Run 539
Average pace: 5:09/km
Location: Brunette Brunette River trail
Start: 6:07 pm
Distance: 5.02 km
Time: 25:58
Weather: Clear
Temp: 19ºC
Humidity: 64%
Wind: light
BPM: 159
Weight: 155.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 4192 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone
Well, that was weird.
I had three things benefiting me on tonight’s run: the weather was very pleasant, with the sun behind the trees, the temperature 19ºC and little wind, it made for near-ideal conditions, with minimal sweating and such. Secondly, the river trail is much more forgiving than the trail at Burnaby Lake, with minimal changes in elevation and wide, gentle curves. Thirdly, I started the run at the start of the trail, so my warm-up walk was only 1.5 km instead of 4 km as it would be if I’d been running at the lake.
And cyclists are allowed at the river, which oddly means they are much better-behaved.
All said, I was aware of not overdoing things again and indeed, the second km found my pace dropping off by a fair bit as I tried to rein things in. Then the weird part happened. I found a good, solid pace and maintained it for the rest of the run–and ended up with my best 5K run of the year so far, with an average pace of 5:09/km. It’s the first time I’ve also come in under 26 minutes. I was not expecting this.
About two km in I felt a very slight bit of tweaking in my left shin but it eventually went away and the left leg was otherwise pretty much fine, with little of the stiffness I felt on Sunday. My BPM was lower, too, due in part to the utterly nice conditions.
Overall, a very welcome run, especially coming after what could have been a potentially nasty muscle injury. I think as long as I don’t try pushing harder I’ll be okay–for both running and walking.
