Run 608 Average pace: 6:23/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 1:58 pm Distance: 5:03 km Time: 32:06 Weather: Sunny with high cloud Temp: 23-24ºC Humidity: 47% Wind: light BPM: 163 Weight: 166.9 pounds Total distance to date: 4620 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 2, iPhone 8
Today’s run was all about consistency. I headed out to improve on, well, every aspect of last Sunday’s not-so-great run and achieved this. Hooray! Here’s how today’s run was better:
- Faster pace (6:23/km vs. 6:33/km)
- Lower BPM, 163 vs 166
- Did not have to stop and walk at all
- Left foot was not sore
- Had enough energy at the end to actually do a little running on the way home
- Only one cyclist on the trail–and he was walking his bike (!)
And here’s a few small ways the run was a tad worse:
- It was slightly warmer, but drier, and my mouth was so parched I actually thought about how I might want to carry water or gel packs with me during runs this summer
- A tree had collapsed where the Conifer Loop connects to the main trail, forcing me to clamber over branches to keep going
- A parks worker in a putt-putt car nearly mowed me down from behind. Seriously, those things are quiet and they are not driven by kindly old seniors.
In terms of pace, I started out at a slower, steadier pace of 6:16 and fell way back on the second km to 6:42. This is why I don’t check my pace until after a run–seeing that number would have crushed my spirit and tossed it into the lake.
But after that I was the model of consistency and apart from a brief stitch in my lower left side along the Cottonwood Trail, I felt fine, if not quite peppy. Today it felt more like just being out of shape vs. recovering from The Worst Cold Ever, so that was actually a positive. For the last three km, my pace was 6:20, 6:22 and 6:22 again. I found my comfort zone and stuck to it.
Overall, then, a perfectly fine follow-up where I achieved everything I hoped for. After last week’s dismal effort, I was pretty sure I would see an improvement this week, so the results aren’t unsurprising. They are still very welcome.