7K

Today I decided to finally edge out past my summer of 5K runs, to see if the knees would survive a longer run. My goal was to run at a more modest pace and to go 7..5 km. As a bonus, this would, combined with my 2.5(ish) km mini-run last week, allow my stats to once again be nice round numbers in terms of distance (I did fudge the numbers a little, but by actually under-reporting, to make things neat ‘n tidy).

I found a nice pace and kept at it fairly steadily throughout the run, resulting in a BPM of 151, just shy of my preferred target of 150. This gave me an overall average pace of 5:50/km, which, while slower than I’ve been lately, is still perfectly cromulent.

In terms of stamina, there was no issue at all. I could have done 10 km, but didn’t want to overly stress the knees by doubling my usual distance. So far they seem to have come through without exploding or anything. The hip was relatively well-behaved during the run, too.

Weather-wise, it was close to ideal: 13C, cloudy and with only a very light breeze. The trail was also much emptier than Monday. which was nice. I did pass a cyclist on the Cottonwood Trail, but she was moving slowly and had her head down, as if she knew she was being a Bad Person, so it didn’t bother me much. Worse was one of those bite-size dogs getting under my feet post-run as I climbed the staircase between Lower and Upper Hume Park. It was off-leash and the owner was definitely a Bad Person.

Overall, though, a fine run, and I’m hoping to do a full 10K soon™.

Stats:

Run 815
Average pace: 5:50/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:31 a.m.
Distance: 7:51 km
Time: 43:51
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 13-14ºC
Humidity: 85%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 168.1
Total distance to date: 5955 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (90/175.5/265.5 km)

I split the difference between a 5K and 10K today, running 7K and cleverly thinking I’d get my total distance stat to something nice and even. But I misremembered and should have run 8K for that, so now it is listed as 5339 km and it makes my OCD twitch a bit.

That said, the run itself went fine overall. I felt good and could have gone the full 10K without any issue. It was considerably cooler at 9C, but I wore two layers up top and never felt cold. My pace stayed fairly steady, too, with only a slight dip midway through. My BPM was a little higher than the norm, but I chalk that up to not having run this much in a few weeks, plus the significantly lower temperature. It was still fine, though.

I only saw two other people running.

The weather had called for showers and while it did rain before I headed out, it changed to intermittent spitting on the way to the lake, then stopped entirely, making for a pleasantly dry run, save for a bit of puddle navigation.

There were a few small technical hiccups:

• At about the 3 km mark I felt what seemed to be a piece of gravel slipping into my right shoe. After a few more steps it slipped under my heel and began boring into it with each step. I paused the run to remove it. My glasses steamed up, which I found mildly amusing. No further gravel made its way in, but I’ll keep an eye on the new Peregrine 12s to see that they aren’t like the old Brooks Cascadia Scoopers¹not the actual name but it could have been! I used to run with, that seemed specifically designed to scoop gravel off the trail and deposit it into your shoes.
• Before leaving home, I always check the AirPods to make sure both buds are fully charged. There is an issue where sometimes, for reasons Apple has never explained nor remedied, one of the buds will fail to charge, so it will sit snug in the charging case and deplete itself. This morning I did not check the AirPods before leaving. You can guess what happened next. It took about 10 minutes to get the right bud back up to 55%, which was enough to last the run and the walk home. While the glitch is Apple’s fault, I should have known better than to invoke it by not checking first.
• Between the 6 and 7K mark I went to check my heart rate and saw instead the little spinning circles that means, “Heart rate? What is this heart rate thing? Are you sure there is a heart here?” I hit pause and just as I did I could see the BPM kick in. I unpaused, and it was 168, which is basically impossible. But I just ignored it as the anomaly it was and hoped it would correct itself, but it shows the 7th km as 165, which still seems way too high for how fast I was running. I really don’t want to get a new watch, but I’m not sure if I trust this one anymore.

Despite the glitches, it was nice to get out and aboot again. We’ll see how the weather is on Wednesday, as we’re now in “the weather can change multiple times a day” part of the year.

After last night’s rain, the dam was releasing a lot more water than it has of late:

Stats:

Run 725
Average pace: 5:54/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:41 a.m.
Distance: 7.04 km
Time: 41:37
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 9ºC
Humidity: 92%
Wind: light to nil
BPM: 155
Weight: 159.9
Total distance to date: 5339 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (17 km)

Quite often I will think about what I will write about a run while I’m still actually out running. For example, I knew that today’s entry would be titled “The internal battle” shortly before the running part ended (and when the internal battle also ended).

When I went out today, I was planning on taking it a bit easier, because I was expecting it to be warmer and still humid. In fact, the forecast this morning even specifically mentioned it would be humid:

When I left it was 22C, but it rose to 24C by the time I got to the lake and ticked up another degree during the run. Humidity was in the mid-60s, which is gross, but if you look at the previous run, you might be thinking, “Humidity was even higher then, yet you did a lot better. Why? Has science been lying to us all this time?” And the answer is: I don’t know why, exactly!

But there seems to be some magic line where if the temperature is X and humidity is Y, then the run will be POO. Today it reached into the POO zone. I did handicap myself a bit by running counter-clockwise, which is the “harder” route–it starts out all technical and windy and doesn’t offer any nice straight stretches until you get to the Cottonwood Trail about 3 km in. Conversely, running clockwise starts you on the Avalon Trail, which is perfectly straight, save for one gentle curve. After that, the trail tends to slope gently downhill for much of the way.

So, there was that. But I started out okay. The hip was fine for the first few km, then when I could feel it, it was muted, not really a factor. But the humidity really wore on me. By the sixth km, the bottom began to fall out, with a pace of 6:22/km. After 7 km, it had fallen further to a yuck-o 6:32/km. This is where the internal battle began and while it lasted only a few moments, it went something like this:

Sensible Me: You’re not going for a personal record, you planned on taking it easier today, there’s no shame in ending the run a bit earlier than planned!

My Ego: Do you want to be a quitter? You can make up time on the Avalon Trail. If you stop now, you’ll only have done one measly 10K this week! Sure, no one will really know or care, but YOU’LL know! Keep going, hoser!

My Ego, after some more thought: You know, if your pace continues to flag, it’s going to drag down your average and look bad. Maybe cut your losses now and look better!

Yes, in my mind, my ego calls me a hoser.

The call was pretty easy to make. My pace was falling off a cliff, so I listened to both Sensible Me and Me Ego, after some more thought. To prove the hip was fine, I did run a decent amount for the remainder of the 3K around the lake and felt fine.

However, when I was trying to do the same on the river trail, I started experiencing stomach cramps and about half an hour after getting home had to make a beeline to the bathroom to attend to an urgent nature call. So the roiling of my gut may have had some impact that I was not fully aware of, too. At least that’s what My Ego is telling me!

In the end, it was not a bad effort and I think if I’d run clockwise and conditions had been better, it would have been perfectly fine. But I’m content with settling with “just okay” after Wednesday’s faboo run.

In fun resurfacing news: I was surprised and delighted to see that they have done some patching along the trail that borders the athletic fields. As I’ve noted before, the trail here is narrow and floods even when they just run the sprinklers on the fields, due to strangely poor drainage. Sometime in the last two days workers came in and did a couple of things: they filled potholes, shored up parts where the trail is a bit sunken and laid down what appears to be a preliminary section of new gravel along the eastern part that right-angles past the row of trees that you can see in your favorite map software:

I’m hoping this is all leading to a Grand Resurfacing™. I should know the next time I am on the trail. It may seem weird that I am kind of obsessed with this, but until you’ve had to choose between going through a long, deep puddle in the middle of your run route or detour into a marshy field that will have you sink into water past your ankles, you just can’t appreciate the anticipation of this being addressed after more than ten years.

Stats:

Run 704
Average pace: 6:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:30 a.m.
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 43:44
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 24-25ºC
Humidity: 54%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 151
Weight: 162.2
Total distance to date: 5162 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (270 km)