Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.4 km
Weather: High cloud, a little sun
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 808
Average pace: 5:02/km
Total distance to date: 1403 km
Ran: Conifer and Spruce Loop.
An interview messed with my run schedule and so I ended up missing Friday’s run and opted for a few extra days of rest instead of trying to make it up. That meant that I ran today on four days of rest. With the temperature much warmer and the short layoff I was expecting the run to be harder — and it was.
The shins came through fine but my left foot was bothering me again. I may need to get it looked at to find out what exactly is going on.
A little sun early on disappeared quickly enough and high cloud took over, which was probably a good thing considering how warm it was. I actually started off at a terrific pace, clocking my fastest 1K to date — 4:34. The Nike+ site also informs me that I ran my best mile, too at 7:29.
But I could not sustain the pace given the conditions and ended up with a still-respectable 5:02/km average. A few weeks ago that would have been a PR, now it’s just okay. Such is the way of improvement.
The run started off with a repeat of an annoyance I last experienced at China Creek — the iPod did not sync properly, so I had to run sans music. I do not like this. At least the woman’s voice counting off the km did not scare the wits out of me when she piped up.
While there were no coyotes to be seen, I did have another snake slither across the trail ahead of me, vibrantly yellow and black-striped. This one was on the north side, proving the snakes are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And for the first time I actually saw one of the western painted turtles to be found in the area. It was out on the path near the dam and was slowly heading off toward to picnic area, probably not the best place for a turtle to be. Hopefully someone gave it a lift back to the river’s edge.
The other annoyance during the run — and this was worse than the silence — happened at around the 2K mark. I very clearly felt something go into my mouth, probably some kind of bug or one of the billions of cottonwood seeds still floating around. These things happen, you swallow (since the force of the ingestion is usually such that spitting it out won’t work) and continue on. Except this time whatever it was lodged in my throat. I tried clearing my throat to get it out. No good. I then started coughing up a lung. Still nothing. For the better part of two km this whatever-it-was was seriously irritating my throat and coughing loudly and at length is not optimal for running. It finally disappeared after maybe 10 minutes or so. Bleah.
The rest of the run was otherwise unremarkable. I plodded along, only picking up the pace in the final km. I’m pleased my time was as good as it was, though under 5:00 would have been my preference.
A note on the chart below: either the new Nike site is calculating things differently or my speed is fluctuating in ways it normally wouldn’t. Most of the time there is a gradual decline in speed over a run but as you can see looking at the June 11 entry below it’s all over the place. To quote William Shatner, ‘weird or what?’
Chart:
| km | Jun 11 | Jun 6 | Jun 4 | Jun 1 | May 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4:34 | 4:37 | 4:37 | 4:42 | 4:37 |
| 2 | 4:47 | 4:45 | 4:42 | 4:46 | 4:45 |
| 3 | 4:56 | 4:49 | 4:45 | 4:49 | 4:48 |
| 4 | 4:57 | 4:51 | 4:47 | 4:51 | 4:49 |
| 5 | 5:03 | 4:49 | 4:49 | 4:51 | 4:50 |
| 6 | 5:01 | 4:49 | 4:51 | 4:52 | 4:50 |
| 7 | 5:07 | 4:51 | 4:52 | 4:53 | 4:51 |
| 8 | 5:10 | 4:54 | 4:53 | 4:54 | 4:52 |
| 9 | 5:14 | 4:53 | 4:53 | 4:55 | 4:52 |
| 10 | 5:15 | 4:52 | 4:54 | 4:56 | 4:53 |
| 11 | 5:09 | 4:45 | 4:54 | 4:56 | 4:52 |
