of shape. This may also have contributed to my lousy pace, though I’m still laying most of the blame for that on the Amazon-like humidity.

The rush hour run

Average pace: 5:16/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.32 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-24ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 818
Total distance to date: 2438 km

I pretty much hated everything about today’s run.

After a week of cooler, cloudy weather with showers tossed in, the weather strangely turned summer-like for the long weekend. I decided to head out relatively early to beat the heat.

The temperature matched my last run a week ago (more on that gap later), starting at 19ºC and rising to 24ºC. You notice that kind of rise. It also started out and stayed humid, which was the real problem. I started out not exactly fast but moving along crisply and felt light on my feet–a good thing. It was pleasant. As the temperature rose the effect of the humidity also rose and I began to flag.

I picked up the pace by the end but it was too late. I braced myself for the overall average: 5:16/km, a full four seconds slower than my last run. Bleah.

I’m going out again in two days and plan on breaking in my new MY110s (2013 edition). They’re a full size bigger than my last pair (9s instead of 8s) and I’m hoping the extra roominess will make my toes happier.

The gap in the run doesn’t have a good reason to go with it like “I was abducted by aliens and only just returned to the planet” or “I was rescuing orphans caught in a typhoon”. I was just indolent and unmotivated. This summer has been hard for running (I’ll expand on that later in a separate post).

The rush hour part was due to the number of people on the trail, quite a few more than I’ve seen recently. I chalk this up to it being a sunny Saturday and will probably stick to Sundays in the future, although as we enter Fall and the weather changes crowds of people on the trail probably won’t be a problem.

The actual run went okay for the most part. My left foot began to feel a bit sore toward the end and once more I skipped the walk back. This concerns me but it’s not affecting the runs yet. Bollocks was about the same as always, needing some time to warm up and then fine until my pace flagged. When my stride becomes more plodding the tendon definitely feels it a lot more. It doesn’t feel like it’s ever slowing me down but I do wonder. I haven’t been able to break five minutes on a 10K+ run in quite awhile and did it regularly last year so obviously something has changed.

Anyway, none of the geese chased or bit me so there’s that.

The eight days later run

Average pace: 5:12/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.16 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-24ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 806
Total distance to date: 2427 km

After last Sunday’s 3 hour 15 km hike at Brothers Creek I found my lower back suddenly hurting the next morning. Because of this I skipped my Tuesday run. By Thursday I was planning to resume regular runs but instead found I had a huge honking blister on my right foot. Running on that did not seem wise.

And so I ended up waiting a full eight days before running again. With the long layoff my only goal was to best my previous pace. To give myself a minor edge I set out earlier in the morning and started the actual run at Burnaby Lake at 10:13 a.m. This had a couple of nice effects. It started out cooler (though you can see above that the temperature climbed predictably rapidly by late morning) but because it was also clear the humidity was also down to a reasonable level. These things, coupled with a light breeze helped make this the most comfortable run in some time.

My time did improve, though not as much as I’d liked. I came in at 5:12/km, two seconds better than the previous run but I also ran 11K+ rather than the 10K of the last run. My left foot began to feel a bit sore toward the end–not enough to slow me down but earlier than it usually would. I wonder if the lack of runs had an effect there.

On the one hand I was hoping for better but overall I’m not too disappointed. I will likely be doing a few 5K runs before tackling another long one on the weekend. For those I’m hoping to at least get under 5K again.

The return to humidity run

Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Cloudy, a few sprinkles, humid
Temp: 22-25ºC (felt like 24-26)
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 725
Total distance to date: 2415 km

I was bad this week. I kept putting off runs after work due to lack of motivation and a few days of distinctly un-summerlike weather. And so it was that five days passed after my quite decent previous run.

I set out today a few minutes past noon with the temperature already climbing above the average but with the sky overcast and threatening showers. The tone was set a mere two blocks out as I started to sweat from the humid conditions.

Along the river trail I noted two changes. The tipped-over port-0-potty has been removed, likely until next summer (if it returns at all) and a crew had been by to fill the majority of potholes, no small task since there are approximately five million of them. This time they put a little more effort into the job as they used a crushed gravel mix that had a cement-like solidity. Each hole was filled to just overflowing then tamped down firmly. This compares to the previous job, where loose gravel was poured into the holes to less than full, so that any vehicle that passed over a pothole would shoot the loose gravel out from under its tires.

I started out the run trying to repeat last time with a brisk initial pace and was mostly successful, coming in at 4:39/km vs. 4:37/km five days prior. That two second difference became three on the second km. Not great and a sure sign this run would be slower but if I could keep it up for just a few more km…but the bottom fell out on the third km. Last Sunday I was at 14:21 but today I was a pokey 14:32, 11 seconds off. And I had eight km to go. Blargh.

The rest of the run was a variety show of weather–mostly clouds but occasional sun, a few sprinkles, no wind for the most part but an occasional breeze, including an especially welcome one that came just before I reached the Deer Lake Brook bridge. By this point my head and body both felt like they were starting to overheat from a combination of the rising temperature, high humidity and still air. I contemplated ending the run earlier about four times.

In the end I pushed on to the 10K mark and stopped there, walking the last km, mostly along the Avalon Trail. I knew my time would be mediocre at best and feared that adding another km would make it that much worse (it probably wouldn’t have but tell that to a heat-addled brain 10 km in).

My average pace ended up at 5:14/km, not quite the disaster of my 5:19/km pace a week and a half ago but still a letdown from last Sunday.

My next run will probably be a 5K in a few days.

The left foot behaved, though it started getting a little sore on the walk back. Bollocks* started stiff, loosened up, then started to mildly ache again for the last few km, possibly due to my sluggish pace, which seems to be harder on it. I don’t think it affected my time.

* my new official term for my right Achilles tendon until I come up with something better

The return to form run

Average pace: 5:03/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 11.06 km
Weather: Sunny, somewhat humid
Temp: 21-24ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 799
Total distance to date: 2405 km

This morning I was greeted by the shocking sight of rain showers. Normally rain showers rate very low on the shocking scale in the Metro Vancouver area but given that we had no rain at all in July and August thus far has been rather dry, I was surprised to see a fairly heavy shower merrily showering away until about 11 a.m. I pondered the pros and cons of running when the sun returned. On the plus side, cooler temperatures. On the con, higher humidity.

I wanted to at least “finish” yesterday’s run so off I went around 1 p.m.

(I forgot to mention that yesterday was the first run where the fire hazard signs had gone back up at the entrances to the trails. It is somewhat ironic that the next day I see the sign is after it had rained.)

The sun made quick work of any rain that hadn’t already soaked into the ground, so there was nary a puddle to be seen, apart from the top of the dam, whose uneven concrete serves to collect and retain water much like one would expect a dam to do. Even that had mostly dried up by the end of the run.

As I had to make use of the port-a-potty before heading out I opted to run clockwise, my less-preferred direction for assorted reasons. Given that two of the three previous runs were dismal and the other being salvaged through the expedient of ending it prematurely I did not have high hopes. I set off.

Immediately I felt different. I made a spontaneous decision to try a rare balls-out approach and deliberately run faster for as far as I could, hoping I could bank enough steam to get to the end without a total second-half collapse.

Surprisingly, it worked!

I was confident my 1K time was pretty good and when I hit the 4K mark shortly after starting along the second boardwalk I was suitably encouraged. This meant I’d covered over a third of the run without my pace appreciably falling off.

I thought that with the rain in the morning the shaded areas may feel cooler than they might otherwise and that the air in general would be fresher, despite the higher humidity (68-73%) and this was indeed the case. For once the humidity didn’t make the run feel like a slog. That, combined with a modest rise in temperature allowed me to keep the energy level higher until about the last km where the run finally started to catch up to me.

But it wasn’t enough to drag down my overall pace appreciably, which was my best in quite awhile–5:03/km. That’s a full 16 seconds better than my last 11K run. It was, as they say, just what the doctor ordered, at least in terms of encouragement.

The only down note was my right tendon began to feel sore for the last few km. Not enough to slow me down but a sign that the total distance over the last two days was probably more than it was able to comfortably manage. It’ll get a couple of days to rest so should hopefully be good by the next run.

The hopefully not de-motivational half-run

Average pace: 5:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: Sunny, humid
Temp: 22-23ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 399
Total distance to date: 2394 km

I was not looking forward to today’s run after the last two dismal outings but off I went just before noon under cloudy skies. It was still humid despite not being as warm and even before leaving the river trail I had started to sweat. This did not fill me with confidence.

I started out and hit all the early points where I wanted to (the most obvious one is hitting the 2K mark before reaching the bridge over Eagle Creek near Piper Spit) but around 4 km in I was feeling tired and the motivation to continue was waning. It didn’t help that the sun had come out, which made it hotter but did nothing to alleviate the humidity.

I made a vow to keep on and do the full run if I hit the 5K mark before or as I was crossing the bridge at Still Creek, the unofficial halfway point. I trod across the bridge and my iPod continued to pipe music into my ears but the Nike announcer lady remained silent. She then announced the 5K mark about three seconds after I had crossed the bridge, presenting me with a conundrum. Since I was so close, should I muster on and see if I could improve on my miserable pace from Tuesday or pack it in, settle for at least having a decent pace now and try to follow-up again tomorrow?

Feeling a smidgen of guilt over quitting, I pressed on for another half km, through the exposed section along the athletic fields, reaching the shaded area at the east end. And it was there that I decided to bail. The rest of the run along the southern side of the lake is generally more challenging with lots of small hills, twists and several areas where you are fully exposed to the elements and I feared the worst.

In the end I managed 5.5 km and an average pace of 5:01/km. Though that’s a full 17 seconds better than Tuesday’s run, it’s only six seconds better than my pace at the 5K mark on Tuesday (5:10 vs. 5:16). Given that the back half of the run is slower, I was probably heading to an overall pace of around 5:14/km. Better than Tuesday but still pretty mediocre. So on the one hand, I feel wimpy having ended the run early, but on the other I’m glad that I get at least a minor psychological boost by finishing with a pace that at least hints at being able to get under five minutes again.

I tentatively plan on doing another run tomorrow, length to be determined.

UPDATE: It’s Sunday morning around 11 a.m. and it is actually showering. How weird. I’m undecided on whether I am willing to run in the rain or not. There’s a novelty aspect to it after such a long dry spell but at the same time it’s running in the rain which is overall kind of yucky.