After noting that the first day of summer was poop, I will now note that the ninth day of summer has been a bit of an overachiever. I’m not sure if we broke a record but it looks like it will have hit at least 32ºC in New Westminster today. As they say, Africa hot.
Death Valley was expected to get up to 54ºC (130ºF) today, which is not Africa hot but Stupid hot.
This is when the global warming deniers tend to stay quiet.
Given the extreme heat, I did the sensible thing and ran. Three times in the past two days, ho ho.
Average pace: 5:08/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.2 km
Weather: Sun
Temp: 28ºC
Wind: nil
Calories burned: 378
Total distance to date: 2250 km
My plan today was to do a regular run–walk to the lake, run around it then walk back. It was a nice plan. Then we got blasted with an unusually potent high pressure ridge for this time of year and when I headed out around 2 p.m. the temperature had soared to 28ºC.
The good news is my feet held up fine.
The less good news is because after a few km in I decided there was no way I was going to run 10+ km in this crazy heat. On the one hand it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The old saw is “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” but in this case the high heat was matched with more humid conditions than normal and while that, coupled with the lack of wind, made the run much more difficult, it also meant that I felt far less dehydrated than I have on runs with lower temperatures.
Nonetheless, I got to Still Creek, the unofficial halfway point and then walked the rest of the way home. The pace was quite a bit slower than Wednesday at 5:08 but I can’t say I’m surprised or disappointed.
The heat also stirred up the bugs, apparently. For the first time in about two years I got bit, coming home to find a big red bite right in the middle of the right shin. A little Calamine worked wonders and kept me from scratching like mad.
Because I only ran 5K I am tentatively planning to run again tomorrow, either earlier in the morning or, more likely, later in the evening.
Average pace: 5:18/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran optional Piper Mill, Spruce Loop and Conifer trails
Distance: 11.05 km
Weather: Cloudy, light sprinkles
Temp: 22ºC
Wind: nil
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2235 km
With my left foot still being stupid and my new Merrell shoes feeling more barefoot than my other pairs of minimalist shoes, I decided it might be better to run for awhile using more traditional trail runners and so yesterday I picked up a pair of Nike LunaryFly +3’s. Image:
I tried my usual size 8.5 first but they felt a little snug for my liking. The size 9’s seemed better while not feeling at all loose. As a bonus my toes had a little more wiggle room, something that was an issue with the MT 1010s.
Unfortunately my test of the new shoes was somewhat invalidated by my left foot being sore before I headed out, mainly due to doing a lot of household chores in the morning. Nonetheless, the more cushiony feel was apparent immediately and the walk and first 3 km or so of the run were not bad.
The right tendon was rusty and it and the left foot fought for attention for awhile but as always the right tendon settled down once I was warmed up and was a non-factor for most of the run.
Speaking of warmed up, it was 22ºC, which is not that hot, but it was also very humid and there was no real breeze at all. The muggy conditions had their usual energy-draining effect, most obviously seen in the second half of the run where I settled into a very steady but slower pace. That was also aided by the left foot, of course.
Some hours after the foot doesn’t hurt to walk on but I can still feel it. It’s starting to bug me that it’s not getting any better, though I have to admit running regularly is probably not helping a whole lot. I’m quietly hoping the doctor says it’s okay to run and am toying with the idea of splitting one of the weekly runs into a pair of shorter 5K runs to minimize the impact (ho ho) on my feet.
Given the weather and the foot, I can’t say I’m surprised or disappointed by the 5:18/km pace. I do wonder if/when I’ll break the 5:00 minute mark on a longer run again. Thumbs up for the Nike shoes, however. They probably helped, even if only a little, on the walk back with the extra support over a minimalist shoe.
Average pace: 5:25/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran optional Piper Mill, Spruce Loop and Conifer trails
Distance: 11 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25-26ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2178 km
Blergh.
Here’s today’s run in handy list form because as always, I really like lists:
The Good: My left foot does not seem to be getting worse. It may be getting better but at a rate that can be generously called slow. I also completed the full 11 km loop around the lake. It was also not raining.
The Bad: It was right on the edge of being warm enough to be uncomfortable. That was tolerable, especially with the sun lower for the second half of the run. The bad part was the complete lack of wind combined with the late afternoon warmth meant it was very muggy and the air had that ‘sucking the energy out of you’ quality to it.
Also in the bad department: my right tendon was twinging more often than not. It still isn’t painful but it’s discouraging to spend only a small portion of a run’ in the zone’ where I’m thinking about other things and not the constant ping of various discomforts. The right knee even made its presence known again near the beginning, although it settled down. And not forgetting the left shin which is growing a bit tender due to the number of runs I’ve put in now. This is the closest I have to a normal side effect of the running right now.
The Blah: I have not been as impressed with the MT1010s as I was with my MT110s, possibly the best running shoes evar. I still can’t part with them despite having put a combined 1400 km of running and walking on them. In all that distance I never had the laces come untied.
Today the MT1010 laces came untied. Twice. The first time was the right shoe a little under 2 km in. I ran to the 2K mark and used the bridge near the Nature House to prop my foot up to tie the lace. At the same time I paused my workout. When the lace was tied, I hit the home button on the iPod, as the screen had shut off. This apparently ends a workout. My run was now declared officially complete at a whopping 2 km.
Undaunted, I started a new run and kept going. Exactly 2 km later the left shoe came untied. This time I didn’t pause the workout, I just bent down, tied it as quickly as I could (overheating all the while) and took off again). Amazingly both laces remained tied for the rest of the run.
The one sliver of good news in all this is my pace combined over the two runs looks like it was 5:25/km, a minor improvement over the previous run. But what a miserable trip to get there.
For the next run I’m going to swap the old braided laces from the MT110s to the 1010s to prevent more untyings.
Average pace: 4:38/km Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 6.01 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25-28ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 433
Total distance to date: 2103 km
On Friday afternoon I felt a scratchiness in my throat. By Saturday my sinuses, throat and chest were all in agreement–I had caught the same bug as Jeff, just as he is recovering from his bout. On the plus side I got a handy preview of what to expect.
Saturday was fairly mellow, with lots of napping and then a long night’s sleep, so I decided to still head out for my run today and go as far as I could manage, hoping optimally for a complete loop around the lake.
My first tactical error was doing the full 30+ minute walk to the lake instead of cheating and riding the SkyTrain. Combined with the unusually warm weather (it started close to 25ºC and went up nearly three degrees while I was out) meant that I was already at a somewhat low reserve right from the start.
I headed off and the left foot was annoying me again but was bearable. The heat was less so. I was feeling parched not too far in and it only got worse. I maintained a decent pace despite this but could feel my strength ebbing away. As I neared the five km mark I decided I’d push to Still Creek, the unofficial halfway point, then walk to the Burnaby Lake SkyTrain station.
As I neared the bridge on the creek I momentarily toyed with the idea of continuing but quickly tossed it aside because my mouth was cotton and my stamina was gone (collapsing spectacularly over the last half km). I still managed 6 km and an average pace of 4:38/km so I’m pleased at the effort, given the conditions.
Average pace: 4:34/km<– personal record (for runs over 10K) Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 11.50 km
Weather: Sunny, warm
Temp: 17-20ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 780
Total distance to date: 1886 km
Ran Piper Mill trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
I had two goal for today’s run:
Start earlier to beat the heat (for real, this time).
Improve my sluggish pace of 4:44/km on Monday’s run.
Related to #2 was the fact that today is my birthday and I wanted to reverse the trend of getting slower over the past four runs to prove that turning one year older did not mean I was actually slowing down.
The good news is that I not only beat Monday’s pace, I came in at 4:34/km, my fastest 10K+ time to date, besting my previous best of 4:45 on September 9th.
I set records for:
fastest 1K: 4:19
fastest 5K: 22:15
fastest 10K: 45:23
fastest mile: 6:57
It was already warm when I started out but fortunately the earlier start meant it only got as high as 20ºC by the time I completed the run. My energy level remained fine throughout.
My only real issue again was bugs, specifically giant clouds of them that are impossible to avoid. I actually lost count of how many landed on my glasses or got stuck to my sweat-covered face. Bleah. Why can’t these things find a nice pile of poop to socialize on?
I also came close to crushing a dog under my foot. A woman was walking a tiny black ball of fur that on closer inspection turned out to be some kind of dog. As I jogged by the unleashed dog decided it wanted to playfully run alongside me. I didn’t see it until it was beside my right foot. If, at that point, a root had appeared in front of me, I would have automatically stepped to the right and smooshed the dog. Dear dog owners: the leash bylaw is not there because the city hates dogs or enjoys being mean to dog owners. It is there to protect everyone — including the dog itself!
Other than that, the run hummed along nicely, with a low, steady decline instead of a lot of hills and valleys.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.71 km
Weather: Sunny, warm
Temp: 20-25ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 794
Total distance to date: 1875 km
Ran Piper Mill trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
I got off to a later-than-intended start for my morning run and didn’t get started until 11 a.m. By then it was already 20ºC and climbing rapidly. Rather than risk getting blocked by construction equipment on the Brunette river trail, I opted to take the SkyTrain to Production Way and walk to Burnaby Lake from there (it’s 11 minutes from the station). I headed off counter-clockwise and the only hitch during the run was a close encounter with a trail-hogging Metro Vancouver mower. The driver kindly gestured for me to go around on the side without the whirring blades of death. I did so.
The first half of the run felt fairly close to my pace as of late, somewhere in the 4:35-39 range but the second half I began to really feel the growing heat and started to wilt like the delicate flower I am when it comes to running in warmer temperatures. By the end my pace was 4:44/km. That would have been a personal record in July. Now it’s decidedly average. Such is the way of progress. On a more positive note the soreness in my legs is all but gone now.
This was also the first run in awhile where I actually stopped and drank at the end. The well water near the Cariboo Dam is always cool and yummy after a run. Less yummy were the huge numbers of bugs once again. I had four hit and stick to my glasses and one refused to budge even after I blew hurricane force wind on it. That ain’t easy when you’re running, either! I’m pretty sure I swallowed a few, too and had a couple more glue to my face for good measure. I can definitely do without them.
The bear mentioned in the title is because the bear signs have reappeared along the trail, like so:
I did not and do not wish to see any bears while running. The bugs, birds, squirrels, snakes and occasional coyote are already enough.
Location: Brunette river trail, Lower Hume Park
Distance: 5.32 km
Weather: Sun, high cloud
Temp: 20-22ºC
Wind: light to nil
Calories burned: 361
Total distance to date: 1817 km
This morning’s run sucked.
After having a convenient detour pointed out to me by Jeff, I headed out at 9 a.m. It was already 20º C so I knew an afternoon run would have been all kinds of Africa hot, possibly for the last time this summer. My plan was to run Brunette river trail to the fenced-off bridge, take the trail up to the train tracks then cross over all three sets to the other side, where a (unknown to me) trail continues on, following a road that loops back to Cariboo Road. This would add some distance to my run but would otherwise be no big thing. Best of all: no running on railroad ties.
The first sign of trouble was a construction guy standing at the entrance to the river trail. I asked him if I’d be able to get to the bridge. He said a flatbed truck with trailer would be arriving shortly and backing down the trail (!) but other than that I was good to go to the bridge.
It turned out I misunderstood him. He was explaining that the overpass that is part of the Highway 1 expansion would be as far as I could get and it is some ways before the bridge. Indeed, as I approached it I could see the mega-crane truck positioned squarely across the trail and further fencing insuring there would be no passage. My detour route was blocked by another detour.
There is an access road that leads north off the trail a few hundred meters back from the overpass so I ran back and climbed up it. The rail tracks were here but to their left was a nice flat area suitable for running. Some construction equipment was off to the side. I could see the overpass in the distance and as I got closer it became obvious that the construction around and on it would block any attempts to get through. It makes sense that they wouldn’t want Joe Pedestrian waltzing (or jogging) through, so I turned back and simply headed off the trail, passing the flatbed truck and construction guy on the way out. The slow speed of the truck at least saved me from another mega dust cloud.
I stopped the run at Lower Hume Park, covering 5.32 km. My pace was a zippy 4:33/km but a 5K run seems kind of short these days so I didn’t really revel in it. The pool at the main Hume Park was already drained, which looked odd on a day when it would have been packed, another reminder that summer is winding down.
My new new detour plan that I’m going to try out tomorrow morning is to take the SkyTrain to either Production Way or Sperling, walk to the lake, run the loop then head back to the SkyTrain station. I’ll be timing the route to see how well it will work with the fading light of early evening. Now I just have to hope they don’t suddenly decide to take the entire SkyTrain offline tomorrow for maintenance or something.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Distance: 11.8 km
Weather: Sunny, humid, warm
Temp: 20-22ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 800
Total distance to date: 1722 km
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
Friday afternoon Environment Canada put out an ozone warning for the eastern part of the Lower Mainland, basically telling old and sick people to stay inside otherwise the air might kill them. Although I am neither sick nor elderly it seemed like good advice with temperatures still in the low 30s by early evening, so I opted to skip my usual Friday run in favor of a Saturday morning run.
I headed out today at 8 a.m. and it was still a pleasant 20ºC. It rose to 22ºC over the course of the run, which is still entirely manageable. Humidity was very high and that did slow me up a little but the lower temperatures made running overall much less difficult than on some recent days.
I don’t know if it’s a weekend or morning thing as I usually don’t run during either but no less than six people said hi or ‘good morning’ to me as I walked to the lake.Normally the number of people doing this is zero, so this was about the friendliest pre-run warm-up ever.
The run itself went fine for the most part. I got a bit gassy around the 7K mark and my pace took a notable dip but I recovered about one km later. I had a similar dip midway through the 10K mark due to Gas: The Sequel. But overall I found the pace of 4:51/km pretty decent for the conditions. I shudder to imagine what an afternoon run might have been like.
And the branches were moved off the trail. Woo! You may be thinking it was industrious beavers looking to fortify a dam but it appears someone finally just moved the branches over to the side. Thank you, branch movers!
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 5.14 km
Weather: Sun, hot
Temp: 30ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 349
Total distance to date: 1710 km
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.
Today it rose to about 32ºC by mid-afternoon, which is silly-hot for this area and way too warm to run in. I decided to wait until about 6 p.m. to head out, starting my run around 6:45 p.m. By then it had cooled all the way down to…30ºC.
But with the sun lower in the sky, it made enough of a difference to make the run bearable. The air was still thick and heavy and my mouth started drying out almost immediately. I think I could have done a full loop around the lake but without any hydration it would have been very uncomfortable. Instead, I opted for a brisk 5K jog, running along the north side of the trail to the midway point then coming back using the three optional side trails, forming a nice pseudo-loop. Even nice, the side trails were not crowed with groups of people. I had forgotten how much busier the main trails were in the early with packs of joggers, walkers and the occasional dog (sometimes even on a leash!)
At the end of the run Lance Armstrong congratulated me on my longest workout ever, which was nice. And completely wrong. It wasn’t even my fastest 5K (that one–23:16–was tucked inside an 11.5 km run on July 2nd).
I’m going to be busy during the days for a bit so my next batch o’ runs will be in the evening unless I switch to doing one or two on the weekend instead. We shall see how or if this affects my pace.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.38 km
Weather: Sun, muggy and warm
Temp: 26ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 807
Total distance to date: 1705 km
Note: this post was made four days late because I forgot. Oops! As such it is light on details.
It was 26ºC for the run, higher than I like and on top of that it was pretty muggy, which made for a sluggish run. It seemed like every part of the trail where the sun shone down directly also had no wind at all, resulting in that icky feeling of ‘swimming’ through the air.
Despite the weather I still managed a pace of 4:55/km, not bad considering and a bit better than runs under similar conditions.
Other than the heat I had my fourth (!) encounter with a snake. This time it was an itty bitty one, which made it even harder to spot. My foot nearly came down on it as it slithered across the trail and into the grass. For having no legs snakes can really boogie. It was probably trying to get out of the sun, just like me.
Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 11.32 km
Weather: High cloud, some sun, warm
Temp: 25-27ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 803
Total distance to date: 1671 km
The original forecast today was sunny and hot then changed to mostly cloudy and cooler, with a high of 27. The morning was sunny and clear, however, and I fully expected it to turn into a scorcher so I altered my schedule and left for my run at 10 a.m.
It was 25ºC then and rose to 27 over the course of the run. It clouded over and actually got cooler in the afternoon. Yes, by trying to beat the weather I went out of my way to run in what still turned out to be the hottest part of the day. Feh.
I also did an unplanned walk of around 11 km yesterday and that left me feeling a little more tired and my pace was a somewhat sluggish 4:58/km as a result.
Other than it still being hotter than I care for the run itself was unremarkable. Someone managed to bust the faucet by the Cariboo dam so I had to walk to Lower Hume Park for my post-run drink. That kind of sucked. And I still seem slower running counter-clockwise when it’s hot out. I’m not entirely sure why. But there were no dog, snake, bike or other incidents so I’m going to call this run a qualified success.
While walking yesterday I got a pic of the fallen branches that were still there today and will apparently be there forever:
