it’s the heat

Run 338
Average pace: 5:29/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Spruce Loop, Conifer Loop and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 16-26ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 771
Total distance to date: 2827

This was the earliest I’ve headed out on a run, taking advantage of my vacation time to skip sleeping in and run lots instead.

I headed out shortly before 8 a.m. and officially started my run at 8:33 a.m. The temperature was showing around 16ºC when I left, though it was probably a bit warmer by the time I started, and was up to 26ºC (!) when I finished, though it was perhaps a degree or two lower given how rapidly it was rising.

Still, it was noticeably cooler on the run–not actually cool, mind you, just cooler than the sweltering jungle-like heat that has persisted for such an unusually long time. I actually saw dew on shaded grass!

I started out clockwise and was perhaps not surprised to encounter many other joggers and walkers taking advantage of the early morning temperature. It seemed a bad omen when I encountered a cyclist right at the start but I spotted no others after that and apart from someone smoking (this seems inevitable once they post the “Fire Danger – No Smoking” signs, everyone else was being polite and such.

I could tell I was slower from the start but my objective today was not to break any land speed records, but to simply complete a full loop of the lake, something I hadn’t done since July 6–almost a full month ago. I was partly successful in that I did 10K and could have kept going but given my slower pace, the loop would have ended a bit shy of the 11K mark and I like even numbers so 10K it was.

If my pace improves even a small amount for the next run I should be able to so a full 11K.

Other than the slow pace of 5:29/km–and that was proportionally faster than my last 5K–the body held up fairly well. My left foot and hip both behaved and I only felt a slight stitch in my side for a few km toward the end. It affected my pace but probably not by more than a few seconds and wasn’t entirely unexpected given how long it’s been since I’ve done a full run.

Still, this leaves me confident that I can manage at least the same if not better on Wednesday. We shall see.

Average pace: 5:19/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 11.41 km
Weather: Sunny, Africa hot
Temp: 23-27ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 825
Total distance to date: 2389 km

Blergh.

For some reason runs always seem to go worse when I run clockwise around the lake. But I get ahead of myself.

I was curious how today’s run would go because I was heading out around the same time of day but with a few differences: it was much warmer (bad) but there was a breeze (good), it wasn’t as humid (good) but it was sunny instead of cloudy (bad).

It was my second run in three days after a slothful five days off.

I started out about four seconds off my previous pace, slipped a little further and ended with a time of 5:19/km, pretty lousy after getting as low as 5:07 previously. On a positive note my feet were both fine, though the left one was a tad sore on the walk back (not enough to slow me down, though).

On the negative…this was a very dry run. I felt parched and with the breeze I had a definite case of desert mouth. The temperature rose rapidly from 23 to 27ºC, the kind of change that is noticeable and not in a good way. Worse, though, the lingering effects of either a nascent head cold or some fun new allergy meant I had a pressure headache before heading out. I dealt with this by taking two Advil. The headache went away but at around the 5 km mark I felt very odd, a mix of light-headed and weak. I was passing by the athletic field at the time and wanted to just lay down on the nice soft grass for awhile. Instead I mustered on, got past the wooziness and even managed a slight uptick in my pace after bottoming out at the 10K mark.

Barring actual injury, I’m all but guaranteed to do better on the next 10K+ run.

On the run itself there were two things of note. The first was a rare triple rule violation. Seeing people walk their dogs without leashing them is pretty common. Seeing people riding bikes on the trail is (thankfully) less common. Today I saw a mother and her son both riding their bikes, with an unleashed dog in tow. Good job, I say!

We met up at the dam as I ended my run, dehydrated and cranky. I still managed to sound fairly polite as I said to her, “Actually, bikes aren’t allowed on the trail.” She didn’t seem to hear and hoisted her bike up and over the stairs on the dam, rolling it to the other side. By coincidence I was going the same way to get a long drink from the faucet nearby. I watched as she walked her bike down the path past me. I kept drinking. She waited for her son to catch up. Then she waited some more for no apparent reason. I finally got my fill of liquid nirvana and headed off. I’m sure she hopped back on the bike as soon as I was out of view. All I can hope is that she skidded out on some horse poop on the Avalon trail and landed face-first into it.

The other odd sight was a man jogging ahead of me. Occasionally I see people running with  smartphones strapped to their arms. This guy was like that except instead of a smartphone it was a tablet, either a 7 or 8 inch Samsung tablet. It looked huge and uncomfortable. The guy had his tablet arm raised straight up, as if hailing a cab. With his free hand he seemed to be making some adjustments and was not having much luck. As I caught up he got things settled and resumed a regular running pace. Or as regular a running pace as you can manage with a freaking tablet strapped to your arm. It was weird.