Run 553
Average pace: 5:40/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:20 pm
Distance: 10.01 km
Time: 56:45
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 8ºC
Humidity: 80%
Wind: light
BPM: 169
Weight: 158.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 4300 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone
Today’s run was also an experiment in which I deliberately slowed my pace–as evidenced by my 5:40/km average–to see how it would impact my BPM. It turned out to not impact it much at all, as it went from 174 on my last 10K to 169 today, a marginal improvement at best.
I’m not sure if it’s the slight weight gain, increase in body fat, temperature change or alignment of the planets that’s causing my BPM to be higher lately and I’m not overly concerned as long as it doesn’t go higher than it is now.
I did feel slower on the run, especially going up inclines. Keeping my speed down made it feel slog-like on the hilly parts. I was tempted to speed up at times but resisted.
It also didn’t rain, which was nice.
Due to my late start I felt there would be no problems with running clockwise today, so I did and it was fine. This also led to the confrontation with my old nemesis, namely the nasty tree root that I tripped on in August 2016, still my only run where I finished with gravel embedded in my flesh. On my clockwise runs I usually start out on the Conifer Loop by running on the left, then switch to the right after passing the evil root. With the leaves cleared and the trail scoured by recent storms, I felt there was little chance of missing the root, so I stayed on the right as I normally would. What struck me upon seeing the root is how it really is kind of right there where your feet would be if you’re running clockwise. You do have to detour around it. This makes me feel a little better about tripping on it two summers ago.
Overdressing: It was 8ºC but not windy and as mentioned, it stayed dry. I chose to wear two layers on top and for the walk there and back it was fine but after a few km I started to feel a bit too warm–not horribly so, but enough that I think a single layer would have sufficed. Noted for future runs.
Overall, a kind of bleah run, though it gets a few bonus points by being dry.
