I made a tactical error even before setting out for the run: I headed out about an hour later than intended. This notably meant that it would be a little warmer and that the sun would be out.
This turned out to be significant because, as the titles says, the sun makes you slower. While the conditions don’t seem all that different from Monday, the higher temperature, sun and humidity combined to make it feel a lot harder to get the same results. I started slower at 5:41/km, but that’s still pretty good. Dropped to 5:47/km for the second km, which is fine. But the third km my pace cratered to 6:04/km. That is a huge drop and even looking at the numbers now, it doesn’t seem possible.
When I hit that third km, I paused the run, walked forward and then back to where I had paused, probably about 30 seconds of walking in total, then resumed the run. This breather allowed my hart rate to drop to around 130 or so and gave me enough boost to finish with an overall average of 5:51/km. Kinda cheating, but I’ll take it.
Friday looks like it may be partly cloudy and a bit cooler. I’ll take it!
Other than the sun leaching all my atamina, the run was fine. My right leg felt a bit sore, mostly around the shi, on the walk back, but it settled down after a while and in the end it seems fine.
The trail weas unusually busy, especially in the area east of Piper Spit, with people all bunched up with dogs and kids and things. None of this presented any issue, though, which was nice.
The river trail was once again All Dogs Unleashed, but at least the dogs behaved themselves, even if the owners didn’t.
Stats:
Run 877
Average pace: 5:51/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 11:13 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:25
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 20-21°C
Humidity: 71-67%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 167.3
Total distance to date: 6,245 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (30/59/89)
