Brunette River Trail runs

Or as mellow as running can be.

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 746
Average 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 743
Average 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 728
Average 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 720
Average 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)