Burnaby Lake runs

I finarly did it.

For the first time since December 2, 2024 (!) I ran a full 5 km.

I did it by starting at a deliberately slow pace, where my first km was a sloth-like 6:10/km (I am confident I would have been under 6:00 if I’d run at my regular pace). I felt this was vital to having enough gas to finish the run and I think I was right, as my pace fell off for every kim, until the last, where I managed to go fast enough to…match my 4K speed.

The overall pace of 6:21/km will improve in time, but the important thing is I know I can do it.

It also helped that it was super mild, with it rising to 14C by the end of the run, literally twice the usual high temperature for the day. I wore one layer, and it was my long-sleeved short. For the run, a regular tee would have been fine, but the wind picked up a little on the way back and the long sleeves came in handy then.

Likely due to the very mild temperature and no real chance of rain, the trail was moderately busy and I passed multiple other joggers, dog walkers and such. There were no issues anywhere along the router and the trail was in good shape, though I could see signs of recently felled trees in several locations.

As for the littering: a Pepsi paper cup left on the trail near the Jiffy John™. This irked me, because this is right near the parking lot, which has a garbage can. It annoyed me enough that I picked up the cup and disposed of it. To do so, I had to first move an empty pop can from the lid of the garbage can. Seriously, how can you bring a can to the garbage and not put it in? Could the person not prefer the bear-proof handle? Maybe it was a bear carrying the can.

The rickety bridge: The bridge over Deer Lake Brook has been in bad shape since I started running here in 2011. It has not improved with age. Although a few planks and one set of stairs have recently been replaced, the bridge as a whole feels exactly the way it looks when you jog across it. You start thinking things like, “How could is the water underneath it?” The good news is it’s getting replaced, per this sign:

The bad news is the first boardwalk on the same trail has had signs saying “plans for repairs are underway” for more than two years now. Maybe three, actually.

I didn’t experience any issues during the run, likely thanks to my slovenly pace, but as I sit here typing these words, I’m at 30,000+ steps and my legs are starting to feel a wee bit stiff. I suspect tomorrow will be a Rest Day.

Still, it was great to finally get back out and do a “real” run again.

Stats:

Run 908
Average pace: 6:21/km
Training status: Overreaching
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 1:12 p.m.
Distance: 5:02 km
Time: 31:55
Weather: Cloudy, intermittent sun
Temp: 13-14°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 171.4
Total distance to date: 6,395.0 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Switchback (these are old shoes and will be replaced soon™)

How has it been eight days since I last ran? Things have happened! But I’ve still done bits of running here and there, so it hasn’t been all lounging around and eating bacon.

The fountain by the dam is still open, which surprised me. I don’t think it’s ever been left open this late into November before, though I could be misremembering. To be fair, while it’s been cool during the day, we haven’t had temperatures drop below freezing overnight.

Today I headed out reasonably early and the temperature was a lot more brisk than the last time, sitting at 5C. Thankfully, there was little wind, so two layers were fine.

I opted to do a short CCW loop and experienced no issues. There were a surprising number of people out walking, including a walking group I thought I would cleverly avoid by taking the side trails.

They took the side trails.

But I managed to slip by everyone, including a pair of other joggers, woo (they were not jogging fast).

My pace dropped incrementally by four seconds until the fourth km, when I picked up the pace as I passed everyone. The cold didn’t seem to affect my speed, but my BPM ticked up a bit to 153, which is not unexpected.

The sun poked out a bit on the walk home. At the same time it started to sprinkle. As I neared home it changed to hail. I jogged to the building entrance to get under cover. Hail is one of my top worst running conditions.

Overall, a good start to what otherwise appears to be a cold and wet week.

Stats:

Run 902
Average pace: 5:34/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 10:04 a.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:01
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 5°C
Humidity: 86-83%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 168.0
Total distance to date: 6,360 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (150/277/427)

The 10-day forecast can be surmised as: rain, with additional rain.

However, today–Sunday–we have a window of a few hours when it’s both mild and dry. I seized upon it and ran today, putting up with the extra people, their dogs and such in order to avoid getting drenched.

To further the goal of avoiding all other people and their pets, I ran clockwise, and chose to take the Freeway Trail, running on it until I got to the 2.7 km mark, where I turned back onto the main loop around the lake. This added variety, but also slowed me down a bit as the freeway trail has more hills than the lake loop and also I just seem to run slower on it. Maybe the nearby din of the highway traffic slightly unnerves me or something.

That said, I still had a very good overall pace of 5:34/km, and experienced no issues, other than having to pause for a few moments to step over a fallen tree on the final km. I would have taken a picture, but it was too far to go back post-run, and I was also paranoid about the weather ganging up on me.

The dogs on the trail were well-behaved, but the Weekend People™ had pretty much all dogs off-leash on the still-stinky river trail. Still, no incidents of note, just disapproving glances (from me).

Overall, a good way to end or start the week, depending on your perspective.

Stats:

Run 901
Average pace: 5:34/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop)
Start: 11:49 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:58
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 12-13°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 167.4
Total distance to date: 6,355 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (145/269/414)

My only real goal today was to run and get back home before The Rains started. On that count, success!

As for the math, I decided to start my route at the dam, skip the side trails, then turn onto the Piper Mill Trail on my return and take the other side trails on my way back, finishing the run exactly where I started.

Except when I got to that point, I was at 4.7 km. I kept going, over the dam, past the fountain, past the 0K marker and finally hit 5K right by the Jiffy John™, which would have been convenient if I had to use the loo, but I did not.

I didn’t have as much gas in the tank for the final km, but if I had, this would have been my fastest 5K with the Garmin watch. I still had a strong pace of 5:32/km, only two seconds short of my best.

The weather was milder and the two layers were unnecessary, but I wanted to be on the safe side in case the rain moved in earlier than forecast. Somewhat unusually for a weekday, there were a fair number of people out walking, which led to a couple of bottlenecks. When you consider the overall loop is 10.3 km, any bottleneck is kind of weird. But no issues were had in navigation. All dogs were behaved.

The only incident I had was a mild bit of pain in one shin briefly along the Piper Mill Trail. It went away, and it feels fine now, so I think it’s just body weirdness.

Overall, a solid run to end the week. Now I eat gallons of ice cream! I kid, I kid. They’ll be litres, not gallons.

Note: 900 runs are official, but also inaccurate, as I didn't track my runs in the early days. I don't think I missed too many, though, so this should be reasonably close.

Stats:

Run 900
Average pace: 5:32/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 10:59 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:51
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 12°C
Humidity: 81-79%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 166.6
Total distance to date: 6,350 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (140/261/401)

After calling off Monday’s run due to Xtreme Wind™, I headed out today under a cloudy sky, but no discernible breeze.

I opted to start by the dam for as an old-time throwback to how I used to begin my runs. It was 7C, but my two layers kept me warm.

I surprised myself with an unusually brisk first km, coming in at 5:24/km. That slipped all the way to 5:39/km by the next lap, but I improved my pace after, including a record for the Garmin watch with fastest 1K to date–5:18/km, which is how I finished.

I pushed a bit at the end, but not excessively, and I did pause the run to take a few shots of a fallen tree (photo below), but I don’t think that gave me an appreciable boost.

No issues–either with my body or with dogs/other people/trees occurred, so the run went well, apart from the nice pace.

The most notable thing, other than my zippy performance, was the state of the trail a few days after the storm. I could see a few spots where smaller trees had been cleared, plus a lot of debris still on the trail in places (the Cottonwood Trail was especially bad). Sections of the trail, especially earlier on, had been badly scoured and will need to be repaired, though the uneven bits were at least easy to avoid.

In all, a good run, a reminder that nature isn’t to be messed with, and a refreshing break from The Rains.

Stats:

Run 899
Average pace: 5:31/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:00 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:46
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 7-8°C
Humidity: 83-79%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 166.3
Total distance to date: 6,345 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (135/257/392)

I skipped running on Friday, not because I was lazy, but because I was tired of running in the rain. I ran in the rain on Monday and Wednesday and did not want to run in the rain again yesterday. And it rained pretty much the entire day.

But with birding called off this weekend and the weather looking somewhat dry, at least for the morning and early afternoon, I opted to run today.

Success! It did not rain during the run. It sprinkled a little on the walk back, but even that was minimal.

I wore two layers, which proved handy, as it was only 8C for most of the run, my first single digit outing of the fall. Hello November!

Despite several dogs being off-leash, there were no issues, either with the dogs or with my body. I had my usual dip in the middle, but finished strong and, curiously, with the exact same time as the previous run, 28:21 minutes. I don’t know if I could ever pull that off again. My average was somehow a second faster, though, probably due to the magical world of rounding numbers.

The river remains pretty stinky with dead salmon. I repeat, this is probably the worst mating/reproductive system in the world, with the possible exception of the male praying mantis getting his head torn off and eaten by the female after they do the dirty.

Despite the odour, it was a good outing and a nice (and mercifully dry) end to the week.

Stats:

Run 898
Average pace: 5:38/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop)
Start: 1:03 p.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:21
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 8-9°C
Humidity: 90%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 167.1
Total distance to date: 6,340 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (130/244/374)

Although the stats make today’s run look very similar to Monday’s, there are a few key differences:

• I ran at the lake, not the river trail, which is a tougher course, so having a slightly better pace means I actually did more than a little better.
• It showered lightly today, Monday was a constant downpour.
• I actually got warm enough today that I took the jacket off halfway through the run (it came in handy on the walk back when the rain picked up, though).

I was hoping to beat the rain today, but alas, did not. Because it started right as I stepped outside, I came back in and switched from two layers to one layer + jacket. I need a lighter jacket for running that can still hold up to rain, though. As noted above, I doffed it partway through the run.

As for the run, the full house is in reference to my lap times:

1. 5:41
2. 5:41
3. 5:36
4. 5:36
5. 5:36

I can’t remember the last time when I had so many laps match up like that. Kind of weird and random. The overall pace of 5:39/km was nice, as was the 150 BPM. I had no issues, though I admit I kept looking at my watch for the last km, so I may have been pushing a bit to maintain that 5:36 pace for three consecutive km.

The rain wasn’t too bad, though it’s always preferable to have no rain. As expected with this weather, the trail was pretty lightly populated.

Overall, a decent effort. I’m hoping that Friday’s run will be drier, but the current forecast makes that seem…unlikely. We’ll see!

Stats:

Run 897
Average pace: 5:39/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 10:58 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:21
Weather: Rain showers
Temp: 10°C (feels like 7)
Humidity: 74%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 150
Weight: 167.1
Total distance to date: 6,335 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (125/236/361)