damn heel

Run 500: I’ve done 500 of these things? Yoinks!

Run 500
Average pace: 5:32/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 7:04 pm
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 27:54
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 47%
Wind: light
BPM: 160
Weight: 166.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 3890 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I completely forgot this was run #500. Go me!

As runs go, it was better than Saturday’s pace by eight seconds–pretty good–but three seconds slower than the last river run, which is okay since three seconds is no big deal.

I again seemed to slip into a reasonable pace and didn’t budge from it until I gently put on the gas for the last few hundred meters. I didn’t see a massive collapse in the second km like on Saturday, just a more typical fall-off. Unlike the last few runs, the first km was actually the fastest at 5:20/km vs. 5:22/km for the last km.

My right heel and right foot in general felt a bit sore. Nothing painful, just painfully annoying. I don’t think it affected my pace but maybe it did, even if only a little. Toward the end of the run I was able to finally put the foot out of my mind. Er.

On the other…leg…the left knee behaved itself for the entire run. Hooray.

And now in celebration of run #500, a statistic:

I have run approximately 3890 km total over 500 runs for an average distance of 7.78 km per run. Not too shabby. This stat is boosted by my insane effort in 2012 when I ran almost 1,000 km and most of those runs were 10K or better.

Here’s to the next 500 runs and hopefully precious few of them will be tagged with damn [appendage].

Run 498: Moderately improved

Run 498
Average pace: 5:29/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 6:41 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:39
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 15ºC
Humidity: 66%
Wind: light
BPM: 169
Weight: 165.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 3880 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I found a nice comfortable pace for tonight’s run and especially wanted to avoid pushing it, as my right heel was a bit sore today. The heel actually felt fine for most of the run (a tiny bit sore toward the end) and it was my left knee that again was more of a concern. Similar to a previous river run, it started feeling creaky about 3-3.5 km in but worked itself out after a minute or so and was fine after, so I’m not concerned…yet!

Conditions were similar to Saturday and while I might generally gripe about the cool, cloudy weather when we’re so close to summer being official, the reality is it’s near-perfect conditions for running.

My pace improved slightly over my last run by three seconds, coming in at 5:29/km. My best pace before that nasty May cold struck was 5:15/km, though I was definitely pushing on that one. I’ll be happy to draw closer to 5:20 for now.

I probably encountered more cyclists than people out walking because the sky looked a bit threatening and mean and cyclists don’t care about getting wet.

For music I listed to Queen’s A Night at the Opera which is still a seriously whack album. It works surprisingly well for running.

Run 497: Prayers for rain (to stop)

Run 497
Average pace: 5:32/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 2:31 pm
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 27:53
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16ºC
Humidity: 60%
Wind: light
BPM: 162
Weight: 164.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 3875 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

I was running late this morning and feeling slightly unmotivated so while doing a few chores around the place, I said to myself I’d run at 10. Then 11. The noon. Finally, I changed and headed out around 12:30, only to find the cloudy morning had changed into a monsoon.

We never seem to get light rain much anymore, it just monsoons for awhile then stops.

I checked the weather radar and it looked like this nasty bit of precipitation would pass over soonish and then it would be cloudy but dry for at least long enough to get in my run.

It took an hour of waiting but at last, the rain stopped and I headed out.

Amazingly, the rain did not suddenly start again when I stepped back outside. The sun even peeked out once or twice.

My right heel felt a bit sore initially but settled down. It was humid but not really warm so weather-wise it was a lot more comfortable than Tuesday’s run. Normally my runs at the lake are slower than comparable runs at the river but today I was pleased that my average pace was faster than Tuesday’s–by one entire second! Over the course of the entire run it worked out to a six-second difference and the distance was exactly the same on both runs, 5.03 km. It’s kind of freaky that I can be that consistent.

Overall it was an encouraging showing, though the right heel became sore again on the walk back (the trip from the lake back home after a 5K run is a little over 9 km and I had about the same distance already logged from walking to the lake and then the run itself. What I’m saying is the right heel can be a bit if a pain sometimes [ho ho] but doing nearly 20 km of walking and running is not exactly pleasing it these days. The heel is on The List of things to talk to my doctor about).