I went birding instead of running on Friday, so this was my first run after four days off. In my favour: The conditions were good, with little wind, mild (for winter) temperatures and partly sunny skies.
Working against me: It’s Family Day, a stat holiday, and that meant the trail was packed with roving groups of people who only ever visit the lake on stat holidays. We’ll next meet again on Easter Monday!
Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad. Despite the crowds, I never had trouble navigating around others. And even the [colourful euphemism here] people who decided it was a good idea to go jogging with their off-leash dogs didn’t present any issues.
I wasn’t sure how it would go, but the walk to the lake was surprisingly nimble, so I was hopeful for a decent effort. Shortly before heading off clockwise, an older guy jogged by, and I figured I might see him once I started. Sure enough, I caught sight of him on the Avalon Trail, but for an older guy, he was keeping up a very good pace. I felt like I might be closing the gap, but only by tiny increments.
Somewhere past the 3K mark, the gap did genuinely begin to close. I wasn’t really pushing hard, so he must have started slowing. I finally made the decision to pass and put on the boosters, passed, then kept up the boosted speed for another 10 seconds or so before going back to my normal pace.
About a minute or so later, he passed me. The nerve! He apparently was determined to not be passed again, because the gap between us started to increase again. Right near the end I feel it was starting to once again close, but he went left and I went right, so there was no way to know who might have passed whom again. I’ll just pretend it was me!
All this extra effort had two effects: A year’s-best pace of 5:42/km for me, along with a higher-than-normal BPM of 159 (which is actually fine). Pleasingly, I experienced no issues, despite putting the proverbial pedal to the metal.
Overall, a better-than-expected start to the week and proof that my competitive spirit still burbles under the surface.
Stats:
Run 852 Average pace: 5:42/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:47 a.m. Distance: 5:03 km Time: 28:41 Weather: Partly sunny Temp: 6-7ºC Humidity: 78-75% Wind: light BPM: 159 Weight: 171.1 Total distance to date: 6150 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (285/530/815 km)
