Exercise

The Return Run: The Sequel to the sequel

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

The strobe light run

Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 10ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 351
Average pace: 5:28/km
Total distance to date: 1075 km

Today I started my first full week of running and the weather was again perfect: 10ºC, no breeze and sunny skies. I did things a little differently by riding the SkyTrain to the Sperling/Burnaby Lake station and walking about 1 km to the Burnaby Lake trail, specifically to the bridge that serves as the unofficial halfway point of the 10K or so loop. I then ran along the north side of the lake, toward the Brunette River portion of the Central Valley Greenway, with the intent of doing a brisk cooldown walk for the 4 km remaining after the run.

All went according to plan and even though it still seemed to take ages for each km to be called out on the iPod, I managed to keep going without stopping, the cramps kept more in check this time.

As for the strobe light effect, there is a fairly long stretch along the north part of the trail that is nearly completely straight and the angle of the sun and proliferation of thin, leaf-free trees combined to create a rapidly blinking light effect on my eyes, constantly flashing like I was in a disco. It was almost seizure-inducing but had the neat side-effect of distracting me from the aches and soreness of being horribly out of shape, so it all worked out.

In other good news, I improved my pace by a good amount, knocking 10 seconds off my average pace.

Chart:

Feb 6
 Feb 3
1 km 5:06 5:06
2 km 5:15 5:21
3 km 5:21 5:31
4 km 5:25 5:37
5 km 5:28 5:38

Return to Burnaby Lake: Run edition

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)

A cold, wet and semi-triumphant return to running

(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.

Day 88 of 84

This is the last day I’ll do this, I swear.

Today started with temperatures well below freezing and another blanket of snow fell (damn snow) but we saw the return of a more typical weather pattern follow than has been seen in recent years as temperatures slowly rose and that snow turned to freezing rain and then plain old-fashioned rain.

Torrents of it.

This left the roads and sidewalks seas of slush. I opted not to return to running. I’ll monitor the weather over the weekend but with warming temperatures and the relentless assault of ‘liquid sunshine’ I suspect the snow will not be an issue for more than the rest of today.

Day 85 of 84

The first day I can officially start running again and the ground is too icy to run on. Plus I had to wait for a bed to show up during the daylight hours.

On the plus side it’s a pretty nice bed.

Day 84 of 84!

At long last the three months of non-running officially comes to an end today. I am relieved more than anything.

I had joked that on the day that I was first able to resume running again we’d get a major snowstorm. It turns out I accidentally predicted the future as Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Metro Vancouver tonight, warning of ‘significant snowfall’. Ho ho.

I’m also going to be busy doing that ‘wait for a vague but large block of time’ for delivery of a new bed tomorrow and on top of that am hoping to squeeze in the time to get to a career fair downtown, even though these things usually amount to a whole lot of not much.

So I can jog tomorrow but I’ll be up to my shins in snow and too busy, otherwise. Maybe I’ll jog in place inside for 10 minutes just to make the muscles know they’re there.

Day 79 of 84

Zounds, I am mere days away from being able to run again.

I am afraid and uncertain.

I will run either 2.5 or 5K to start. I expect to be sluggish and for my leg muscles to be sore afterward. I am going to wrap my ankles in titanium or something.

Burnaby Lake: The Duck edition

This afternoon Jeff and I did a brisk walk around Burnaby Lake, only the second time I’ve been out there since the last run I did back in September. It was raining when we headed out but I figured my winter coat and cap would be sufficient.

The trail around the lake was about what I expected — mostly dry with puddles and pools of water around the edges in numerous spots. There was only one place where we had to skirt along the edge of the trail proper to avoid slopping through a pool of water like an over-eager eight year old. We kept up a good pace, too, finishing up with 10.11 km covered at an average pace of 5.8 km/hr and taking 1:47 to do it. This was almost 15 minutes faster than our previous walk there. Zoom zoom. A few hardy walkers and joggers were out but I only noticed one person giving their dog a good soak in the downpour.

Speaking of which, the relentless rain did not ease up at all. By the end the bottom third of my jeans had absorbed every bit of water around, my cap was almost but not quite soaked through (keeping my head dry, woo) and my winter coat did in fact get soaked through to the point that my t-shirt underneath was wet. Stupid rain. I know it’s dumb to complain about it here but we seem to be getting downpours every time we plan on doing something outdoors. At least if it was snow it would be fluffy and kind of neat.

Day 73 of 84

Yes, a mere 11 days to go to reach the vaunted 12 week mark of No Jogging For You!

I was thinking about this earlier today but away from a calculator and my manual math skills being such that I’m a bit lost once I run out of fingers, I didn’t know exactly how many days I had left, just that it was less than two weeks. The feeling that first came to mind once I pushed aside the attempt to add/subtract/long divide or whatever it was I needed to do, was not one on anticipation but trepidation.

There is a part of my math-challenged brain that very legitimately fears that my little test run on January 17th will result in that ankle (the stupid one) feeling sore after. I’d probably give up on running altogether if that happened.

I hope that doesn’t happen.

2012: The Year -or- Day 69 0f 84

After managing a couple of bike rides and a hike without collapsing under my own weight (now a pudgy 160 pounds, 15 over my goal of 145) I am more assured that my return to running won’t be an embarrassment or worse, an embarrassment with injury. It’s hard to believe there are just 15 days left until I have completed my enforced sabbatical from jogging.

I am still expecting a huge snowstorm on the first day out.

Meanwhile, my lower legs were notably sore after the 500 steps hike but the right ankle seems to have come though in good shape. Getting back into running regularly in 2012 is one of my Big Goals, so this is a good sign. I think.

I’ll know in 15 more days.

Burnaby Mountain: 500 stairs, mud and hot chocolate


What better way to get wet than to go outside in December in Vancouver?

Today Jeff and I decided to get wet in style by hiking up Burnaby Mountain with his Vancouver Mountain Biking group. There were nine of us altogether and we started out near the base of the mountain on North Road. As with the bike ride yesterday the sky was again filled with clouds and the promise of much rain to come. As we headed out the weather held, though. Those of us dressed in cotton were thankful.

Burnaby Mountain is not exactly out in the boonies but the trails can still be rugged and demanding. There are points where the hydro wires are tucked out of view and the latest condo developments can’t be seen and you can almost believe you’re truly out in the wilderness. It helps if you stumble across a bear, too, which Jeff has done. The bears are smart enough to sleep through a Vancouver winter, though.

The ascent was on trails rated from easy to advanced. The easy stuff is just that — the grade allows for a leisurely pace and lots of idle chatter. When we reached Velodrome Trail (handy PDF of Burnaby Mountain trails) a sign at the bottom notified us that there were 500 wooden stairs leading up. Way up.

500 stairs is a lot of stairs. My excellent math and engineering skills tell me it worked out to the equivalent of 20-30 storeys. It took me back to the one time I walked up to the 15th floor of the apartment building I lived in ages ago. The one time.

When we reached the top we took a few minutes to pose for pictures, take in the totem poles and look up to the oh-so-expensive Horizons restaurant. That wasn’t what a bunch of sweaty, grubby hikers want so we continued on to the SFU campus in search of a simpler cafe. The SFU buildings were eerily quiet given the semester break and one hallway was completely unlit, as if it was auditioning for a part in a horror movie. We continued on until we got to Renaissance Coffee. They serve their free range/organic or whatever it was beverages in cups that feel all comfy and quilted. Jeff and I had hot chocolate, me going for the small, Jeff opting for hill giant size. I added a chocolate chip muffin, convinced I had burned sufficient calories on the way up.

Sated, we headed out and the rain had returned. Those of us who had brought non-cottony jackets donned them, the others prepared for The soaking. We headed down an unofficial trail that required lots of skidding, jumping and light praying. We all made it down intact, fortunately.

All told, it was a fun combination of easy and hard, everyone was friendly and chatty and no limbs were broken.

The stats:

Total distance: 11 km
Average pace: 3.7 km/h
Total elevation gained: 1132m
Total descent: 1201m
Total time: 3 hours

Small gallery of photos available here.