Today was the first time I felt like I wasn’t shaking off the effects of being sick (really hoping for no “long covid”) and felt like just a good, solid workout.
I watched videos, was alternately amused and informed, and am now sweaty and satisfied (innuendo here).
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
Today was my first run since recovering from everyone’s favorite global pandemic virus, COVID-19.
It showered the entire time, which was not great, but it did give me a chance to try my new Outdoor Research jacket. I give it a solid B+:
I think the jacket will also work well as a windbreaker for when it’s cold, though I shouldn’t need it for that until the fall.
This was also the first real rain in which I was using the third gen AirPods, and they worked fine, so thank you, Apple, for your still overpriced tech!
For the run, I opted to walk to the end of the river trail, run the 2 km back to the North Road entrance, then figure out if I wanted to call it there or continue. I opted to call it there because it was my first run in about three weeks, only my second run of the year, my first one after recovering from COVID, and also it was pouring rain.
Still, I didn’t experience any issues for those 2 km, so I am encouraged by the result. My BPM was a tad high, but not too high. My pace of 6:03/km is about what I’d expect for the amount of running I’ve done so far this year.
Stats:
Run 674 Average pace: 6:28/km Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW Start: 1:12 p.m. Distance: 5:02 km Time: 32:27 Weather: Sunny with some high cloud Temp: 18ºC Humidity: 41% Wind: light BPM: 155 Weight: 173.5 Total distance to date: 4973 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (93 km)
As I type this, the Fitness app on my watch is reporting that I have completed:
This is not just higher than my average daily going-out-and-aboot, it’s way higher. Was I tied to a runaway horse? Yes! Well, no. I decided to go for a walk to Burnaby Lake, to take photos of birds and soak in nature for awhile.
Weirdly, I chose to start this at 7 a.m. (I got up and had breakfast at 5:30). I got there shortly after 8 a.m., spent some time at Piper Spit, took about 350 photos, then continued to walk the entire lake loop and back home, returning just after 11:30 a.m.
A few observations on this early morning trek:
I will post select pics in a follow-up post. Yesterday was bad, but today did a lot to erase the bad, or at least smear it around so it’s less easily identifiable.
The virus may still be showing up in rapid tests, but other than being a tad phlegmy, I’ve been feeling better, so back to the treadmill for me.
I returned to my usual settings and found I was still a bit slower (though faster than the previous workout). I suppose since I am still technically sick or whatever, it makes sense. It still bugs me. But I completed the full workout without any issues, so woo for that.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
The heart rate seemed to hiccup during my workout (not my actual heart, thankfully), resulting in some heart rate data probably getting missed. I think this also explains the overall slow pace, as I paused and futzed about trying to get it working again. I did get it running but was also basically at the end of my workout, and I’m not yet feeling groovy enough to commit to 5 km yet, so I just ended it and was all, “Oh well.”
Looking over the heart rate in the Fitness app, it looks like it stopped tracking BPM after about 11 minutes, then blipped on a few times intermittently before coming back on at the very end. So I suspect it was higher than the reported 102 below, but maybe not a whole lot. Technology!
The workout was otherwise fine. I may try running outside again in a few days, weather and health permitting.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
I felt well enough today to try doing a shorter workout, though without the incline, because I’m not exactly 100%.
It went fairly well. I don’t feel horrible after, or at least not as of this writing.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
UPDATE, April 2, 2022: As it turned out, I was probably already suffering from COVID-19 during this workout, so that probably had a wee bit of an effect on my performance, too. See here.
Here it is three days since I ran the 5K on Monday, and it is still affecting my workout performance. I am clearly not the iron man I thought I was. The solution is, I suppose, to run more.
But in the meantime there is today and on the positive side, I was able to run at the regular speed without my legs calling me nasty names, as well as do my now-usual 5K instead of the previous workout’s mere 3K. The downside was just generally being slower, as I’m obviously still not fully recovered from Monday. I am tentatively planning on running a 5K at the river tomorrow, but we’ll see if that happens and how it goes. The weather looks like it might be soggy, and I’m not sure if I’m prepared to run and suffer both sore muscles and rainfall.
As of today, I completed the month of March with 33 workouts. Pretty good! Note that a few were just outdoor walks where I’m walking at my usual manly pace, so not exactly beefing up the legs or anything. Still, averaging more than one per day is something I’m not likely to replicate reguarly.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
After making myself so very sore (see previous post), I opted to do a more namby-pamby version of my usual treadmill workout. At first I thought I’d just do a 30-minute workout and keep everything else the same, but when the treadmill ticked up to its full 6.5 speed, my legs said WHAT ARE YOU DOING WE ARE STILL VERY SORE. So I turned it down to 6 instead, which meant for a mellower, more soothing workout in which I sweated just a little. This is reflected in the stats below.
Since I was more limber by the time I did this workout (at around 8:30 p.m.) I’m hoping my legs will not be yelling at me in all caps tomorrow. We’ll find out soon!
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
Today, I finally did what I had been planning for the last few weeks–I went running in the actual outside part of the world!
My overall pace was quite slow and I kind of cheated a bit unintentionally, but I did run a full 5K. Here are my observations in handy list form:
I deliberately kept to a slower pace, but I think I was still a little too enthusiastic in the first km, and this led to me burning out a bit afterward. In terms of how I felt, the legs were fine (not on fire), stamina obviously still has a ways to go–those slow burn treadmill workouts have not done much to help me there. My right hip did creak a bit in the latter half of the run. I think this will probably sort itself out as I limber up. Time will tell. As will my hip, but hopefully not by screaming WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME.
Overall, it was nice to be back out. I suspect I’ll be a bit sore tomorrow, but will be back on the treadmill then, with another run hopefully set for Wednesday.
Stats:
Run 674 Average pace: 6:28/km Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW Start: 1:12 p.m. Distance: 5:02 km Time: 32:27 Weather: Sunny with some high cloud Temp: 18ºC Humidity: 41% Wind: light BPM: 155 Weight: 173.5 Total distance to date: 4973 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (93 km)
I lazed around most of the day and in the back of my head knew I would regret it at least a little because it would mean a late evening workout tyo complete my rings and not be a total fat slob.
And so here we are.
I kept tonight’s workout to 30 minutes, as this still put me at 10 p.m. with all the usual post-workout stuff to do, not to mention actual sleep at some point.
The workout went fine, though I have to admit 30 minutes (a little over 3 km) feels kind of short now.
Also, I’m running out of good videos to watch from my usual sources. I’m so demanding.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
I was originally going to go outside and run out there today and indeed, the weather would have been great for it, as it’s partly sunny right now and 13C. But late this morning I found myself with a bad headache, so I took some Tylenol, laid down on the bed and dozed away an hour or so of the day. When I woke up, I felt fuzzy-brained and the headache was not fully gone, so I had some soup and took more Tylenol.
By mid-afternoon the idea of going out had little appeal but my guilty conscience told me I should do something–and the headache was successfully muted–so I got on the treadmill.
The workout went better today, with no weird slowdowns, and my BPM was I think the lowest it’s ever been, so that was nice.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)
As per usual, I loaded up a bunch of videos for the workout and despite a somewhat slow start, was humming along after that. When I hit the 5K mark I was astonished to see a pace of 9:18/km–this is actually slower than the speed of the treadmill, which is set to a pace of 9:13/km. How did I defy physics?
I did lean down to scratch a leg a few times, but that couldn’t be it. I also leaned forward to scrub through the sponsored segment section of a Corridor Crew video. Now, I get it, these people need to pay the bills, but there are right ways and wrong ways to include sponsored segments if you insist on doing them.
The right way:
The wrong way:
Anyway, back to the workout. I am still a bit puzzled over the weirdly slow pace of that fifth km, which brought my overall pace down, but what can you do? Machines don’t lie. Well, they totally do, sometimes, but I don’t think that’s happening here.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5 Incline: 5 Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km) Time: 48:43 (47:05) Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km) Calories burned: 478 (335) BPM: 130 (120)