Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 5.14 km
Weather: Sun, hot
Temp: 30ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 349
Total distance to date: 1710 km
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
Today it rose to about 32ºC by mid-afternoon, which is silly-hot for this area and way too warm to run in. I decided to wait until about 6 p.m. to head out, starting my run around 6:45 p.m. By then it had cooled all the way down to…30ºC.
But with the sun lower in the sky, it made enough of a difference to make the run bearable. The air was still thick and heavy and my mouth started drying out almost immediately. I think I could have done a full loop around the lake but without any hydration it would have been very uncomfortable. Instead, I opted for a brisk 5K jog, running along the north side of the trail to the midway point then coming back using the three optional side trails, forming a nice pseudo-loop. Even nice, the side trails were not crowed with groups of people. I had forgotten how much busier the main trails were in the early with packs of joggers, walkers and the occasional dog (sometimes even on a leash!)
At the end of the run Lance Armstrong congratulated me on my longest workout ever, which was nice. And completely wrong. It wasn’t even my fastest 5K (that one–23:16–was tucked inside an 11.5 km run on July 2nd).
I’m going to be busy during the days for a bit so my next batch o’ runs will be in the evening unless I switch to doing one or two on the weekend instead. We shall see how or if this affects my pace.
I have been busy as all get-out and as such haven’t completed this exercise yet — but I will! In a way I’m hoping to get early feedback to see if it helps shape the rest of the story.
When the alarm clock went off at 7 a.m. Paul Benson struck it with such force it flew off the nightstand, bounced off a dresser and tumbled to the floor. Thanks to a sturdy and extra-long electrical cord, it remained plugged in and continued to shriek that it was time to get up.
Paul rolled over and considered the now empty nightstand with a glare. His head was pounding with what felt like the worst headache ever. He had no idea where it had come from, he’d never woken with one before, not when sick, not when hungover. Probably a brain tumor, he thought as his eyes searched the semi-darkness for the clock. He spied it sitting upside down on a pair of balled-up socks. He rose out of bed and as he stood a hand automatically went to his temple and massaged it. This thing hurt good.
He bent down to shut the clock off and its buzzing felt like a physical force, a force that was pushing straight through the skin, bone and flesh of his forehead and drilling directly into his brain. He found himself wobbling on one bent knee, barely keeping upright. He thrust a hand out and felt the plastic casing of the clock. His grip tightened. He wanted to crush it in his hand and for a moment gave an attempt to do just that. No good. He settled on tossing it at the nearest wall but the cord held tight and the clock snapped back, nearly hitting in the face.
Karma, Paul thought. Karma has decided that today is the day I’m going to pay for every shitty little thing I’ve done in the first 29 years of my life. He considered. That would be a lot of things. But all of them little! He realized he was pleading his case to no one and the alarm clock was still doing its hellscream. He traced the cord to the wall and half-expected to find it had welded itself to the outlet in an act of machine rebellion but the plug popped out easily and the room fell into silence.
All the better to appreciate the throbbing in my head, Paul thought. He shuffled to the bathroom, grabbed two Advil from the medicine cabinet (he held the bottle up and saw the expiry date was a month past; fine, he was willing to work with a placebo effect) and washed them down with a glass of water that smelled of toothpaste.
He decided to skip breakfast, the headache had killed his appetite (this was a lie, his stomach was rumbling but there was no way he could go through the ritual of cooking a few eggs with his eyes nearly crossing from the pain). He’d grab a bagel and coffee on the way to the university.
After pulling on a pair of jeans, his trusty faded sneakers and a clean t-shirt he grabbed his shoulder bag and considered his face in the hall mirror. He looked about the way he felt. He tried a fake smile and when the mirror didn’t crack he nodded in mute satisfaction and headed off to the bus stop.
Arriving early he had time to kill and pulled out his phone but the thought of reading through the morning mail was actively unappealing. He needed a new prescription for his glasses and squinting at the small screen would only make the headache worse.
The Advil so far had done nothing. So much for the placebo.
He grateful that for the moment that no one else was there yet. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. Clear my mind, empty my thoughts and all that shit, he thought. That will help.
It did not. With his eyes closed the headache loomed larger, a kettle drum being thumped inside his head by some mad musician. He put a hand out to steady himself (how many times had he done this already?) but missed the intended pole by several inches and nearly toppled over. As he straightened up he found himself looking at a boy of about ten. He had a skateboard tucked under an arm like a briefcase and a similarly business-like look on his face.
“You don’t look so good,” he said to Paul, except to Paul’s ears the words were not said, they were shouted with the force of a hurricane. YOU DON’T LOOK SO GOOD. Jesus, no need to yell, he thought.
“No need to yell,” he repeated, aloud. His own voice was a booming echo.
The kid shrugged and headed off.
Over the next few minutes the stop filled with about half a dozen people, two of whom were a young couple, probably headed to the university. They were talking excitedly about dinner plans. Talking very loudly. Paul wanted to glare at them, to tell them to shut up but he knew they would give him the same look as the kid. He pulled the ear buds out of his shoulder bag and stuffed them into his ears. He wasn’t going to listen to music—no freaking way he was piping any kind of sound directly into his head—but these were in-ear and nicely blotted out environmental sound. The voices immediately switched to a muffled roar. This was acceptable.
When the bus pulled in Paul shuffled to the back—he was shuffling a lot this morning—and took a seat in the last row, next to the window, a cubbyhole that served him well for avoiding conversation with strangers. This was an express bus and only made a few stops on its way to the university. Paul chose to deviate from his usual ride routine and simply shut his eyes, the throb of the headache washing inside his skull like a pounding surf. Maybe he’d go to the campus infirmary and see if they had something stronger than his Advil. Or at least not expired.
When he felt the bus lurch forward Paul fluttered his eyes open for a quick survey. There was one row of seats directly in front of him, tow on each side of the aisle and then a row of side-facing seats beyond those, each row three-wide. He hated those seats, you’d sitting there looking directly into the faces of other passengers for the whole ride. It was creepy.
A pair of old Chinese women were sitting in the left side-facing seats, the third and final seat occupied by an insanely large and perfectly square wicker purse that belonged to the woman beside it. They were regulars and nothing about them immediately struck Paul as out of the norm. The one beside the massive purse wore a similarly massive straw hat, presumably to keep the sun off (not a bad idea, early summer was already being cruel and hot) and had a purple scarf hung loosely around her neck. Her pants were green. Always green. Paul called her Greenpants. The other woman was like the parallel universe version of Greenpants. She wore a scarf but hers was green and her pants were purple. She was Purplepants. Greenpants and Purplepants would converse very loudly for the entire trip, never looking directly at each other, shouting their words straight at the people sitting in the side-facing seats opposite them.
He could hear the conversation beginning now, muffled by the ear buds. He couldn’t understand anything they said as they spoke Cantonese and he knew not a word of it. That was fine. He doubted he would gain much by knowing what they said. Ignorance is bliss and all that.
Even with the ear buds the conversation was loud. Again Paul had the impression that the words were a force, a physical thing that hit the buds and then pressed against and around them, looking for purchase, a way to get in and make sure that headache would never leave.
The bud in Paul’s left ear suddenly popped out. This had never happened before and Paul was filled with a sudden unexplainable dread as he watched the bud fall and then rock back and forth on the concave cushion of the empty seat beside him. The volume of the conversation between Greenpants and Purplepants went from about 2 to 11 in the same instant and Paul’s hand shot to his left ear, trying to offer protection from the verbal bullets peppering it. He turned his head slowly to the pair of women. Their chatter often overlapped and he could see both of their mouths going to town. But there was something else.
He could understand what they were saying.
“I am not going to buy the fish today from Ako. I did not like the fish last time, it did not smell right. I think he has a new supplier and he is not very good. Maybe I will tell Ako this—“
“—then he said he was going to fix the roof but ha, I doubt he will do it. He is always a talker but he never does what he says. Maybe if he doesn’t talk so much he will do more things instead.”
The conversation was as banal as he had always suspected but that didn’t change the fact that he did not understand Cantonese and yet he clearly understood every uninteresting thing the two women were saying. Odder still, he was fairly certain they were not speaking English—the only language he knew if you didn’t count a few phrases he had managed to not forget from high school Spanish—but the understanding was there all the same, as if something was automatically translating the words for him.
A dream, Paul thought. This is a dream. That rang false, though. The headache was too real for this to merely be a dream and the details of everything were too accurate. Nothing was off-kilter, everything was exactly as it should be, except he suddenly knew what Greenpants and Purplepants were saying.
Thinking of the headache made Paul realize it had finally started to subside, which offered a small measure of relief even as panic began creeping up to take its place.
He decided to try something.
Her looked to the woman closest to him—Purplepants—and called to her. He didn’t know her name, of course, so all he could do was shout, “Hey lady!” like one of the Beastie Boys. She was oblivious so he leaned forward (the seat in front of him was still empty this early in the ride—the back of the bus was always the last to fill, something Paul relied on) and called to her again. Her constant stream of chatter shut off and she looked to him with opaque eyes.
“Yes?”
Paul opened his mouth. He knew what he wanted to say but didn’t know exactly how to say it. He wasn’t sure what would even come out of his mouth.
“Do you understand me?” he finally said.
She stared with her opaque eyes and said nothing. Greenpants was also now looking at Paul, her expression somewhat less inscrutable. A bit annoyed, if he had to guess.
Paul repeated the question.
Purplepants turned to Greenpants for the first time and opened her mouth but then closed it and looked back at Paul instead. Her eyes now mirrored those of her friend.
“You should not listen to conversations that do not concern you,” she said, pursing her lips together tightly.
“But you’re shouting. You’re right beside each other and you’re shouting! I can’t help but hear you!”
“It is rude to listen,” Purplepants told him. She nodded. The conversation was over.
She turned to Greenpants and her voice dropped down to what Paul considered a normal speaking tone. “Why is he suddenly talking to us?” she said. “He doesn’t even understand.”
Greenpants concurred. “I have always found him strange, sitting there by himself.”
Paul waved a hand. “Uh, I can still hear you.”
“See?” Purplepants shot a half-glance at him. “He still talks! Very odd.”
At which point they resumed exchanging the banalities of their daily lives again, ignoring Paul as they always had up until a few minutes ago.
Paul sat back in his seat. There was a difference when Purplepants spoke to him. Her voice sounded natural, the inflection and accent of the words were those of someone who spoke little English. But when she talked to Greenpants her voice took on that weird translated quality again. He realized they had no idea he could understand every word they said. He was a one-way translator. That didn’t seem very useful.
But it did freak him out.
He fished the ear bud off the seat and screwed it securely back into his left ear. Their conversation became a murmur again. Paul began to think.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.38 km
Weather: Sun, muggy and warm
Temp: 26ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 807
Total distance to date: 1705 km
Note: this post was made four days late because I forgot. Oops! As such it is light on details.
It was 26ºC for the run, higher than I like and on top of that it was pretty muggy, which made for a sluggish run. It seemed like every part of the trail where the sun shone down directly also had no wind at all, resulting in that icky feeling of ‘swimming’ through the air.
Despite the weather I still managed a pace of 4:55/km, not bad considering and a bit better than runs under similar conditions.
Other than the heat I had my fourth (!) encounter with a snake. This time it was an itty bitty one, which made it even harder to spot. My foot nearly came down on it as it slithered across the trail and into the grass. For having no legs snakes can really boogie. It was probably trying to get out of the sun, just like me.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.44 km
Weather: Hazy sun, sun
Temp: 22-24ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 811
Total distance to date: 1694 km
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
It was warmer today but not uncomfortably so. As such I was able to maintain a decent pace and came in at 4:48/km, my third fastest run to date. I was feeling zesty and ran all three optional loops.
I had a few fleeting moments of heartburn/acid reflux which I attribute to some Coca Cola Zero shortly before the run. I need to stick to water (I had water, too) but other than that the run was trouble-free.
In terms of annoyances there was one biker on the trail and he was riding faster than he should have been, especially considering he wasn’t even supposed to be there to start with, but I managed to get by without incident and the rest of the run was mercifully free of unpredictable dogs and the like. There was a weird mini-trend of people walking three abreast and I had to duck around a few of these people blobs but again did so without incident.
The section of trail that had heaved off into the bog had traffic cones and tape around it today to keep onlookers from taking a tumble. I’m curious to see how they repair it. Some other parts of the trail have been shored up with planks to prevent erosion and it wouldn’t surprise me if they did that here. Or maybe they will move the fallen branches from the opposite shore over and use them to create a barrier!
Five days after being dumb by sitting in the sun without moving for 3+ hours to watch the Pride parade and getting a right proper sunburn as a result my arms have finally started peeling. This is good, I suppose, in that I have fresh unburnt skin but it is also gross because big hunks of dry skin flaoting off my body is not really up there on the sex appeal scale.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 11.21 km
Weather: High cloud, some sun
Temp: 20-22ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 795
Total distance to date: 1682 km
A big ol’ thunderstorm rolled through the area last night, bringing rain and, of course, lots of thunder. The rain had stopped by morning but the cloud cover persisted for most of the day, along with notably cooler temperatures. As such the run was done under mostly an overcast sky, with the sun only poking through briefly a few times.
The branches were still there. I think the park crew has determined that they will slowly decay on their own over time and as such do not require immediate removal, just a few hundred years for nature to do its thing. In better news the broken faucet by the Cariboo dam has already been fixed. Since I ran clockwise today I discovered this at the start of the run and headed out knowing I could drink like a horse after I’d wrapped it up.
The cooler temperature and lack of sun made a dramatic difference. I lopped a full 13 seconds off Monday’s pace, coming in at 4:45/km, tying my fastest-ever pace. There was no real downside during the run. I felt good throughout, despite sleeping lousy last night and waking up with some vague stomach nausea (that fortunately dissipated by the time I ate breakfast). The only real down part was at the very end when my naughty nano would not behave. Despite my hands being dry the clickwheel refused to acknowledge the touch of my fingers. This no longer amuses me. After some fiddling and wiping the iPod on my shorts in an attempt to dry it (which did cause it to activate) I finally managed to bring the run to a halt. Methinks the iPod is starting to wear out after three years of service (apart from the clickwheel being an inherently lousy design).
The title of this post refers to a section of the trail a few meters or so wide on the south side that had slid off and into the bog. I’m assuming this happened last night as a result of the storm and it’s the first time I’ve noticed the trail deteriorating because of the weather. The strip itself was fairly narrow so only the edge of the trail was affected but it definitely looks like more could slough off f it’s left unattended (like tree branches).
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.32 km
Weather: High cloud, some sun, warm
Temp: 25-27ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 803
Total distance to date: 1671 km
The original forecast today was sunny and hot then changed to mostly cloudy and cooler, with a high of 27. The morning was sunny and clear, however, and I fully expected it to turn into a scorcher so I altered my schedule and left for my run at 10 a.m.
It was 25ºC then and rose to 27 over the course of the run. It clouded over and actually got cooler in the afternoon. Yes, by trying to beat the weather I went out of my way to run in what still turned out to be the hottest part of the day. Feh.
I also did an unplanned walk of around 11 km yesterday and that left me feeling a little more tired and my pace was a somewhat sluggish 4:58/km as a result.
Other than it still being hotter than I care for the run itself was unremarkable. Someone managed to bust the faucet by the Cariboo dam so I had to walk to Lower Hume Park for my post-run drink. That kind of sucked. And I still seem slower running counter-clockwise when it’s hot out. I’m not entirely sure why. But there were no dog, snake, bike or other incidents so I’m going to call this run a qualified success.
While walking yesterday I got a pic of the fallen branches that were still there today and will apparently be there forever:
There is a commercial I’ve seen a lot about a multivitamin from One A Day called Fruiti-ssentials. First, I hate cutesy spellings like that. The vitamin is meant for adults so why not just call it Fruit Essentials? Did a focus group decide that was not “fun” enough?
Anyway, in the commercial a somewhat goofy but pleasant-looking man named Tom demonstrates how fun this vitamin is by smiling and chewing something while looking at the camera. He could be chewing anything — the vitamin, a glob of tobacco, his own tongue — since we never see him eat the vitamin. The reason why I remember this commercial is not because of Tom’s lovable mug or my desire for all things gummy but rather in the way the numbers presented all contradict each other:
the brand is called One a Day
the commercial shows three gummy vitamins being plopped from the bottle into a hand
the text onscreen advises to take two of these per day
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 11.31 km
Weather: Sunny and hot
Temp: 26-28ºC
Wind: light to strong
Calories burned: 820
Total distance to date: 1660 km
It was considerably warmer for today’s run and I figured my time would be about five seconds off Wednesday’s pace and was right, coming in at 4:55/km (rounded up on the Nike+ site to 4:56). That actually impressed me after experiencing just how hot it was. Though there was a strong breeze blowing at times it wasn’t consistent and a few parts of the trail felt like running through a furnace, the air still and hot.
I chose to run clockwise again and maintained a decent pace until the midway point. I had just hit the Cottonwood Trail somewhere between 6 and 7K and my pace felt absolutely plodding. I managed to find a reserve of energy and improved my pace dramatically for about half a km before settling back to a slower pace for the stretch. I skipped all three optional loops because by that point in the run I just wanted it to be over so I could attach my mouth to a faucet. That shaved about 500 m off but I still finished comfortably above 11 km.
I’m just glad I won’t be running tomorrow. The high is forecast to be above 30ºC. Yikes.
The dead branches were still on the trail but more park workers were out so maybe they’ll get to them eventually.
A family of four (mom, dad, boy, girl) were on the trail with their bikes. This is normally an annoying thing but they amazingly were walking their bikes — in single file, too. I was duly impressed! No dog incidents before, after or during the run was also nice.
The only animal incident came as I looped around the fields. A rather large garter snake appeared, heading from the sun-baked field to the shadier grass on the other side of the trail. I didn’t see it until the last moment when my foot almost landed on it. I did a quick jig to hop over it and shot a look back because it was quite a bit bigger than the other two snakes I’ve seen, though it was still the same color, a vibrant blend of yellow and black stripes.
Overall I am happy with how the run went, considering the warm conditions.
This is a story I wrote today for the writing exercise outlined here as part of the All-Purpose Writing Thread. It’s called “Transformations” and because it’s 2,600+ words I’ve hidden it behind one of those jump thingies if you are looking at it on the main blog page.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 11.84 km
Weather: Sunny, warm
Temp: 22-24ºC
Wind: light to strong
Calories burned: 840
Total distance to date: 1648 km
Ran: Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
It started out warm and clear for today’s run but an unusually strong breeze kept things more than manageable for the duration. I opted to go clockwise and started right from the faucet near the dam to squeeze as much distance out as I could. My goal was to improve on Monday’s decidedly average pace and I accomplished that with room to spare, coming in a full seven seconds faster with an average pace of 4:50/km.
I was helped by having the issues on Monday not crop up again: no stomach weirdness, no right elbow hurting to distract me and an overall improved energy level that was more than sufficient to overcome the heat.
The branches were still on the trail for the third consecutive run but park workers were out trimming and clipping so I expect they’ll be cleaned up for Friday. I did take a closer look as I ran by and it does appear the branches either came down on their own or someone tried to murder the tree, as the limbs were twisted and broken off, not cut.
The one slightly weird notable part of the run was having three different bugs slam into my head. It’s odd to have it happen at all but three times and it was starting to get a little annoying. Don’t flies have compound eyes? How can they not see me? Stupid bugs.
The most interesting part of the run came after it ended. I was walking back along the Brunette River trail, listening to music on the iPod as I typically do after a run. Activity on the Highway 1 overpass has picked up this week so I had to carefully thread my way around construction vehicles and crew that were working on the overpass expansion. I moved onto one of the long straight stretches of the trail and walked by a woman with a dog. As usual the dog was not on a leash. This no longer gets much of a reaction from me, as nearly every dog owner ignores the leash laws.
But then I caught a glimpse of activity to my right and suddenly the dog appeared in front of me, barking, baring its teeth and acting like it was going to attack. It happened so swiftly I barely had time to form a reaction before the dog suddenly turned back, probably because the owner had called it off. With the music still playing and the woman far enough back I wasn’t able to hear her voice, if she had in fact said anything.
I turned around to see her standing there, the dog standing at her side and sniffing about indifferently. The woman said nothing, did nothing. Her face was expressionless. My face, however, was not. I had just finished a nearly 12K run and it didn’t take much to fire the adrenaline back up. I said to her in a firm, loud voice, “Put your dog on a leash.” Preferably the leash she was holding in one of her freaking hands. The woman offered no reaction. “Put your dog on a leash like it’s supposed to be,” I said in that same angry-but-in-control voice. Again, no reaction. I started back at her. By this point the dog was laying down in front of its owner, fully mellowed out after the unprovoked outburst.
I gave up and started walking. After a few paces I turned and repeated my directive yet again. Still no reaction from the woman, who could have been a literal statue at this point for all her non-movement.
I resumed walking and for good measure shouted out the need to leash the dog again, at full volume. As I moved out of hearing range I switched briefly to a litany of well-chosen curses and other invective, which made me feel a little better. I stopped once more and turned back. The woman, now a tiny figure in the distance, had still not budged.
I am not an intimidating figure. In my jogging shorts and shirt I am thin and sweaty, so it was hard to believe the woman was actually afraid of me. She was the one with the would-be killer dog, after all. More likely she didn’t like being yelled at (almost as much as she didn’t like putting her dog on a leash) and was giving me sufficient space so she could resume her walk without being told what to do by some uppity jogger.
I walked until I got to where the trail curved around a corner and took one final look. The woman was moving in some way, but only in place. Maybe adjusting a shoe or something. Or whispering new commands to her devil-dog. I shrugged and continued the walk home without further incident.
I remain baffled as to why the woman adamantly refused to leash her dog after it very nearly attacked me. She had directly witnessed the dog’s unpredictable and potentially dangerous behavior but was unmoved by it. Weird and annoying.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.57 km
Weather: Cloudy, some sun
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 820
Total distance to date: 1636 km
Three things conspired against me on today’s run to bring my time down to a respectable but unspectacular average pace of 4:57/km:
I’m pretty sure I started too fast and burned a lot of my energy in the first half of the run, which moved along nicely.
Yesterday’s hike, though only a few hours, was still a decent workout for the legs with lots of tricky climbing and that brought down my energy level.
I got a cramp/ache in my gut around the 6 km mark and it persisted for several km after that. This shows up as a noticeable drop in my pace sooner than that usually happens.
Overall the run was decent enough and while it was warm, most of the run was under cloudy conditions so it was not overly so.
The branches were still on the trail so it seems park workers have not been out since Friday. Someone had shoved them over enough to clear a small strip of trail to bypass them. Nothing else notable was seen on the run. The knee seems fine now and my shins are good, too. The calves were a bit sore after, a byproduct of putting them to the test on the hike but the soreness did not persist.
I had hoped for a better performance after Friday’s zippy run but I suppose it wasn’t a bad effort, everything considered. I wrapped up my July runs with only two above the five minute pace and both were deliberate after the knee incident. More in my July runs update, coming soon™.
