I finally got off my figurative butt and inserted a graphic as part of the masthead for the blog. As of this writing it is a photo I took at Buntzen Lake during a hike in January. I am planning on rotating through a number of images. I’ll probably jazz up the site a bit more in the coming weeks, though I am undecided on how best to do this. I can’t decide between animated gifs or auto-playing midi files. If only the <BLINK> tag was still supported.
In case the image mentioned above isn’t the current one, here it is below (click for full-size):
Okay, I was actually just running clockwise, which is opposite the way I usually run. Or no longer the opposite now, as I’m alternating direction on each run.
This week I’ve shifted my run days from Monday/Wednesday/Friday to Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. One reason is just to deviate from routine for a change, the other was to give me an extra day of rest in preparation for a 40-minute run today. Dun dun dun!
I did about as well I had hoped for — my pace up to the 5K mark was nearly identical to previous runs at 5:25/km while I slowed down to 5.31/km overall, not bad for the additional 2.28 km added to the run. My legs were a little tired for that extra part of the run but felt fine afterward. I think I’ll maintain the 40 minute runs this week and consider bumping up to the full 10K next week.
For a change of pace I was not congratulated at the end by the Nike+ program for completing another 500 km. I was disappointed. I’ll never reach 2,000,000 km this way! I’m pretty much used to running clockwise now, though I think I still prefer the usual counter-clockwise. The trail was in decent shape after a light shower earlier in the afternoon.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise):
Still unseasonably cool but with the sun out it was more than warm enough out for today’s catch-up run. Despite it being sunny and the last week of May I still saw some guy at the park wearing a heavy black winter jacket. Dude, it’s 13, not -13! As is typical of Vancouver, another guy was sitting at the edge of the field, tanning his shirtless and incredibly pale upper body.
The opening km of today’s run was slower (5:07/km) than the previous (5:01/km) but the end result was the same – 5:24/km, although the Nike+ site decided to round up the result yet again (to 5:25). I’m sticking to 5:24, dangit. And Joan Benoit Samuelson congratulated me for completing another 500 km, the fourth time she has done so in the last five runs. By the end of next month I figure I will have run enough to have circumnavigated the globe. Thanks, Joan!
The last couple of km I was beginning to feel a little tired but was actually maintaining a slightly better pace than the previous run. I seem to have reached a peak with the 5K runs, though, and will have to consciously push harder to improve my times or contemplate switching to 8 or 10K runs. I’ll make a decision by Monday.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise):
This CBC news story outlines what most people in BC already know — April and May have sucked, weather-wise.
So far in April and May, the mean high daily temperature has been 9.2 C, which is 3.5 C below normal, while total rainfall of 183.1 millimetres is 120 per cent above normal, [CBC meteorologist] Martin said.
While writing this I heard a sudden clatter outside — hail! Again. I go out and take a picture:
The weird streaks in this image of a tree out back are not photographic artifacts. They are weather. At this time of the year one should not be hearing the weather, one should be feeling it as the warmth gently caresses your skin, rather than assaulting it like God’s BB gun.
I’m sure June will be better, assuming the ice caps don’t melt in the meantime and just flip the switch right over to GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE RIGHT NOW and the joke about Canadians living in igloos becomes a sudden reality.
My shin was tinging a bit (tinging is the best word I can think of to describe it) after Monday’s run so I decided to give it an extra day to evaluate before running again. It turned out to be a good decision not because of a potential injury but because the weather yesterday sucked corn dogs, with the official weather recording 9.7 mm of rain. It dried out sufficiently that the trail today was dry and in about as good a shape as it gets these days.
I’m going to try to use a standard format for the weather. I’ll see if I can stick to it. Thus:
Cloudy with some sun
Temp: 11-14ºC
Wind: light
I ran clockwise and was pleased that Monday’s performance did not appear to be a fluke, as my legs and stamina both held up. I shaved a few seconds off the first km, coming in at a fairly zippy 5:01/km and also knocked two seconds off my previous average pace, dropping to 5:24/km from 5:26. The legs feel fine now, so I should be in good shape going forward. If my times remain where they are or improve, I’ll start giving thought to ramping back up to full 10K runs again.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise):
I was not looking forward to the run today because I’d made essentially zero progress in the last few and was concerned about having another sluggish jog.
The weather was mild, 15ºC, a light breeze and cloudy. Because of Important stuff, like watching cartoon movies. I ran in the morning instead of the afternoon, but was back to the usual direction, counter-clockwise.
I knew based on where I had completed the last run that this one was going to be a nice improvement. Boosting that, my legs did not feel like lead at all and I managed to push — a little — during the last km. My breathing settled earlier, I had a better start, it was an all-around much-improved run.
The overall pace of 5:26/km easily beat my previous of 5:37/km and a good part of that came in a much faster opening km of 5:03 vs. 5:15 previously.
My next run I’ll be running clockwise (backwards) again, so it’ll be interesting to see how my times compare. I suspect they will be worse but we shall see.
Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise):
Today’s run was on the warmest day of the year yet, with temperatures around 20ºC in the shade and probably a few degrees warmer in the sun. There was little in the way of breeze, which was nice after the last gust-o-rama.
After hurting my left shin a few times I had theorized that I was perhaps making injury more likely to happen by always running on the same path and in the same direction, which would lead me to favoring the same side (and leg) over time. Today I began the nutty process of testing this theory by running clockwise around the path at China Creek park and it felt genuinely weird for the first few laps. Oddly, despite the beautiful conditions, I did not encounter any other joggers, though there were numerous people out tanning, throwing Frisbees, kicking soccer balls and otherwise exercising or hanging out.
Speaking of encounters, I came across that weird bubble phenomenon where people outdoors think of themselves as being the only person out there and thus pay absolutely no attention to anything around them. In this case it was a little girl who was part of a larger class out exercising. She walked onto the trail directly in my path. I had enough time to put a hand on her shoulder and stop the inevitable collision.
The run itself went perhaps marginally better than I had hoped. I figured the combination of it feeling warmer than usual and running in the opposite direction would lead to a slower run but I maintained a 5:37/km pace. Stamina was an issue early on but fine for the latter part. The lead legs kicked in midway through, though. I tried pushing a bit in the last km or so but my legs were less than willing to agree with my brain’s clever plan to improve my overall time. At least I’m not getting slower.
Except for my starting km. I’m not sure why my time is so slow there, unless it’s a subconscious effort to not burn out early or something.
The fear of burning came at the end of the run when I looked at my arms and they were red. I thought I had managed the neat trick of burning them on one of the few sunny days we’ve actually had this spring, but they were simply flushed and have resumed their normal pale appearance.
Chart (purple indicates the run was done clockwise)
Ran my first full 5K since January 25th and oddly enough my pace was exactly the same as that day – 5:37/km.
The weather was actually spring-like with the temperature around 17ºC. It was a bit breezy, however, with The Weather Network reporting winds up to 20 km/h. I most noticed this when running the northern part of the trail and the wind was blowing against me. It’s mostly a psychological thing, though at the end of the run the wind was strong enough to blow the water coming out of the fountain back onto my hand. It also leaves your mouth parched like nobody’s business. The sun, though pleasant, was not hot enough to be uncomfortable. It was nice ducking into the shade of the trees lining the trail, too. And speaking of the trail, the few dry days have managed to make it much easier to run on, although it’s still bumpy in spots.
This was also the first official day of the year for Extremely Pale Shirtless Guy Tanning at China Creek.
For the run itself, I felt slow. My opening km was 5:13 vs. the 5:04 in January but the pace in the second half settled down instead of continuing to fall off a cliff. Despite the slowness I didn’t encounter any problems.
And one last post on the May 2nd federal election. The Conservative majority has been trimmed slightly from 167 to 166 after a recount gave another Quebec seat to the NDP by a margin of a mere nine votes. This is why voting is important, people! (Ignore the fact that it changes nothing in terms of actual power distribution in the upcoming parliament.) The NDP now have 103 seats, tying it with the biggest Opposition Party ever (with Joe Clark’s 1980 Conservatives).
Don Davies, the MP for my riding of Vancouver-Kingway, handily won re-election with over 50% of the vote, more than the Conservative and Liberal candidates combined. In a vivid display of the Liberals’ fortunes in an election they directly contributed to happening, this is the campaign office of the Vancouver-Kingsway candidate the day after the election. That’s a lot of huge, unused signs. Ouch.
With the temperature around 11ºC (normal high 17ºC) and the sky a sullen gray I headed off to China Creek, choosing to upgrade my run length to 25 minutes as I continue to move closer to the realm of the 10K run.
Despite some rain the trail remained puddle-free, though the usual sections were rather mushy, meaning I did have to watch my foot placement. My time at the 20 minute mark was almost identical to my previous 20 minute run but as I shaved a second off my pace, I managed to pick it up for the last five minutes.
I later took photographic evidence of the deteriorating condition of the trail (one pic is below) but they all came out blurry for some reason, so I’ll probably have to take another batch. I’m hoping to get a response from the city on when or if repairs will be made to the pathway.
This was my first run since coming back to regular jogs where I could feel the shift between my stamina holding up and my legs getting tired. In other words, my energy level was keeping pace better and as a result my leg muscles were working a bit harder to keep up. This is generally a good thing. I may try a full 5K on Wednesday.
The Nike+ site is currently experiencing server errors but I have all the handy stats from iTunes, so here they are for today’s run. I’m including everything just because I can!
Time: 25:06
Distance: 4.54 km
Pace: 5:32/km
Calories: 308
Total workouts: 95
Total distance: 706.79 km
And in this fuzzy shot you can see how the bark mulch has been stripped away by the rain, exposing the soil and rock underneath. There are several sections of the trail like this, with others also having many new exposed roots coming through. Not so great for jogging and unpleasant, too, for walking.
In other running-related news, Jeff visited his doctor and found out he has tendinitis and is on a 5-10 day Advil regime to bring down the inflammation. He may or may not be able to resume running at that point so he is going to be out for at least a few weeks if not more. Not surprisingly, he is not happy about this!
Because of the computer nonsense I had ot deal with yesterday I postponed my run to today. With the trail dried out from the rain and an extra day off I should have been faster but strangely I fell back slightly to 5.33/km. Not bad but a tad disappointing.
It was 12ºC and overcast as I headed to the park. One block away and a torrential downpour began. Figures. I hid under a tree and gave it a minute, thinking it might be one of those transitory cloudbursts. It quickly eased to a mere steady rain and I headed off. The shower stopped entirely halfway through and then started again promptly as I left the park, as if there was an invisible tripwire I was hitting that was turning it on and off.
I did feel a bit labored in the first half of the run but not overly so, with both stamina and leg muscles feeling it. The second half was better and my time improved in the last km, an encouraging sign. If Jeff is still out next week, I will probably move to either 25 minute runs or a full 5K for my runs.
I also hit a new milestone tonight, with the Nike+ sensor saying I have completed just under 702 km total distance run. Not too shabby for a guy who hasn’t jogged since high school!
