It’s a little of everything today! Also, I divided the run report into sections because why not?
Early start, early shmart
I once again set out early (8:30 a.m.) to beat the heat, but did not beat the heat. It was 26C when I arrived at the lake. This is actually not so bad, but the humidity was still 60%, which made for another gross, sweaty run. I kept at a pace of around 150 BPM and made the decision around the 4K mark to only do 5K and run/walk the rest of the way out, which I did.
I am comfortable with this decision. I am running to keep healthy and in shape, not push myself to XTREMES. So if the weather is going to be stupid and muggy, I will adjust accordingly! For the next run, I’m going to start clockwise, which should make the earlier part more bearable as the south shore:
- Has more shade
- Seems to have more breeze (the north side, especially the long Cottonwood Trail, seems to be a wind-free environment
- Is more interesting, so if I only do 5K, it will be a better experience overall
I’ll judge how I feel at the 5K mark, then either continue to run, or choose a more leisurely pace.
On the plus side, doing a 5K today gets my run stats to a nice even 5110 km.
Trigger warning: Explicit nipple discussion
Other than being all sweaty and yuck,y I didn’t experience any issues today except for The Sensitive Nipple™. Warning: If you are sensitive to discussions about sensitive nipples, you may want to avoid the next paragraph. I’m not kidding!
The Sensitive Nipple: So the issue seems to happen when we get that magical combination of high temperatures and high humidity. I wear t-shirts that wick away sweat, but when you start sweating excessively, there’s only so much they can do. At that point the shirt becomes saturated and instead of billowing freely, with air happily passing through and about, the damp fabric clings to your skin and the movement of your body as you run causes the fabric to ride over the skin repeatedly. When the skin is actually a nipple, this can cause Sensitive Nipple. Basically, my right nipple (and to a lesser degree the left one, though I can’t figure out why they are affected differently) will get irritated to the point where it…sort of lactates blood. Yes, it’s as gross and weird as it sounds. Now, it’s not gushing blood out in a big jet of ichor, it’s more just a little dot will form on my t-shirt and then slowly soak in and spread. And also the nipple becomes extremely sensitive to touch, but not in a sexy “nipple play” way, more of a “touch this and I WILL KILL YOU” kind of way.
Anyway, my best solution will likely be to cover it with a band-aid when running, to prevent chafing. I have a hairy chest, so taking the band-aid off afterward is good times, too.
Phantom Bear
After the run and between the 7-8K mark on the lake loop, a woman approached me as if she wanted to say something, which she did. She asked me if I had seen the bear that was allegedly spotted in the exact area I had just come from. I said I did not see the bear. She said there was a report of another bear, too, though this may have been the same bear spotted twice. I must have sounded convincing, as she continued down the trail into Bear Country. I was kind of bear-wary the rest of the way, though it always surprises me when bears are spotted, as the lake is square in the middle of a dense urban area. Heck, there are highways to the north and south of the lake. Maybe they hitchhike in.
Stats:
Run 697 Average pace: 6:17/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 9:24 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 31:35 Weather: Sunny Temp: 26-28ºC Humidity: 52-60% Wind: nil BPM: 149 Weight: 164.6 Total distance to date: 5110 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (218 km)
