5K

The forecast said it would rain today. It was accurate!

I dressed in my long-sleeve shirt, light rain jacket and shorts. This proved fine. It was around 4C to start but warmed up a few degrees over the course of the run. I never felt cold, really. I did get wet. Very wet.

It poured for the entire walk to the lake and all of my 5K run. Funnily enough, the rain stopped almost exactly when I finished the run, as if the rain was synced to it. Showers returned on and off later, but still, I found the timing amusing.

Which means I didn’t mind running in the rain too much. It wasn’t windy, which helped with visibility (less rain on the glasses) and the jacket held up well, keeping me dry on the inside. I did not see another jogger on my entire loop around the lake.

While I feel I could have done 10K, I held to 5K to avoid overexerting myself. I did run most of the second half of the loop after, anyway. When I started the workout on my Forerunner watch, it actually said REST and told me to take it easy, why are you running, are you crazy? I clicked it away, assuring it I knew what I was doing, mostly.

Other than having to dodge a lot of debris again (including another new ex-tree_, I had no issues on the run and my energy level was improved over Wednesday. Other than the rain, it was actually pretty nice!

Back to 10Ks and probably more rain next week. As long as it’s not snow…

Stats:

Run 739
Average pace: 5:50/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:00 a.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 29:23
Weather: Rain
Temp: 4-7ºC
Humidity: 98%
Wind: low
BPM: 155
Weight: 165.5
Total distance to date: 5465 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (137 km)

For the first time in 16 days, I ran outside. Woo!

And an interesting run it was.

I originally planned to do a 5K on the river trail, if enough snow had melted. Indeed, that was the case, but with some snow still on the trail, I thought I might continue to the lake, to see if it might be better there. Initially it seemed to be the case, so I headed out for a 5K, with the possibility of doing more, if I felt perky enough.

I did not feel perky enough. But after clocking in a respectable 5K, I found that after around half a km of walking, I got my second wind and ended up running most of the rest of the way around the lake.

My initial blog entry for this run was going to be “Picking my steps” because the first half of the run I encountered some stretches of trail that still had enough snow to require caution, or to find a nice clear rut left by one of the putt-putt cars the parks workers use to get around. But as I continued to run, “Trail of destruction” felt like a much better fit.

Conditions were decent–cloudy and around 5C, with little to no wind. I wore two layers and running pants, but shorts and even one layer would have been fine. As mentioned, snow in some spots meant I had to be careful at times, but it didn’t affect my pace that much, really.

But I have never, in over ten years of running at Burnaby Lake, seen so much destruction in the form of downed trees, branches, bushes and other debris littering the trails. Even a lot of stuff that hadn’t collapsed was now leaning precariously over the trail, often right at eye level.

Several large trees that have been leaning over the trail for years are leaning more prominently now, and I suspect they won’t last much longer. A lot of this will be cleaned up soon, no doubt, but at the same time, we’re not even two weeks into winter, so there may be a lot more havoc to come.

Still, it was nice to finally get back out again. Friday is looking soggy so boo on that, but I’ll head out, anyway, probably doing a full 10K this time.

Stats:

Run 738
Average pace: 5:55/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:34 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:45
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 5ºC
Humidity: 98%
Wind: low
BPM: 155
Weight: 164.1
Total distance to date: 5460 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (132 km)