Today is September 16, which means we are one day past the replacement of the foot bridges at Burnaby Lake, so I should have been able to run a full loop. However, I noted that the first six days of the scheduled work saw no evidence at all of any work, equipment or anything else that could be considered work-related in this matter. Therefore, I was prepared to see detours still in place today.
I still held out some optimism as I headed out, so chose counter-clockwise, hoping I might be able to do a full loop. Alas, no. The main and side trails were both blocked off, leaving only the Spruce Loop open on the north side. I could have done 10K there, but would have had to circle the Spruce Loop about 15 times. Which would have been interesting. And dumb.
(In reference to the title of the post, I’m unsure why they are working on both the side and main trails simultaneously, because they could easily keep the loop open by working on one, then the other. It’s not like they are replacing a dozen bridges that will take months to do. Also, the detour signs are placed where the main and side trails intersect, so a lot of people will walk the 500 m or so and then realize they have to turn around. If there was a sign at the dam saying the loop was closed, people could choose which way to go accordingly.)
I backtracked and went clockwise, choosing my turnaround point where the trail intersects with the path to the Glencarin parking lot, just west of the rickety old bridge over Deer Lake Brook, a distance that Google Maps tells me is about 275 m:
I maintained a pace very similar to Tuesday’s run, but conditions were quite different.
For one, it was only 13C when I started (and ended), marking the coolest run in a while. I should note that it didn’t actually feel cool–13C is still pretty mild. But it showered on the way to the lake and once I arrived, there was a brief actual downpour, so I was pretty much drenched to start. After that, it showered intermittently, but eventually eased off. It brightened a little, but remained overcast, which is what I was hoping for. There is something strangely awful about running in the rain, then having the sky suddenly clear, the sun comes out, the temperature shoots up, and the humidity remains sky-high (and ground-low). But this did not happen, it stayed cloudy until after I got home.
As I type this, it’s sunny, 18C and the humidity is 52%.
I was reminded of two semi-annoying things about running in the rain:
- My glasses get speckled with drops of water. There is really no good solution to this, other than not wearing the glasses (which I need). I can fudge it by looking over the top of the rims if it gets really bad.
- The Apple Watch is clearly not suited to rainy day activities. I locked the display early on, which means you can’t really interact with it during the run. Normally I only glance at it to check BPM or intervals, but sometimes I want to change the music or do something else, and you simply can’t. What happens if you don’t lock an Apple Watch in the rain? Fun (?) and weird things! When water drops hit the watch face, it will make the watch do utterly random stuff–launch apps, switch faces, things that would never seem possible from a few errant drops of water, but do, in fact, happen. It’s one of the leading reasons I am eyeballing a Garmin watch, which conspicuously lacks any touch controls.
I felt pretty good for the run and actually kept a fairly zippy pace, save for two km– at the 5K mark I had a pace of 6:00/km even, then inexplicably slipped to 6:17/km for the 6th km. I have no idea what happened here. I swear I wasn’t running this slow! Maybe the watch GPS went a bit crazy. After that, my pace picked back up, and I managed my fastest 10K for the year at 5:48/km. Overall BPM was a bit higher at 154 BPM, which is fine. I will probably ease up a little next week and stick to 150 BPM.
Overall, a fine run to end the week.
Fun Fact: If I take the total run distance I’ve tracked and drew a straight line across the country, I’d end up…somewhere in the water off Newfoundland.
Stats:
Run 715 Average pace: 5:48/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW and CW) Start: 10:17 a.m. Distance: 10.06 km Time: 58:17 Weather: Intermittent showers Temp: 13ºC Humidity: 87% Wind: light BPM: 154 Weight: 159.4 Total distance to date: 5252 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (360 km)
