Run 591
Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:25 pm
Distance: 5:03 km
Time: 28:15
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25-24ºC
Humidity: 51%
Wind: light
BPM: 158
Weight: 163.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4535 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone 8
A change in the wind today led to a lot of the smoke haze clearing, which meant that the sun no longer looked like it was being viewed from the surface of Mars. While I was still a bit sweaty on tonight’s run, it was significantly less than Tuesday, so that was nice. It was also a couple of degrees cooler, so it felt pleasant rather than warm and sticky. There are certain things that are nice when warm and sticky–the hot fudge on a sundae, for example. Your body while jogging is not one of these things.
The cheating came at the start of the run. Instead of starting at the entrance to the river trail, I started exactly one km after leaving the condo, which put me on the paved path alongside the dog park in Hume Park. This same path curves steeply downhill into Lower Hume Park, so a few moments after starting the run I was flying so fast my knees nearly popped out and achieved orbit. Granted, the whole super-fast part was only about five seconds total, but it did make my first km pace 5:24/km. To put that in perspective, here are the averages for the next three km:
5:43/km
5:54/km
5:44/km
Starting earlier netted me about 600m before getting to the river trail. I hit 5K after exiting the trail and just before getting to the crosswalk on East Columbia, so it worked out decently. And to be fair, my final km pace was 5:23/km, which was actually the fastest of all and I had no downhill cheaty bits to rely on.
Maybe the best news was my BPM dropping to 158, which I’m a lot more comfortable with than in the high 160s. Although I felt like I was pressing the whole way, I never felt tired or strained. It just felt like I was chugging along. Even the knees seemed pretty well-behaved.
Overall, then, a good run and a rare week where I got all three runs in. Yay for me!
