Today was one of those days when there just wasn’t a good time to run.
But I ran anyway, opting for an early morning start with the moderate temp/high humidity combo, since it was expected to get as high as 33C later in the afternoon.
In the end, the humidity, which started at 71% (!) defeated me and I only did 5K instead of a planned 10K, but at least I did a run. Plus, I did some decent interval running on the rest of the way around the lake.
Other than the copious sweating, the other notable part of the run was the start of culvert work along the Avalon Trail, which resulted in a detour along a horsie trail that ultimately connects to the Freeway Trail, then finally back to the main lake loop. It was longer than expected, at around 2.6 km, but it was kind of neat being on a new trail and much of the horse trail is, uh, rustic? Less groomed? And also covered in lots of horse poop. I encountered no actual horses, though. When it connected to the Freeway Trail, I thought I only had a short way to go before being able to get back on the main trail, but it went on much longer than I remembered. And this trail has no tree canopy at all, so the sun was blazing away on me the whole time (not forgetting that 71% humidity, too).
I actually posted fairly good times for the first three km, but by the fourth I could feel myself flagging and the thought of running the sixth km on the long, exposed Cottonwood Trail made me opt for the 5K. This actually worked well, since I was able to stop/start as I saw fit, making for a more pleasant finish to the lake part of the outing.
Weirdly, no dog issues today! And I saw the spitfire. She seemed to be suffering a bit from the heat/humidity combo, a bit. As we all are.
Oddly, my hip/left leg felt sore after the run, and not so much during. Not terribly or anything, but there it was as a reminder. If I could clone my right leg and copy it over to the left side, that would be spiffy. Short of that, I’ll just keep monitoring the left leg, I suppose.
The high is “only” supposed to be 24C on Friday, so a full 10K should be a lot more doable then. We’ll see.
Here’s a post-run shot of the trail around the athletic fields, showing one of the sections especially prone to flooding. You can see the fresh gravel used to level out the surface on the left (and how much was needed). The whole thing still looks unfinished to me, and would definitely still flood, so I’m hoping this is just the first part of a full resurfacing. This is also where the geese like to sit sometimes, for some reason. They were over on the shady bits of the field this morning, though.
Stats:
Run 707 Average pace: 6:06/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:39 a.m. Distance: 5.02 km Time: 30:40 Weather: Sunny Temp: 22-24ºC Humidity: 71% Wind: nil to light BPM: 154 Weight: 160.6 Total distance to date: 5187 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (295 km)
