Exercise

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)