Run 397
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Brunette River tail, Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 7.03 km
Time: 38:17
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 30-27ºC
Wind: nil to light
BPM: 157
Stride: 197 strides/min
Weight: 156.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 3231
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio
Stats! I have removed calorie burn, as it is predictable and not overly informative as to how the run went. I have added stride and BPM (beats per minute/heart rate).
After missing my usual Tuesday run I went out and ran today (Wednesday) instead.
Although the temperature went down over the course of the run it never felt any different. It was hot and muggy in the sun, it was hot and muggy in the shade. It was just darker in the shade, that’s all. If I had to use one word to describe the quality of the conditions, it would be grossbuckets.
There are forest fires a-raging to the north and the smoke is thick enough that on Monday it was settled over the area like a fog. A very smokey fog. By Wednesday the density had eased a bit and the smokey aroma was mostly gone but the sky was still white instead of blue and the air was thick in a way that air should never be.
Surprisingly, I pulled off a decent pace of 5:26/km. This is not blazing fast (no pun intended) but considering the volume of sweat produced, I think it was pretty good. I didn’t experience any issues on the run except for it being hot and grossbuckets. When I passed by the dam I spied a pair of women sitting on the top of a picnic table, both of them smoking. There are fires all over. The air still lingers with the scent of forest fires, there’s been a no smoking ban in parks for weeks and weeks and yet there they were, happily indulging in budding lung cancer.
I note again the only times I’ve seen people smoking at the lake this year has been after the smoking ban went into effect. I expected to encounter a cyclist on the trail later and was rewarded thusly. I gave the cyclist my patented “What the hell are you doing here?” look. He seemed puzzled. I wished for his tires to spontaneously deflate but this did not happen.
Since I wasn’t doing an endurance-ish run, my BPM was up slightly, to 157 but still below my first few runs where it was hitting 160/161.
Overall, not a bad effort given the yuck of the weather.
Run 396
Average pace: 6:04/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 10.05 km
Time: 1:01:05
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 28-32ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 770
BPM: 155 <- exciting new stat
Weight: 156.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3224
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio
I normally run on Sundays but already ran yesterday and today was forecast to be hotter than yesterday, which was not exactly icy cold. The sensible thing to do would have been to take the day off.
Instead I headed out late in the morning and did another 10K run because I have obviously gone mad from the heat.
In order to minimize the agony and suffering I was about to subject myself to I opted to try out a feature on the TomTom I hadn’t used yet, which is to set a run based on one of the heart zones. I chose Endurance, as this is two levels below Sprint (what it has been clocking me at for the previous runs) and would result in a more deliberate and presumably easier pace.
TomTom has determined that my default BPM for Endurance running is 139. I hit that less than half a km in. From there it ticked up to an average of 155, which actually puts me in the Speed zone, one below Sprint. While faster than intended, it was slow enough to have the desired effect, namely the run was much more tolerable as I never pushed in any significant way. This was fortunate as the temperature started out at a very warm 28ºC and climbed to a yucky 32ºC by the time I hit the 10K mark.
Running in such a way to keep my BPM below 139 would feel almost absurdly slow, I suspect. I may try again but for now I think I’ll stick to the more traditional distance runs. Also, the default display for heart zone runs is some kind of bar graph that I found difficult to read while running, what with the moving and all.
My overall pace was 6:04/km. Normally I would find this horrifyingly slow and start shouting for someone to bring me a walker but since it was intentional, I’m okay with it. I sweated like a very sweaty person right from the start of the run. Finishing six or seven minutes sooner would likely have reduced me to a puddle on the trail.
Perhaps because of the lesser effort I experienced no real issues. My left foot did hurt again but it started later and did not hurt as much. After the run I gave it a few minutes to recover and that eliminated the pain for about the first km back and minimized it for the rest of the way, reasonably impressive given this was my second 10K run in 24 hours.
I am not doing a third 10K tomorrow, however. I’m not completely crazy yet.
Run 395
Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 10.03 km
Time: 56:32
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25-26ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 756 BPM: 161 <- exciting new stat
Weight: 155.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 3214
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio
I don’t normally run on Saturdays, but given my shifted-due-to-Africa-hot schedule this week, it was the next logical day to head out.
I headed out mid-morning to beat the expected high of 30ºC, and the temperature was warm but not stupidly hot at 25-26ºC. It felt warmer in the exposed parts of the trail but tolerable.
This was my second run using the TomTom Runner Cardio watch and the first 10K using it. It worked fine, though I sweated more, and it felt like it was slipping a few times. It wasn’t, really, as I had it secured tightly enough to leave a nuclear blast-like afterimage on my arm for a good while after the run ended and the watch was off. It did move slightly, and I pushed it up my wrist periodically to ease my paranoia that it would squip down to my hand and twirl uselessly.
I listened to music this time and it was much more entertaining than my breathing. It’s also nice to have the phone safely tucked away in the belt before the run.
After starting out I decided to try accessing some of the other screens showing assorted stats during the run. The first screen was a menu of different options that contained about a million items. I got scared I’d screw something up and just put it back to the default slowly-filling-circle screen. I’ll read up on the different options before the next run and like a good scout, be prepared.
The run itself was a middling 5:37/km–not great for a 10K but not too bad given conditions, the infrequency of 10Ks this year and the fact that the TomTom GPS is probably more accurate (and less generous) than the GPS in my iPhone. The only issue I experienced was my left foot starting to feel a bit sore around the 7K mark. It held up for the rest of the run, but did hurt noticeably on the walk home. My great footrest experiment continues, so we’ll see if the left foot holds up better on future longer runs.
While the dandy new faucet by the dam has not yet been broken, someone did remove the spigot attached to it that had ensured a narrower water flow good for filling water bottles. The spigot and its rubber washer were sitting on a post next to the faucet. Maybe someone really hates water bottles. I tried reassembling it but couldn’t manage the task, possibly because the threads on the faucet may have been partly stripped or possibly because I am as mechanically adept as a rock.
Overall, I am neither pleased nor disappointed by the run. I am happy that I got in a full 10K but will reserve judgment on the pace until I get more runs in on the watch and/or the temperatures come back down a bit.
There are probably a billion jokes about Canada floating around the web today. Everyone knows how to use Google so I’m not linking to any of them. If you use Bing I’m still not linking to them but I salute your rebellious, free-spirited nature.
For the record, this Canada Day falls midweek, which makes it kind of sucky when it comes to planning holiday activities. I’m sure there’s a petition online for recognizing the official day of confederation while moving the actual day off to the first Monday of the month, making for a nice three day weekend.
I like three day weekends and I like Canada, so I would support such an initiative.
In the meantime it continues to be hot with more hot in the forecast. With the temperature currently hovering around 30ºC the jokes about us living in igloos on vast plains of permafrost may die out in another century or two.
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:
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.
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 384 Average pace: 5:29/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 38:29
Weather: Sunny and humid
Temp: 24-26ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 519
Weight: 160.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 3137
Device used: iPhone 6
I decided to stretch a bit and do a 7K run instead of the usual weeknight 5K. I ran the river trail then headed to the lake and ran another 5K to Still Creek then made my way to the nearby Burnaby Lake SkyTrain station for a nice ride home.
My pace was 5:29/km, which is slower than my last 5K (5:15/km) but faster than my last 10K (5:39/km). With it being quite warm and muggy as well, the results are about in line with what I expected and I had no discomfort or pain, just the usual stiffness starting out.
There were plenty of other runners out enjoying the summer-like conditions, including the titular roving band, about a dozen or so jogging as a group clockwise around the lake. Even though they formed a giant, multi-legged blob on the trail, they kindly and quickly adjusted to allow me to pass by without having to throw myself into a ditch first.
I ended the run a few hundred meters from the SkyTrain station, then did a bit of a sprint on the pedestrian overpass (for some reason it almost always triggers my latent acrophobia so I like getting past it as quickly as possible). I stopped at a convenient fountain for a few welcome sips of water, then lightly jogged into the station just as a train arrived. Timing! The downside to this is I didn’t have a chance to really cool off and the olde train had no air conditioning. As I sat down my body turned into a furnace and I sweated profusely for a few minutes while waiting for my body temperature to settle back to something normal. When I got home my shirt was so bathed in sweat I actually had trouble pulling it off. This is not something I would expect to be a problem in May. All said, I’d still take it over rain.
Sunday looks like it may be cloudy and perhaps a tad cooler. We will see.
Run 353 Average pace: 5:41/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.06 km
Weather: Sunny, hot, humid
Temp: 21-31ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 734
Total distance to date: 2963
This is one to forget.
First, the good:
I finished the run.
Now the bad:
Everything else.
This was my first 10K in two and a half weeks, my first run in five days and to make thing interesting, I overslept and instead of heading out at 8 a.m. when it was relatively cool I went out after 11 a.m. when the temperature was already at 21ºC and climbing.
By the end of the run it was 31ºC. You notice a ten degree rise in temperature over 10 km.
My left foot was also feeling a bit sore before the run, was hurting 5K in and was crying mother by the 8K mark.
The first km was surprisingly spry, with a nice pace of 4:56/km but the bottom fell out after and by the sixth km my run map had changed from a ribbon of sprightly green to hellish red. I managed a minor uptick in the final km but my final pace was a horrible 5:41/km.
Conditions were appalling, with the air a thick, warm soup, the trail clogged with large groups of walkers (some sort of run/event that I never quite caught the name of, though there were hats and t-shirts), not to mention two cyclists–one actually had the courtesy to be walking his bike, the other was with the event and pulling a large carriage behind his bike. He was going too fast and came around a corner on a narrow part of the trail. I narrowly avoided collision. I almost came to a complete stop on the first boardwalk, there were so many people on it.
By the end I was just glad to be done and took solace in the fact that it couldn’t possibly be worse on the next run, unless I got eaten by a bear or hit by a derailed train. It would also likely stand as the last Africa hot run of the year. I can’t say I will miss them too terribly.
Run 349 Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.04 km
Weather: Sunny and hot
Temp: 27-30ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 743
Total distance to date: 2937
My original plan today was to get up early and run after breakfast to beat the predicted heat (a high of 27ºC). Instead I slept in and didn’t head out until noon. On top of that the temperature climbed higher than forecast, topping out around 30ºC.
This was my worst run of the year, bar none. With six days off and coming off an unimpressive previous pace of 5:21/km, I managed to be significantly slower again. It was hot, I was tired, I started out poorly (5:18 for the first km) and had no hope of recovering. Although I didn’t make any special effort, I did manage to pick up the pace a little in the final km, the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal run.
My left foot began to hurt toward the end, though I don’t believe it was a significant factor on my pace. My stomach felt off but not bad, just weirdly on the verge of cramping or something.
The calorie count is reduced because I adjusted my weight down on the iPod Nike app, from 165 pounds to today’s more svelte 159 pounds. Lighter me = fewer calories burned. I can live with that sort of trade-off.
Other than it being quite warm, the only other notable aspects of the run were a family of cyclists (grr) and how close I came to stepping on a snake (very). Mr or Mrs Snake was not crossing the trail like others have in the past but was fully stopped, perhaps enjoying the relative cool of this particular shaded section. I spotted it around the same time my foot started coming down directly on it. Fortunately snakes can really boogie when they need to and it hustled off before getting accidentally smooshed. That’s all I would have needed, the added guilt of murdering a snake to go along with being tired and over-heated.
Here’s hoping the next run is better. I’m setting the bar low on this one.
Run 341 Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Mainly sunny, some high cloud
Temp: 16-26ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 771
Total distance to date: 2857
Another early start to beat the heat and with the high forecast at a sizzling 36ºC I had plenty of motivation to get out there before the rubber started melting on the soles of my runners.
I had a strong start and this had me hopeful early on as I ran clockwise through the nicely shady Avalon trail. I kept up a good pace right through to the 5K mark. A dip at the 6K mark can be attributed to two factors: a stitch that was threatening (but never kicked in, fortunately) and the fact that this also coincided with one of the few uphill stretches of the run, just past Still Creek, ascending toward the Cottonwood trail.
At this point my pace settled in at a slightly slower level. The temperature, much like last Monday, was rising very rapidly by this point and the last few km I was beginning to tire, enough so that I couldn’t rally for the last 400 m push.
I did end up with an overall pace of 5:14/km, a full nine seconds better than the previous run and edging closer to my 5K times, so I am pleased overall with the results.
The weather this week appears to be very unsettled, with lower temperatures and the possibility of thunderstorms or good old-fashioned rain. Our Africa Hot summer may be winding down at last.
Bonus coyote sighting: I forgot to mention a few runs back I encountered not one but two gold and black snakes doing that slithering thing across the trail. The first had already crossed and was already in the grass (just like a snake). The second was only making his way across and actually seemed a bit sluggish, like he was feeling lazy. Can snakes feel lazy? Anyway, the point is there are animals out and aboot now.
This was made even more explicit as I walked back along the Brunette River trail. I spotted a dog walking along the trail ahead of me and saw no sign of any owner. The dog also seemed to be walking not like a dog. It’s hard to describe. A moment later I realized it was a coyote, about the size of a medium dog. I knew the exact moment it detected my presence because it suddenly started trotting toward the fence and slipped into the restoration area. It emerged atop a large upturned stump and watched warily as I passed by. I smiled at it. It probably thought I was an idiot.
After getting a safe distance past it got off the stump and disappeared off to do whatever coyotes do. Hunt lazy snakes, maybe.
Run 338 Average pace: 5:29/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce Loop, Conifer Loop and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 16-26ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 771
Total distance to date: 2827
This was the earliest I’ve headed out on a run, taking advantage of my vacation time to skip sleeping in and run lots instead.
I headed out shortly before 8 a.m. and officially started my run at 8:33 a.m. The temperature was showing around 16ºC when I left, though it was probably a bit warmer by the time I started, and was up to 26ºC (!) when I finished, though it was perhaps a degree or two lower given how rapidly it was rising.
Still, it was noticeably cooler on the run–not actually cool, mind you, just cooler than the sweltering jungle-like heat that has persisted for such an unusually long time. I actually saw dew on shaded grass!
I started out clockwise and was perhaps not surprised to encounter many other joggers and walkers taking advantage of the early morning temperature. It seemed a bad omen when I encountered a cyclist right at the start but I spotted no others after that and apart from someone smoking (this seems inevitable once they post the “Fire Danger – No Smoking” signs, everyone else was being polite and such.
I could tell I was slower from the start but my objective today was not to break any land speed records, but to simply complete a full loop of the lake, something I hadn’t done since July 6–almost a full month ago. I was partly successful in that I did 10K and could have kept going but given my slower pace, the loop would have ended a bit shy of the 11K mark and I like even numbers so 10K it was.
If my pace improves even a small amount for the next run I should be able to so a full 11K.
Other than the slow pace of 5:29/km–and that was proportionally faster than my last 5K–the body held up fairly well. My left foot and hip both behaved and I only felt a slight stitch in my side for a few km toward the end. It affected my pace but probably not by more than a few seconds and wasn’t entirely unexpected given how long it’s been since I’ve done a full run.
Still, this leaves me confident that I can manage at least the same if not better on Wednesday. We shall see.
Run 337 Average pace: 5:22/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce Loop, Conifer Loop and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 2.53 km
Weather: Sunny and very muggy
Temp: 31ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 195
I thought I had my salvation with me for this run–a water bottle, woo! I tried using it with the included belt but the belt just felt too weird and bulky so I ended up just carrying the bottle. It wasn’t a big bother, I just switched off hands occasionally. As a bonus, each hand I switched from suddenly felt much lighter.
But having the water bottle ended up not helping because unlike Tuesday’s run, this one was much more humid, so I wasn’t drying out the same way. Instead I was sweating out my own body weight in, uh, sweat. It was so muggy and hot that I began to feel a little nauseous about 2 km in and decided to pull the plug at the halfway mark and walk the rest of the way.
Of the summers I’ve been jogging, this has been the Africa hot-iest by far. But with three weeks of vacation ahead I can now start running in the morning before the earth is fully baked. I’m hoping it makes for a welcome change.
