Run 586
Average pace: 6:03/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:19 am
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 30:25
Weather: Sunny with high cloud
Temp: 20-25ºC
Humidity: 53%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 164
Weight: 162.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 4510 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone 8
Rather than exactly duplicating the last run, I decided to actually start on the other side of the dam, at the official 0K marker. I then took the three side trails (Spruce and Conifer Loops, Piper Mill Trail) as usual. This should have resulted in me hitting 5K before the actual 5K marker. Instead I hit 5K pretty much right at the 5K marker, so another 300 m or so seems to have gone missing again. This was backed up again by the fact that even though I immediately switched the activity to an Outdoor Walk, I was passing each km marker by a good 300+ m before dinging the next km on the app.
My theory is I have no theory. It’s just weird. I’m going to try the next lake run with just the watch, to see if it’s GPS produces different results. If they’re the same, then I’m just going to assume the earth’s rotation has changed or some kind of witchcraft is at play. If they’re different, then obviously I’ll have to spend $1300 and get a new phone this fall.
The run itself was technically faster. The pace was the same at 6:03/km, but today the overall time was a whopping seven seconds swifter. The splits were very consistent, all clustered between 6:00-6:06/km. I felt mostly fine, though I felt I was flagging a little around the 3K mark. One annoyance dogged me for about the first three km–the underside of my right foot was strangely sore, in a kind of “funny bone” way. It wasn’t painful and in fact it almost made me want to giggle in the same way hitting your elbow does. I think it may have slowed me up a little. I’m not sure what I did to my foot last night. Just another part of this weird run.
Even the trains were weird. I started on the Spruce Loop and there was a train trundling off to the right, as happens semi-regularly. I ran almost a full km before the train finally moved on–and it wasn’t exactly tootling along like it was being driven by a nice old grandma. What I’m saying is it was a mega-long train. Later, I became strangely entranced by a train while running the Cottonwood Trail. The trains do not normally entrance me, I’m not sure why this one did. As it happens, I looked down just in time to avoid stepping on a snake that was being unusually tardy in slithering off the path. It was also a drab brown instead of that splendorous black and gold, so it was obviously going camo. I think stepping on a snake is considered bad luck. Especially for the snake.
Finally, as I moved onto the trail adjacent to the sports fields and the final stretch, the geese were again lounging about in their new favorite spot, directly on the trail. As I approached the two geese actually in my way I clapped my hands, the universal gesture for “I have the right of way, you stupid geese” and they very casually waddled just enough to let me by. They were acting so chill, so cool, I had to check to see if they were wearing Ray Bans. Still, it beats them attacking me with their beaks.
The resurfaced South Shore Trail is pretty much done now and is all run-ready. The signs say they are also working on the Pavilion Trail, which is quite gnarly, so I’m curious to see how that goes.
Here’s a before/after shot of the same section before and after it was rolled/compressed.
For someone in an ORV the resurfaced trail is now 200% less fun.
I actually had a good amount of stamina after the run, so I fell into a pattern where I would start running when I hit the next km )on the watch) and run until I felt like stopping, though sometimes I challenged myself with specific mini-goals (“Run to the end of the next boardwalk” or “Run until the bear stops chasing you”, things like that). My fastest walking pace was 6:36/km, which is actually not far off from my worst run pace, so I did quite a bit of running.
I’m not feeling any particular ill effects now and I’m going to start stretching to see how that affects the knees.
In theory my next run will be on Tuesday but it looks to be hot and I’ll be back at work, so no guarantees. I’ll definitely run in my mind, though. Yes.
