I’ll explain the title in a moment.
First, a clothing note: I wore two layers (undershirt, long-sleeved shirt) and it was fine for walking but too warm for running, especially with little breeze. The long-sleeved shirt would have been sufficient.
It was 11C, which is not particularly warm, but actually feels kind of warm compared to 5C. Again, there was little wind, but I was unmotivated and running (ho ho) late, so I decided to do a short counter-clockwise loop. I started sluggish, but that was OK, then did something that doesn’t happen that often: I got progressively faster each km. Observe:
- Lap 1: 5:57
- Lap 2: 5:55
- Lap 3: 5:49
- Lap 4: 5:39
- Lap 5: 5:37
Fun factoid: My best pace came during the fourth km, where I briefly hit 5:16/km.
The two things I noted today were a lot of photographers or people taking photos and a lot of squirrels. The two may have been related.
As for the run, it was fine. At some point early on, my legs felt a bit cranky and stiff, but it went away, and I felt good on the walk home. There were no issues, even as a pair of putt putt cars approached me nearly in tandem at one point. I don’t know why the park workers would drive together like that, but I’m sure it was important in some nature-related way.
Toward the end of my run, I passed a guy jogging while pushing a stroller. A short time later, I looped around and started back. Eventually I caught sight of him again and began catching up. He was clearly younger (probably in his early 30s) but you know, pushing a stroller does slow you down a bit. Too fast and the stroller goes up on two wheels on corners. But a funny thing happened. He either heard me or saw my shadow, because he looked behind and saw me approaching–at this point I had already moved to the left to pass. After spotting me, he picked up speed, like one of those drivers that is suddenly, “Uh uh, you ain’t gonna pass me, buddy!” And indeed, he started to widen the gap. A bit after that, I diverted left to the Conifer Loop, and he stuck to the main trail. I didn’t see him again, so I’ll assume I either won, or he got sucked into some mysterious forest portal and was never seen again.
In all, and especially given my motivation, this was not a bad run.
Stats:
Run 824 Average pace: 5:48/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop) Start: 12:20 p.m. Distance: 5:03 km Time: 29:09 Weather: Cloudy, some sun Temp: 11ºC Humidity: 67% Wind: light BPM: 153 Weight: 168.3 Total distance to date: 6005 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (140/272/412 km)
