Outdoor runs

Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Sun and cloud mix
Temp: 5ºC
Wind: calm
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:44/km
Total distance to date: 1110 km

Today’s run was much the same as Friday’s but with one change — I ran counter-clockwise. I was interested to compare this to my last few runs because CCW around the lake requires a smidgen more effort as it is has a fair bit more uphill parts.

This turned out to have no impact, as I easily beat my previous average pace by 9-10 seconds (iPod =10, Nike+ site= 9, me=wishing Nike would fix this nonsense so the two would agree with each other).

Animal-wise, the geese were back. No hissing incidents though a (likely mated) pair crossed in front of me when the trail intersected a path leading to a viewpoint on the lake. There was enough space between them to charge forward but I moved around instead because I wasn’t in the mood to test how quickly a goose can snap its head forward and pack me in the leg. The clouds of bugs were back in the usual spots and I swear they have mutated to giant size. Yuck. I’d say I hope the cold kills them off but that’s mean and spring starts tomorrow so also quite unlikely.

Not that it felt overly spring-like. A mix of mostly cloud and a little sun and hovering around 5-6ºC, still unseasonably cold for this time of year. The last few km of the run were hard but I worked to maintain pace and managed to stave off cramps though I felt a little bloaty because I foolishly drank a little Coke Zero before heading out.

Chart:

	Mar 19	Mar 16	Mar 7	Mar 5	Feb 6	Feb 3
1 km	5:10	5:08	5:06	5:02	5:06	5:06
2 km	5:20	5:22	5:22	5:17	5:15	5:21
3 km	5:26	5:32	5:30	5:24	5:21	5:31
4 km	5:31	5:37	5:33	5:30	5:25	5:37
5 km	5:34	5:42	5:35	5:33	5:28	5:39
6 km	5:36	5:47	5:38	—	—	—
7 km	5:38	5:49	5:40	—	—	—
8 km	5:41	5:51	5:42	—	—	—
9 km	5:43	5:52	5:45	—	—	—
10 km	5:44	5:53	5:47	—	—	—

Bonus chart! It seems the Nike+ site now shows split times for your runs. Neat. No idea how accurate the data is but here it is, anyway. I have used a new plugin to generate the table called Websimon tables in the vain hope that it would make table creation a bit easier. What would be nice is if the Nike+ site allowed you to export your data to…anything. Maybe in the summer.

[ws_table id=”1″]

Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Sun and cloud mix
Temp: 6ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:47/km
Total distance to date: 1090 km

With conditions about as good as you can get for the first week of March, I set off on my second return run today and I had a nutty plan.

I was originally planning on running 5Ks this week to work on getting my stamina back up but I felt surprisingly good after Monday’s run so I devised a plan that would encourage me to run a full 10K.

First, I set the actual Nike+ sensor to track a 10K run instead of 5K. I’ve done this before and nothing bad happens if you don’t run the full length, you just don’t get the countdown in the last km if you quit early and your run report shows it was set for 10K when you only did 5K, you wimp.

Next, I plotted my route. Unlike Monday I did not take the SkyTrain to Burnaby Lake. Instead I walked there, a distance of about 4K. Once there I chose to start out on the south side of the lake and would quickly reach a point of decision: I could either run 2.5 km, turn around and get the 5K that way or I could keep running to get the 5K and if I was too tired to continue could walk the rest. But that would put me halfway around the lake and mean I’d have about a 10 km walk back home (and no transit tickets or money to cheat my way out of it). So this would encourage me to keep running to…avoid walking.

And it worked!

As the chart below indicates, my pace was slower even from the start vs. my 5K on Monday but that was deliberate. I wanted to avoid cramps if possible and the more measure pace did just that. You can also see after the initial few km of ‘oh god this is what it feels like to be running again’ my pace moderated and settled down.

In comparison to my first-ever 10K on December 30, 2009, I was actually three seconds faster — not bad for not running one in six months (and considering that first 10K was just the capper on regular runs that had me going up to 8K).

Temperature-wise I didn’t need the gloves I took and the jacket was probably optional, though I wasn’t overly warm wearing it. The air still had that last kick of winter in it. As the title of this post suggests, though, it is now warm enough for the bugs to be back. I had to wave them out of my face a few times but had no intake incidents.

Chart:

	Mar 7	Mar 5	Feb 6	Feb 3
1 km	5:06	5:02	5:06	5:06
2 km	5:22	5:17	5:15	5:21
3 km	5:30	5:24	5:21	5:31
4 km	5:33	5:30	5:25	5:37
5 km	5:35	5:33	5:28	5:39
6 km	5:38	—	—	—
7 km	5:40	—	—	—
8 km	5:42	—	—	—
9 km	5:45	—	—	—
10 km	5:47	—	—	—

Distance: 5.02 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 6ºC
Wind: gusts up to 50+ km/h
Calories burned: 351
Average pace: 5:33/km
Total distance to date: 1080 km

A funny thing happened a month ago.

I completed my run on February 6th and all seemed well. I had improved on my previous time and seemed back on track for a )hopefully) successful year of running.

The day after that run I was walking to the store to get a loaf of bread or BreadQuest as I like to call it. As I walked I felt a funny little twinge around my right ankle. When I got home I poked and prodded and discovered that the spot on my ankle that had been sore — and that I had just taken three months off from running to allow to heal — was every bit as sore as it ever was. Not wanting to risk further injury, I very reluctantly decided to hold off on further running until I could have it looked at.

This time I chose not to go to a walk-in clinic but to sign up with an actual doctor, the same one my partner has had for years — keep it in the family, so to speak. We had a consultation on February 29th and he told me the likeliest cause of the soreness was a small hernia. Unless it gets severe there is no specific treatment apart from icing it and basic monitoring. So I was cleared to run again. Woo!

Today I did just that. It was a chilly but sunny day and also windy as heck, with gusts over 50 km/h. I do not like running in the wind, so I waited until later in the afternoon, hoping it would die down. The good news is it clouded over in the meantime. Wait, that’s not good. As I headed out I quickly realized a single layer was insufficient and came back to grab my jogging jacket and a pair of gloves. The jacket was a good move, the gloves proved unnecessary as my route around Burnaby Lake proved an excellent windbreak due to the copious stands of trees alongside Cottonwood Trail.

The route I took:

• Sapperton to Sperling/Burnaby Lake SkyTrain station. Total calories burned: about 10.
• Sperling SkyTrain station to Cottonwood Trail at Burnaby Lake (approx. 1 km). Walked briskly.
• Cottonwood Trail at Burnaby Lake, north side: 5:02 km.
• Central Valley Greenway to home (approx. 4 km). Walked briskly.

My average pace of 5:33/km was down from my previous run of 5:28 but considering I’d been off for a month, that’s not bad (and better than the run prior to that when I came in at 5:39). At the 2K mark the cramps became fairly bad so I walked them off for 15-20 seconds and then finished the run without any further issue. The legs feel fine now, no soreness or pain.

I expect a little soreness tomorrow. And a good sleep tonight.

My next run will be on Wednesday if all goes well.

Chart:

	Mar 5	Feb 6	Feb 3
1 km	5:02	5:06	5:06
2 km	5:17	5:15	5:21
3 km	5:24	5:21	5:31
4 km	5:30	5:25	5:37
5 km	5:33	5:28	5:39

I decided to wait an extra day before running again for two reasons: first, to give myself an extra day of recovery after my first run in Quite A Long While and second, to get myself back into the Monday/Wednesday/Friday pattern I had been following last summer.

I walked the 3.5 km or so to the Central Valley Greenway but once there was put off by the appearance of a tractor and pickup truck trundling along the narrow roadway. Since the construction crews are going to be working there for a good long time I walked the extra distance to Burnaby Lake proper, my old stomping/jogging ground of last summer, back when my stupid ankle was not being stupid.

I planned for a basic 5K and conditions were ideal: it was a few degrees cooler than Tuesday but well above freezing and the sky was completely cloud-free. There were several moments when I could feel the actual warmth of the sun. Spiffy. I brought along gloves but removed them shortly after starting the run. This time freezing up was not an issue.

My greatest moment of concern came at the 1.76 km mark. The cramps had returned and unlike the band these cramps were neither musical nor fun. I paused the workout and walked for about 10 seconds, getting my breath under control, then resumed at a deliberate pace. I managed fine the rest of the way and reached that magical point where I knew I could do the total 5K. I even tasted a wee bit of that old stamina.

I expect my calves to be sore as all get-out in the morning.

The ankle still feels fine.

My overall speed, as mentioned elsewhere, can be described as ‘brisk tortoise’ with an average pace of 5:39/km. I deliberately started out a bit slower in order to minimize cramping and you can see a couple of impressively massive dips in speed as my out-of-conditioned body plodded on. But plod I did and in the last few km you can see how I hit my plateau and the pace flattened out just like it ought to (only about 30 seconds slower than I’d prefer). I declare my second run of the year a success.

Stats:

Total time: 28:23
Distance: 5.02 km
Calories: 351 burned

1 km	5:06
2 km	5:21 (+15)
3 km	5:31 (+10)
4 km	5:37 (+6)
5 km	5:39 (+1)

(I’m writing this the day after the run to capture how my legs feel on…the day after.)

It was cool and a hard rain was blasting down from the heavens, as is often the case at this time of year. I waited and waited some more, aware of how much daylight I had left and how much time I would need.

By 3 p.m. the rain was still falling steadily but had eased up from moonsoon-like to merely light. I knew if I put off running again — I was already two weeks past my ‘all clear’ time frame — that I would keep finding excuses.

So I ran.

I wore a long-sleeved T-shirt and shorts and definitely did not feel underdressed. My hands, in fact, felt like blocks of ice shortly into the run. If I run again in similar conditions I’ll bring along a pair of gloves.

I chose to run the Brunetter River portion of the Central Valley Greenway, a 2km stretch illustrated below via Google Maps.

View Larger Map

I had planned on running 5K and the run started well. I had a spring in my step, I was listening to one of my most favorite songs evar (Guadalcanal Diary’s “Litany (Life Goes On)” and I felt good for just having made the commitment. By the 1 km mark my hands were numb, my lungs were ablaze and I was experiencing unpleasant cramps. None of this was surprising, really. Three and a half months is long enough to lose pretty much all of your conditioning. By the time I got back to the main gate I decided to call it quits with only 2K completed. While it’s quite a bit less than what I planned, it’s a start and I’m confident I’ll last longer next time (which should be Thursday).

As for how the legs feel: Goods new, everybody! /Farnsworth

The ankle is perfectly fine and I only feel some very light stiffness in the leg muscles. So far so good. Hopefully 2012 will be a good year for jogging, as long as the Mayans are wrong.

The meager stats:

1 km: 4:58 min/km
2 km: 5:16 min/km

Total time: 10:39 min. (woo, hardcore)

The first km is actually a pretty decent pace but the crash became very evident shortly after I passed the halfway mark and the reality of not running for 100 days caught up with me. But hey, even the 2K time is still better than some of my runs of yore so I’m still more fit than I was back in the pre-run days.

Distance: 11.08 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: slight
Calories burned: 774
Average pace: 5:19/km
Total distance to date: 1053 km

I have discovered of late that the longer I go between runs the harder it is, as if I lose my conditioning faster by not running as frequently. On the plus side I have also noticed that I recover quicker than before in terms of soreness/achiness and the like.

And so with four days off since my last run I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty and it wasn’t. In terms of discomfort it was probably the worst run I’ve had in quite awhile — and yet I still managed to beat my previous run by three seconds on average, probably due to the lower temperature and running Burnaby Lake clockwise, which slopes more downwardly. And despite the lower temperature I still felt hot and sweaty. A rare light breeze came up but only long enough to be a tease. It felt like a portent of changing weather.

Along the way I felt a nagging pain in my right shin but has subsided dramatically over the course of 24 hours, leading me to cautiously believe that it was sore and not hurt. I also had a weird phantom twinge of pain flare up during the first half of the run in my left upper thigh. It came out of nowhere and left the same way. I think it may have been responsible for the absolutely huge drop between my first and second km — 8 seconds, which may be some kind of record. By the end of the run I had my stamina back and was starting to feel a bit better but overall it was a dismal affair.

I knew things were not going to go well when I could not select a playlist at the start of the run. Apparently my iPod did not sync properly so I had to run for 60 minutes with only the sound of my own wheezing to serenade me. I did not prefer this to music.

Here is hoping the next run is an all around more pleasant experience.

Chart (All runs at Burnaby Lake except those in blue which are at China Creek):

km	Sep 12	Sep 7	Sep 2	Aug 31	Aug 26	Aug 19	Aug 15	Aug 11	Aug 8
1 km	4:49	4:52	4:52	4:51	4:51	4:50	4:55	4:54	5:04
2 km	4:57	4:56	4:57	4:53	4:55	4:54	4:57	4:55	5:05
3 km	5:02	4:59	5:00	4:57	4:58	4:57	4:58	4:58	5:07
4 km	5:05	5:02	5:02	4:58	5:01	5:00	5:02	5:00	5:09
5 km	5:07	5:06	5:03	4:59	5:05	5:01	5:05	5:02	5:11
6 km	5:09	5:08	5:04	5:01	5:08	5:03	5:06	5:03	5:12
7 km	5:12	5:11	5:06	5:03	5:10	5:05	5:08	5:04	5:14
8 km	5:14	5:13	5:07	5:05	5:12	5:07	5:09	5:06	5:16
9 km	5:16	5:16	5:08	5:06	5:14	5:09	5:11	5:08	5:16
10 km	5:17	5:18	5:09	5:08	5:16	5:11	5:13	5:08	5:17
11 km	5:19	5:20	5:10	5:10	5:18	5:12	5:14	—	5:17
12 km	—	5:22	5:10	5:11	—	—	—	—	—

Distance: 12.73 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 890
Average pace: 5:21/km
Total distance to date: 1042 km

It seems summer was shifted forward one month. After a tepid and cloudy July, August was pretty nice and September so far has been spectacular, with temperatures well above normal for this time of year. That’s the good news. The less-good-news is the run at Burnaby Lake was very warm (25ºC when I started), very humid and generally uncomfortable until the final few km when the lateness of the hour meant it finally started to cool a little.

I decided to run counter-clockwise (the usual way) and after having done the previous two runs clockwise I can now say with certainty that clockwise is easier. The south side of the lake has a low but steady uphill slope which serves as a braking mechanism in the latter part of the run. Going in the other direction, the north side of the lake has one much steeper but shorter climb and nothing else noteworthy, being mostly flat. I suspect my sluggish pace would have had a few seconds lopped off it had I run clockwise.

And sluggish it was. Despite starting with a typical 4:52/km I immediately gained four seconds on the next km and added three or four seconds for every km after until the 5 km mark, dooming my overall time (at 5 km my pace was a lowly 5:06/km). I plodded on and on the plus side my shins did not feel nearly as tender as on the previous run and I’m only experiencing some minor soreness now. I also managed my longest run once again, adding 400 m for a total distance of 12.73 km, so that was pretty good. The number of slugs was down, too.

I also had a train running alongside me on the north side of the trail for the first time. Weird that it hasn’t happened before. The clacking of the wheels on the track is oddly soothing. I also jogged by a horsey near the end of the run. Yes, a horsey. And apparently there is a law forbidding men from having horses now because every one I see has a woman attached to it.

Chart (All runs at Burnaby Lake except those in blue which are at China Creek):

km	Sep 7	Sep 2	Aug 31	Aug 26	Aug 19	Aug 15	Aug 11	Aug 8	Aug 4
1 km	4:52	4:52	4:51	4:51	4:50	4:55	4:54	5:04	4:51
2 km	4:56	4:57	4:53	4:55	4:54	4:57	4:55	5:05	4:54
3 km	4:59	5:00	4:57	4:58	4:57	4:58	4:58	5:07	4:59
4 km	5:02	5:02	4:58	5:01	5:00	5:02	5:00	5:09	5:04
5 km	5:06	5:03	4:59	5:05	5:01	5:05	5:02	5:11	5:07
6 km	5:08	5:04	5:01	5:08	5:03	5:06	5:03	5:12	5:09
7 km	5:11	5:06	5:03	5:10	5:05	5:08	5:04	5:14	5:11
8 km	5:13	5:07	5:05	5:12	5:07	5:09	5:06	5:16	5:13
9 km	5:16	5:08	5:06	5:14	5:09	5:11	5:08	5:16	5:14
10 km	5:18	5:09	5:08	5:16	5:11	5:13	5:08	5:17	5:15
11 km	5:20	5:10	5:10	5:18	5:12	5:14	—	5:17	5:16
12 km	5:21	5:10	5:11	—	—	—	—	—	—

Distance: 12.33 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 862
Average pace: 5:10/km
Total distance to date: 1029 km

I knew I would feel more discomfort in my shins tonight because of the two back-to-back runs a few days back and sure enough that is how tonight’s run began. In fact they felt so tender I wondered if I would even complete the run at all. You can see this early on where despite starting with a decent time I add an impressive five seconds after the first km. The achiness never got worse so I managed to keep my pace stable. Then something weird happened.

The endorphins kicked in, I found my zone or something clicked because I managed to make up for that slow stretch over the rest of the run and recovering from a sluggish start is something that doesn’t happen very often. By the end of the run I not only managed to match my previous pace, I ended up exceeding it (the iPod actually said my average pace was 5:09/km before the Nike+ site cruelly rounded it up to 5:10). With the pain receding and my energy bursting I felt like I could have kept on going strong (my pace for the 12-12.33 km stretch was 4:44) but knowing I might regret this performance in the coming days I cooled my jets.

I ran the loop in reverse again and am almost leaning toward preferring it this way, though I can’t say exactly why just yet. During the 12+ km stretch there is only one small spot where you have to cross a road that leads to the rowing center and it’s usually dead quiet there. Tonight as I emerged from around a blind corner (carefully, as it is a blind corner) a motorcycle came roaring around with the driver evidently one of those “There can’t possibly be anyone else ever on the road!” types, as he came far too close to me for my liking. I later nearly had a fellow jogger smoosh into me doing the same thing on another blind corner. Pay attention, people! Please. 🙂

Chart (All runs at Burnaby Lake except those in blue which are at China Creek):

km	Sep 2	Aug 31	Aug 26	Aug 19	Aug 15	Aug 11	Aug 8	Aug 4	Aug 1
1 km	4:52	4:51	4:51	4:50	4:55	4:54	5:04	4:51	4:51
2 km	4:57	4:53	4:55	4:54	4:57	4:55	5:05	4:54	4:52
3 km	5:00	4:57	4:58	4:57	4:58	4:58	5:07	4:59	4:56
4 km	5:02	4:58	5:01	5:00	5:02	5:00	5:09	5:04	4:58
5 km	5:03	4:59	5:05	5:01	5:05	5:02	5:11	5:07	5:00
6 km	5:04	5:01	5:08	5:03	5:06	5:03	5:12	5:09	5:01
7 km	5:06	5:03	5:10	5:05	5:08	5:04	5:14	5:11	5:04
8 km	5:07	5:05	5:12	5:07	5:09	5:06	5:16	5:13	5:06
9 km	5:08	5:06	5:14	5:09	5:11	5:08	5:16	5:14	5:07
10 km	5:09	5:08	5:16	5:11	5:13	5:08	5:17	5:15	5:09
11 km	5:10	5:10	5:18	5:12	5:14	—	5:17	5:16	5:10
12 km	5:10	5:11	—	—	—	—	—	—	—