5K

Run 408: The unexpected run with bonus Watch and nippy dog

UPDATE, August 21, 2022: Updated tags for better searching and to note this was the first run using an Apple Watch (Series 0).

Run 408
Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.0 km
Time: 28:35
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 7ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 172
Stride: n/a
Weight: 165.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 3320
Device used: Apple Watch (debut, Series 0) and iPhone 6

Here it is a mere four and a half months later and I’ve completed my next run, which I was totally not expecting.

Dedicated spambots scraping this blog for running articles may recall that my last run was on August 3rd, the first official day of my vacation. The run ended with my right hip (not actually my hip, as it later turned out) being hurt sufficiently that I knew I would be out for the rest of the summer or, as it turned out, almost the rest of the entire year.

Once I had sufficiently mended we were past summer and into fall and the days grew short and it was difficult to run after work. Running on the weekend also proved difficult because I just plain lost my mojo.

Today I had a Clif Bar for lunch (usual as I quest toward my target weight of 150) but a short while later I caved and had an apple strudel. It was loaded not only with sugar but also guilt. I had made a vow to stop snacking, and this was a clear violation. I soaked in the tub and contemplated how this, along with a planned pasta dinner, would contribute to The Fattening. I felt bad.

I decided to run.

I got changed and because this wouldn’t be an “official” run, I chose to not wear the TomTom watch. Instead I thought I’d give my fancy new Apple Watch and iPhone a workout (ho ho), using the Watch’s Activity app.

Setup was simple. I chose Outdoor Run, it advised me as this was my first run that I should run for at least 20 minutes to let the watch suss out my average pace. I planned 5K so this would not be an issue as I have not recently had bionic legs surgically attached.

I decided to walk the length of the Brunette River trail first, then start the run at the opposite end. This would get me heading in the right direction on the home stretch. I wore my usual gear, though the t-shirt was swapped for the long-sleeved version. This was not an unwise choice as it was 7ºC, not exactly tanning weather.

Upon arrival at the river trail I noted the bear sign was still up. It’s December 20th, I’m pretty sure the bears have gone south or started hibernating or whatever it is they do in the winter.

Using the watch, I selected my running music (from 1987, see previous post), chose the Outdoor Run activity and set the distance at 5 km. I tapped the Start button and three seconds later I began my first run in a good long time.

I kept the pace deliberate and actually had no trouble completing the full 5 km. A stitch threatened early on but never fully materialized and the only discomfort I felt was the usual “this is what it feels like to use certain muscles again after not using them for 18 weeks.” The left foot started to hurt but stayed tolerable. I stuffed toilet paper into the shoe to help provide extra cushioning but toilet paper squashes easily, something I forgot since I’m not in the habit of squashing it.

My pace seemed about right, given the layoff: 5:42/km. I broke the five-minute mark on the first km, slowed over the next three and picked up on the final. Again, this is all more or less normal. The BPM came in at 172, much higher than the 160 of my last run back in August. I’m not sure if this is accurate and thus worrisome, or inaccurate and no big deal.

While everything worked well enough with the Activity app, it is too self-contained and lacks some stats to really prove useful in the long term. I may try the Strava app on my next practice run, as it’s supposed to be spiffy.

Three other things of note on the run:

  • There were a lot of fishers out there and more people in general than I expected
  • As I looped back to the entrance of the trail, a Metro Vancouver worker was removing the bear sign, as if he had read my mind; for reasons unknown (conspiring with bears?) the other sign at the western end of the trail was left up
  • Some dope with a dog let his dog off-leash and while he was bent over tying his shoe on the other side of the trail, the dog came running after me, nipping and barking at my heels. It wasn’t scary so much as annoying. I shot the guy a dirty look as he called Cujo back, then observed, with no surprise, as they headed off, the dog was still unleashed. I pondered what it would take to get him to decide it was a good idea to put the leash back on (he had a leash with him). I decided nothing would because he was a stupid, selfish jerkface.

I now wait to see how my body feels tomorrow (I’m thinking a little sore but not bad). I could potentially run again in three days, but may wait until next weekend. The important thing is I ran, I survived, I worked off that strudel, and I’m curious to go out and do it again.

Run 394: The TomTom and obstacle course run

Run 394
Average pace: 5:20/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 26:53
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 27ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 864 (!)
Weight: 155.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 3204
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

First, a new milestone as I passed the 3,200 km mark. Hooray for legs that still work!

I normally run Tuesday evening but given the current heatwave and the Canada Day holiday [back bacon/maple syrup joke here] today, I opted to run this morning instead. Sure it made no difference on Sunday when the mid-morning run felt like a marathon in the Sahara but it has been trending very slightly cooler so I was hopeful.

It was 27ºC when I started–higher than I like but at least tolerable–and it was still 27ºC when the run ended. Weird! The sections of the run where I was fully exposed to ol’ Sol were still Africa hot-like but overall it was a much more bearable experience.

This was borne out by my pace, which went from 5:40/km on Sunday down to 5:20/km today. Still not great but decent enough given the conditions.

I opted for only 5K as I was also testing out a new running watch (more in a bit) and experienced no issues other than sweating, sweating and also some sweating. I deliberately ran silent again and confirmed I do not enjoy listening to my own breathing. I also earned +1 on my agility stat as less than a km in a tree had fallen across the Spruce Loop trail. It wasn’t too big so I opted to leap over it and did it in a fashion reminiscent of a clumsy or drunk gazelle. I made it, it wasn’t pretty.

There was a cyclist on the trail and riding fast as well (grr) but fortunately I encountered her after the run so my trail rage was minimal. Trail rage is a term I just made up. It refers to when I fume over things while on the trail. Usually these things are cyclists. I don’t do anything else, I just fume but trail rage sounds cooler than trail fume.

Onto the running watch!

On the weekend I picked up a TomTom Runner Cardio at Best Buy. Wearable tech is apparently a big enough thing that Best Buy now devotes an entire aisle to it. I had done some research and settled on the TomTom because of generally excellent reviews and the fact that the watch has a built-in heart rate monitor, saving me having to buy and wear a heart rate monitor strap, something that had the same appeal as running in a hoop skirt. Oddly, I saw a guy running today sans shirt and he was wearing a heart rate strap. I saw another guy running topless but he was only wearing a heavy sheen of sweat.

Here is a stock image of the watch I found in the vast wilds of the Internet:

TomTom Runner Cardio
Time to run (ho ho)

Operation is pretty simple using the touch controls below the display. There’s only four buttons so your odds of screwing up are fairly low and there’s no FORMAT WATCH AND REMOVE EVERYTHING function on the watch itself that you can accidentally select.

I secured the watch firmly to my thin sissy wrist and headed off to the lake. Once there I chose the five km run option and after a few moments it found the GPS signal and told me to warm up, with a handy countdown. As I had just walked four km to the lake at a brisk pace, I started off. The watch lets you cycle through different screens while running but I was afraid to touch it on the first run so I watched the default screen which shows a circle filling in as the run progresses. When I reached the halfway point the watch vibrated and the display changed briefly to 50%. It vibrated again at 90% (500 m) which allowed me to give a final push. I do not do final pushes when it is Africa hot but it was still nice to be notified. A final buzz at 100% showed the run complete and my next question was immediately answered–if you don’t stop it keeps tracking. I tapped the controls to stop the run and it switched back to the time display, which is large and digital and makes me feel like I am in 1978 again.

For some reason the phone and watch were not synced so I ran through the process on the walk back and was able to see my stats in all their glory, including for the first time my heart rate. I have no baseline to compare with but my average beats per minute (bpm) was 160. According to the TomTom MySports site this puts me firmly in “sprint mode.” I don’t know if that’s good or “oh my god what are you doing to yourself?!” when running 5K. I’ll do some research.

A nice bonus is the watch also links to my Nike+ account, allowing me to keep tracking my runs there. The only downside is I can no longer see splits on Nike+ but they show up on the TomTom site so I can still get to them there.

As MySports is a work-in-progress, I had to make an account on MapMyFitness and then link it to MySports first. It turned out I already had an account om MapMyFitness. To further link things endlessly, I next connected MapMyFitness to MyFitnessPal. In the end, this means my runs will automatically be posted on MyFitnessPal where I currently have an 884-day login streak going. As my Fitbit Aria scale and Fitbit One are also linked, this more or less means my every movement and weight gain/loss is being monitored to a level worthy of the NSA.

And I’m okay with that.

Run 393: The sounds of silence with bonus extra hot heat

Run 393
Average pace: 5:40/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.14 km
Time: 29:11
Weather: Sunny and hot, humid; some high cloud
Temp: 31-33ºC
Wind: nil to moderate
Calories burned: 371
Weight: 157.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3199
Device used: iPhone 6

With the extended forecast promising hot weather and plenty of it, I opted to head out mid-morning for today’s run, when the temperatures were going to be merely in the mid-20s.

When I got to the lake I checked the weather app and it reported the temperature as 33ºC. As you might notice, this is not mid-20s.

I decided to go ahead and run anyway, setting up for a 10K, but not overly optimistic that I would last that long.

I somehow managed to trigger the countdown on the Nike+ app after carefully putting the phone in my SPI-belt, so I took off. It was then I realized no music was playing. I had a good pace going, so the idea of stopping to get the music playing was not overly appealing. The idea of trying to fish out the phone, start the music, then put the phone back in the SPI-belt while still running seemed laughable.

I kept running, with only my delightful wheezing serving as accompaniment. On the other hand, I got to hear birds chirping, which I normally never do. I believe the chirps interpreted to, “Man, it sure is hot today. Boy howdy.”

My pace took a big hit after 1K, which was not surprising. Nor was the big drop after 2K. It was 33ºC, after all. By about the fourth km, I had settled into a steady, if sluggish pace. I didn’t feel as sluggish as I actually was, probably thanks to an intermittent breeze and the sun being at my back rather than staring me in the face.

But the course forward was clear and uninviting. After hitting 5K I unzipped the SPI-belt to take the phone out and end the run. Then I changed my mind and zipped the belt back up. Then I repeated the entire thing again, once more changing my mind. At this point, the phone burbled “Workout paused” because my fiddling had apparently managed to invoke whatever magic command pauses a workout without specifically trying to do so. I glanced down and saw my pace was 5:40/km–yikes.

I ended the run.

I don’t feel too bad about stopping. The last two km my pace was creeping over 5:50/km and I wasn’t particularly enjoying myself. I hydrated before starting out so didn’t feel overly dry after (the walk back home felt worse for being parched, really) but obviously at these temperatures there is concern over dehydration and heatstroke.

The secret is to start running at 6 a.m. or something.

Also, I’ve decided I don’t like the SPI-belt/iPhone 6 combo. Separately each is fine but they are obviously not really designed for each other. On top of the no-music, I also had this weird thing where the cord on the left earbud kept tugging with each step (you step a lot in nearly 30 minutes of running). I don’t know if I never noticed this before when music would normally be playing or if it was new, but it was fantastically annoying. It made me think of getting wireless earphones until I found out how much they cost. I then chalked the tugging up to being a weird one-time thing.

I did, however, pick up a running watch after. More on that later.

Run 390: The still slow mid-week run

Run 390
Average pace: 5:27/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.06 km
Time: 27:36
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22-24ºC
Wind: moderate to breezy
Calories burned: 374
Weight: 157.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3179
Device used: iPhone 6

Tuesday’s run was delayed a day because I was feeling strangely tired and in fact I didn’t go into work today (Wednesday). After sleeping in and supposedly shaking off whatever is afflicting me I decided to try a run at the lake early in the afternoon.

The walk there was noticeably slower than usual, an ominous sign–though I didn’t feel awful or anything. I headed out and didn’t feel bad but didn’t feel great, either. I made an effort to not push so I wasn’t expecting to set any land speed records.

I had two big drops, 11% after 2 km and an unexpected 4% drop for the last km. These combined to give me a mediocre pace of 5:27/km, six seconds slower than my previous 7K run and 13 seconds slower than my last 5K. Blargh.

The good news was no complications. The right tendon felt a bit stiff at the start but warmed up quickly. The left foot behaved right up until the very end of the walk home.

The walk home was probably the highlight. It was only fractions of a second off my fastest pace for a walk that length (about 9 km). I was ranting in my head about things I am unhappy about and this apparently translates directly into walking speed. I may have to apply it to my next run.

The other highlight was how quiet the trail was. I miss mid-afternoon weekday runs. I’m not anti-social but a trail sans people is nice for a solo runner. Maybe I’m a little anti-social.