Run 704: The internal battle

Quite often I will think about what I will write about a run while I’m still actually out running. For example, I knew that today’s entry would be titled “The internal battle” shortly before the running part ended (and when the internal battle also ended).

When I went out today, I was planning on taking it a bit easier, because I was expecting it to be warmer and still humid. In fact, the forecast this morning even specifically mentioned it would be humid:

Note to add: Feels like 16 my butt!

When I left it was 22C, but it rose to 24C by the time I got to the lake and ticked up another degree during the run. Humidity was in the mid-60s, which is gross, but if you look at the previous run, you might be thinking, “Humidity was even higher then, yet you did a lot better. Why? Has science been lying to us all this time?” And the answer is: I don’t know why, exactly!

But there seems to be some magic line where if the temperature is X and humidity is Y, then the run will be POO. Today it reached into the POO zone. I did handicap myself a bit by running counter-clockwise, which is the “harder” route–it starts out all technical and windy and doesn’t offer any nice straight stretches until you get to the Cottonwood Trail about 3 km in. Conversely, running clockwise starts you on the Avalon Trail, which is perfectly straight, save for one gentle curve. After that, the trail tends to slope gently downhill for much of the way.

So, there was that. But I started out okay. The hip was fine for the first few km, then when I could feel it, it was muted, not really a factor. But the humidity really wore on me. By the sixth km, the bottom began to fall out, with a pace of 6:22/km. After 7 km, it had fallen further to a yuck-o 6:32/km. This is where the internal battle began and while it lasted only a few moments, it went something like this:

Sensible Me: You’re not going for a personal record, you planned on taking it easier today, there’s no shame in ending the run a bit earlier than planned!

My Ego: Do you want to be a quitter? You can make up time on the Avalon Trail. If you stop now, you’ll only have done one measly 10K this week! Sure, no one will really know or care, but YOU’LL know! Keep going, hoser!

My Ego, after some more thought: You know, if your pace continues to flag, it’s going to drag down your average and look bad. Maybe cut your losses now and look better!

Yes, in my mind, my ego calls me a hoser.

The call was pretty easy to make. My pace was falling off a cliff, so I listened to both Sensible Me and Me Ego, after some more thought. To prove the hip was fine, I did run a decent amount for the remainder of the 3K around the lake and felt fine.

However, when I was trying to do the same on the river trail, I started experiencing stomach cramps and about half an hour after getting home had to make a beeline to the bathroom to attend to an urgent nature call. So the roiling of my gut may have had some impact that I was not fully aware of, too. At least that’s what My Ego is telling me!

In the end, it was not a bad effort and I think if I’d run clockwise and conditions had been better, it would have been perfectly fine. But I’m content with settling with “just okay” after Wednesday’s faboo run.

In fun resurfacing news: I was surprised and delighted to see that they have done some patching along the trail that borders the athletic fields. As I’ve noted before, the trail here is narrow and floods even when they just run the sprinklers on the fields, due to strangely poor drainage. Sometime in the last two days workers came in and did a couple of things: they filled potholes, shored up parts where the trail is a bit sunken and laid down what appears to be a preliminary section of new gravel along the eastern part that right-angles past the row of trees that you can see in your favorite map software:

I’m hoping this is all leading to a Grand Resurfacing™. I should know the next time I am on the trail. It may seem weird that I am kind of obsessed with this, but until you’ve had to choose between going through a long, deep puddle in the middle of your run route or detour into a marshy field that will have you sink into water past your ankles, you just can’t appreciate the anticipation of this being addressed after more than ten years.

Stats:

Run 704
Average pace: 6:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:30 a.m.
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 43:44
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 24-25ºC
Humidity: 54%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 151
Weight: 162.2
Total distance to date: 5162 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (270 km)

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