Run 471
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 27:28
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 11ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 170
Stride: n/a
Weight: 158.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 3745 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
I ran in the morning today and discovered there was some hiking club out in force (several of them carried little hiking club flags with them), so the first half of the run was especially crowded, though fortunately everyone was spread out. I had to dipsy-doodle around remnants of puddles from yesterday’s monsoon more than people. My clever plan to start the run closer to the park entrance to avoid getting to the soupy part of the trail near the fields was thwarted when it turned out the entire stretch along the field was a soupy, lake-sized mess of unavoidable puddles. Hopefully one day they will actually shore up that entire section so it doesn’t go underwater every time it rains.
I started out well then immediately fell back quite a bit on the second km. Surprisingly, I rebounded on the third km and kept improving my pace, finishing at the same pace I started, 5:18/km, with an overall average of 5:26/km (itself a surprisingly nine-second improvement over last Sunday’s run). The only thing I can think of here–because I was not crackling with boundless energy when I arrived at the lake–is that the crowds inspired me to get the run over with as soon as possible. So I did.
The legs were a little stiff after, something that will probably persist until I get back into a regular routine again (once a week is regular but not really often enough for the muscles to readjust).
Other than the high heart rate (my walking BPM was higher today than some of my previous runs, yikes) I am pleased by the effort. I experienced no issues, other than feeling a tad tired toward the end.
The poop was on the Brunette River trail where it seemed a lot of people were choosing to let their dogs walk unleashed, allowing them to fully enjoy the first full day of standard time. One woman was consistently walking ahead of her snow-white canine, completely unaware of what it was doing. And what it was doing was finding a nice big pile of poop in the middle of the trail that hadn’t been cleaned up and rolling around in it in a kind of doggy ecstasy.
I like to think it was karma at work.