My knees said, “Go for a run today, but be gentle!” so I did a 5K at the river, with only the walk to the river to warm up.
The weather was mild, so I wore one layer and it was sufficient. There was little wind today, too, which helped. It did shower a bit, but it was more an intermittent drizzle and wasn’t really a factor, other than being slightly annoying.
I tried to keep to a BPM of 150–and succeeded! Somehow the peaks and dips averaged out, with a pace of 5:43/km, which is about right for the river trail at that BPM. My knees and legs still feel fine after, so I’m hoping that I am officially on the mend from doing whatever it is I did to get the knees all bothered. I’ll do another 5K on Friday to round out the week, with the river or the lake being determined by what my knees tell me.
A bonus shot of some flowers blossoming along the river:
Stats:
Run 774Average pace: 5:45/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 11:07 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:48
Weather: Light showers, cloudy
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 83%
Wind: low
BPM: 150
Weight: 167.5
Total distance to date: 5755 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (427 km)
Today’s stats look a little weird because today’s run was a little weird.
The Garmin Forerunner 255 has a “Daily Suggested Workout” feature you can toggle on, and it does just what it says–it gives you a suggested workout, taking into account your current condition/recovery state and the like.
I decided instead of my usual 10K to do whatever it suggested. It suggested this:
4x 8-minute runs, 6:00 min/km pace
4x 3-minute recovery segments, 8:00 min/km pace
1x 10-minute cooldown run, 7:00 min/km pace1Note: The recovery and cooldown paces may be slightly off because my mind was sufficiently traumatized by them, as will be explained below.
All of the above are at paces below what I normally run at. As an example, my Friday 10K run had an average pace of 5:41/km, so stepping that down to 6:00/km was surprisingly difficult. The watch constantly told me I was going too fast. It took most of the first segment to finally find something in the acceptable range.
For the 3-minute segments, I had to adopt a weird, very brisk walking pace, because any kind of running was too fast. For the cooldown at the end, I was able to run. In fact, I had to run, but only just barely. I felt like a horse trotting down the trail, but this was probably where the watch yelled at me the least.
You get a performance score at the end and it’s based on not how fast you move, but how much time you spent in the range for each segment. I got a 75/100, which is considered Good.
For the actual being outdoors part, the weather was fine–cloudy, but calm. Because it’s a holiday the trail was packed full of people, dogs and bikes, but everyone was well-behaved.
The tendons around my knees were straining a bit for the start, but felt fine after warming up. I think they’ll be okay, but may ice them a bit to keep down any potential swelling. There’s no pain, just some stiffness.
Tomorrow I would not normally run, but I’ll see what the daily suggested workout is and figure out if I want to do it or not.
Overall, it was a strange experience. My BPM was slightly higher than Friday at 154, but I think that was actually stress in trying to stay within the range of each segment. Physically, the run was no big deal, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to use my brain so much.
I’m counting this as a 10K run because it was close enough, plus I walked to and from the river trail. Also, I get to make the rules here!
Stats:
Run 770Average pace: 6:27/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 9:50 a.m.
Distance: 9.48 km
Time: 1:01:11
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 7ºC
Humidity: 97%
Wind: low
BPM: 154
Weight: 164.6
Total distance to date: 5735 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (407 km)
After not running my normal schedule this week for various reasons, I set about to do a run today. And then a downpour started. I had already changed, which meant the chance of me skipping out was actually quite small.
I waited out the downpour and then headed out, opting to do a shorter 5K run on the river trail. It would be shorter, sure, but also faster. Plus, it was still showering, and I’ll admit, I just didn’t feel like running a 10K in the rain.
It wasn’t that bad, though. I wore two layers and never felt cold, despite it being 7C, and had no issues other than feeling just a touch stiff at the start, given the four days of not-running.
There were a few people out walking because some people will go out for a walk in any kind of weather–usually with a dog–but overall, it was a pretty quiet outing and in a way, kind of nice. I mean, I’m not saying I want to keep doing runs in the rain, but the river trail is a very different running experience and change is good and all that.
Stats:
Run 767Average pace: 5:35/km
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 12:56 p.m.
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 28:08
Weather: Showers
Temp: 7ºC
Humidity: 90%
Wind: low
BPM: 152
Weight: 163.7
Total distance to date: 5705 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (377 km)
After working fruitlessly on my PC this morning (though inside the case is a lot less dusty now), I opted to do a shorter run this afternoon. This also allowed me to miss the rain (yay). It was 7C and felt quite mild. I wore two layers up top (no jacket) and never felt chilly. As usual, there was little wind.
I ran the river trail and after declining the suggested run on my Forerunner, set out on a more relaxed 5K, as demonstrated by the low BPM of 148. Despite this, my overall pace was still 5:50/km, which is entirely respectable.
The pace varied quite a bit during the run, too. Observe:
2nd km: 6:01 5th km: 5:35
Overall, I felt quite good, not straining or stressed at all. And finally getting a dry run again was a pleasant bonus. Even my watch agreed, saying I only need 48 hours to recover, just in time for my Friday run, when I’ll go back to 10K.
Stats:
Run 746Average pace: 5:49/km
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 2:35 p.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 29:18
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 7ºC
Humidity: 90%
Wind: low
BPM: 148
Weight: 162.8
Total distance to date: 5525 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (197 km)
Since I kind of overdid it on Monday and my shins were feeling a tiny bit tender for the first time in ages, I decided to sort of head the Garmin watch and do a shorter run today, as a kind of recovery.
Instead of 10K, I ran 5K at the river.
Instead of having an average BPM of 155, it was a nice 150.
Because the river trail is wider and flatter, my pace was still faster overall than Monday, with an average of 5:42/km. I also got a badge for my fastest 1K to date (5:35/km).
Conditions were decent–cloudy but no chance of showers, little breeze and not super chilly at 5-6C. The shins felt a little tingly to start, but settled down. I think they will recover fine over the next couple of days.
Overall, a nice little run and it gets me to an OCD-pleasing total run distance of 5,500 km!
Stats:
Run 743Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 9:43 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:40
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 5-6ºC
Humidity: 97%
Wind: low
BPM: 150
Weight: 162.9
Total distance to date: 5500 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (172 km)
I was running (ho ho) behind schedule today, so opted to cheat a bit and do a 5K at the river instead of a 10K at the lake. I may do another 5K tomorrow at the river to make up for the loss of the 10K if I’m feeling spicy.
With the walk to the river trail and back coming in around 4 km, this was almost exactly a half-10K, but faster.
I dressed in two layers, which felt right given the temperature was around 8C. Arctic air is supposed to be coming in next week. Good news–my old running jacket (which works well as a windbreaker, not so much for keeping me dry in the rain) still fits!
I made an effort to not push, given that it was cold, and a light breeze was blowing, but because the river trail is so wide and flat I couldn’t help but put in a better pace, overall at 5:41/km, with a best of 5:33/km on the fourth km. I had no issues, not even the one unleashed dog I saw (curse the owner). 5K runs feel weird now. I felt like I was really just getting warmed up when it was over. I guess in a way that’s good. It means I’m indecent shape or something.
Plus, it was sunny, so I got a chance to work on my mid-fall tan, woo!
Stats:
Run 728Average pace: 5:41/km
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 12:59 p.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:38
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 8ºC
Humidity: 69%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 159.3
Total distance to date: 5365 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (42 km)
I skipped yesterday’s run as I’d gotten little sleep the night before and was still feeling wiped out by my fall booster shot. Today I thought of going for a walk and decided to do a 5K at the river instead, since 5K now almost seems short!
It went fine. I didn’t try to run fast and instead just maintained a semi-casual pace, letting the flat, even terrain of the river trail allow me to ease up and enjoy a run that wasn’t as technical.
The only real glitch came when a notification popped up on the watch, invoking a bug that muffles music playback. I ended up pausing the run while trying to fix it, and eventually got it going again. It also gave me an unnecessary break, but them’s…the breaks. At least the heart rate monitoring behaved this time (I did run the heart rate app before starting the run).
My OCD is mildly bothered by my total run distance of 5297 km. I want to do a 3K run just to get it back up to a nice, even number. Maybe next week.
Stats:
Run 720Average pace: 5:43/km
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 3:02 p.m.
Distance: 5.05 km
Time: 28:57
Weather: Sun and high cloud
Temp: 20ºC
Humidity: 66%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 157.4
Total distance to date: 5297 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Brooks Caldera 5 (405 km)
