it’s the humidity

The kind of tired of the humidity run

Average pace: 5:20/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.05 km
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 22-26ºC (felt like 23-28)
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 799
Total distance to date: 2449 km

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than to labor through a run? I started out later than usual, not leaving until around 11:30 and despite showers earlier in the morning it had cleared enough to convince hordes of people to head on down to the lake for a holiday stroll/jog.

I did indeed wear my new New Balance MT110s after using a second holder to move the Nike+sensor over to it. The results were mixed. On the one hand, I don’t feel the switch back to a minimalist shoe had any major effect on the run and yet my left foot was quite sore at the end, enough that I didn’t even entertain the idea of walking back, instead heading straight to the Production Way SkyTrain station.

However, my left foot was feeling a bit sore even before heading out, so I suspect the result may have been the same. I’m undecided on whether to switch back to the Nikes for my next run, which will probably be only 5K.

My time on the run was bad. After a lousy 5:16/km pace on Saturday, I was that much worse today, coming in at a pokey 5:20/km. The first km tells the story:

Saturday: 4:41
Monday: 4:57

Sixteen seconds is a dramatic difference. I started out like a tortoise and although I actually started to close the gap I still fell short. Why? Possibly the left foot, though it only really hurt after the run was over. Possibly the new shoes, though they actually felt fine to me. Possibly the stupidly high humidity.

Yes, that was the likely culprit. The humidity started out near 80% and though it dropped, it remained near 60% at the end of the run. That, combined with the sharp rise in temperature, generally being warmer and a breeze that was either minimal or non-existent made for rather unpleasant running conditions. I almost long for the days when it took several minutes just for my hands to warm up. Almost.

My only feeble hope at this point is that I can actually break the 5:00 minute mark on a 5K, though at this point even that may be beyond my reach.

This summer has kind of sucked for running.

UPDATE: The morning after the run and for the first time in quite awhile my calves are actually a bit sore. This is likely due to only running once for each of two weeks then doing two in three days. In other words I am falling out of shape. This may also have contributed to my lousy pace, though I’m still laying most of the blame for that on the Amazon-like humidity.

The rush hour run

Average pace: 5:16/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.32 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 19-24ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 818
Total distance to date: 2438 km

I pretty much hated everything about today’s run.

After a week of cooler, cloudy weather with showers tossed in, the weather strangely turned summer-like for the long weekend. I decided to head out relatively early to beat the heat.

The temperature matched my last run a week ago (more on that gap later), starting at 19ºC and rising to 24ºC. You notice that kind of rise. It also started out and stayed humid, which was the real problem. I started out not exactly fast but moving along crisply and felt light on my feet–a good thing. It was pleasant. As the temperature rose the effect of the humidity also rose and I began to flag.

I picked up the pace by the end but it was too late. I braced myself for the overall average: 5:16/km, a full four seconds slower than my last run. Bleah.

I’m going out again in two days and plan on breaking in my new MY110s (2013 edition). They’re a full size bigger than my last pair (9s instead of 8s) and I’m hoping the extra roominess will make my toes happier.

The gap in the run doesn’t have a good reason to go with it like “I was abducted by aliens and only just returned to the planet” or “I was rescuing orphans caught in a typhoon”. I was just indolent and unmotivated. This summer has been hard for running (I’ll expand on that later in a separate post).

The rush hour part was due to the number of people on the trail, quite a few more than I’ve seen recently. I chalk this up to it being a sunny Saturday and will probably stick to Sundays in the future, although as we enter Fall and the weather changes crowds of people on the trail probably won’t be a problem.

The actual run went okay for the most part. My left foot began to feel a bit sore toward the end and once more I skipped the walk back. This concerns me but it’s not affecting the runs yet. Bollocks was about the same as always, needing some time to warm up and then fine until my pace flagged. When my stride becomes more plodding the tendon definitely feels it a lot more. It doesn’t feel like it’s ever slowing me down but I do wonder. I haven’t been able to break five minutes on a 10K+ run in quite awhile and did it regularly last year so obviously something has changed.

Anyway, none of the geese chased or bit me so there’s that.

The return to humidity run

Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 10.03 km
Weather: Cloudy, a few sprinkles, humid
Temp: 22-25ºC (felt like 24-26)
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 725
Total distance to date: 2415 km

I was bad this week. I kept putting off runs after work due to lack of motivation and a few days of distinctly un-summerlike weather. And so it was that five days passed after my quite decent previous run.

I set out today a few minutes past noon with the temperature already climbing above the average but with the sky overcast and threatening showers. The tone was set a mere two blocks out as I started to sweat from the humid conditions.

Along the river trail I noted two changes. The tipped-over port-0-potty has been removed, likely until next summer (if it returns at all) and a crew had been by to fill the majority of potholes, no small task since there are approximately five million of them. This time they put a little more effort into the job as they used a crushed gravel mix that had a cement-like solidity. Each hole was filled to just overflowing then tamped down firmly. This compares to the previous job, where loose gravel was poured into the holes to less than full, so that any vehicle that passed over a pothole would shoot the loose gravel out from under its tires.

I started out the run trying to repeat last time with a brisk initial pace and was mostly successful, coming in at 4:39/km vs. 4:37/km five days prior. That two second difference became three on the second km. Not great and a sure sign this run would be slower but if I could keep it up for just a few more km…but the bottom fell out on the third km. Last Sunday I was at 14:21 but today I was a pokey 14:32, 11 seconds off. And I had eight km to go. Blargh.

The rest of the run was a variety show of weather–mostly clouds but occasional sun, a few sprinkles, no wind for the most part but an occasional breeze, including an especially welcome one that came just before I reached the Deer Lake Brook bridge. By this point my head and body both felt like they were starting to overheat from a combination of the rising temperature, high humidity and still air. I contemplated ending the run earlier about four times.

In the end I pushed on to the 10K mark and stopped there, walking the last km, mostly along the Avalon Trail. I knew my time would be mediocre at best and feared that adding another km would make it that much worse (it probably wouldn’t have but tell that to a heat-addled brain 10 km in).

My average pace ended up at 5:14/km, not quite the disaster of my 5:19/km pace a week and a half ago but still a letdown from last Sunday.

My next run will probably be a 5K in a few days.

The left foot behaved, though it started getting a little sore on the walk back. Bollocks* started stiff, loosened up, then started to mildly ache again for the last few km, possibly due to my sluggish pace, which seems to be harder on it. I don’t think it affected my time.

* my new official term for my right Achilles tendon until I come up with something better

The hopefully not de-motivational half-run

Average pace: 5:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: Sunny, humid
Temp: 22-23ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 399
Total distance to date: 2394 km

I was not looking forward to today’s run after the last two dismal outings but off I went just before noon under cloudy skies. It was still humid despite not being as warm and even before leaving the river trail I had started to sweat. This did not fill me with confidence.

I started out and hit all the early points where I wanted to (the most obvious one is hitting the 2K mark before reaching the bridge over Eagle Creek near Piper Spit) but around 4 km in I was feeling tired and the motivation to continue was waning. It didn’t help that the sun had come out, which made it hotter but did nothing to alleviate the humidity.

I made a vow to keep on and do the full run if I hit the 5K mark before or as I was crossing the bridge at Still Creek, the unofficial halfway point. I trod across the bridge and my iPod continued to pipe music into my ears but the Nike announcer lady remained silent. She then announced the 5K mark about three seconds after I had crossed the bridge, presenting me with a conundrum. Since I was so close, should I muster on and see if I could improve on my miserable pace from Tuesday or pack it in, settle for at least having a decent pace now and try to follow-up again tomorrow?

Feeling a smidgen of guilt over quitting, I pressed on for another half km, through the exposed section along the athletic fields, reaching the shaded area at the east end. And it was there that I decided to bail. The rest of the run along the southern side of the lake is generally more challenging with lots of small hills, twists and several areas where you are fully exposed to the elements and I feared the worst.

In the end I managed 5.5 km and an average pace of 5:01/km. Though that’s a full 17 seconds better than Tuesday’s run, it’s only six seconds better than my pace at the 5K mark on Tuesday (5:10 vs. 5:16). Given that the back half of the run is slower, I was probably heading to an overall pace of around 5:14/km. Better than Tuesday but still pretty mediocre. So on the one hand, I feel wimpy having ended the run early, but on the other I’m glad that I get at least a minor psychological boost by finishing with a pace that at least hints at being able to get under five minutes again.

I tentatively plan on doing another run tomorrow, length to be determined.

UPDATE: It’s Sunday morning around 11 a.m. and it is actually showering. How weird. I’m undecided on whether I am willing to run in the rain or not. There’s a novelty aspect to it after such a long dry spell but at the same time it’s running in the rain which is overall kind of yucky.

The Return from Lethargy run

Average pace: 5:13/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail and Conifer Loops
Distance: 11.02 km
Weather: Cloudy, humid
Temp: 18-19ºC
Wind: none to light
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2377 km

For reasons I can’t entirely explain I got really lazy after the last run and kept putting off the next, to the point where I’d gone the entire work week without running at all, five days in total.

Come Saturday morning I rectified this by heading out shortly after 11 a.m., weighing on whether conditions and the time-off would favor or hinder me.

Weather-wise, a low pressure system finally bumped up against the high pressure ridge and dropped the temperature down from an average of about 25ºC down to 18ºC. The cooler temperature should definitely work in my favor. Also in the plus column would be the cloudy sky, with nary a bit of sun to beat down on me. On the negative side there was no wind at all and humidity was high — 75%.

As it turned out, that humidity and still air took its toll, making the last few km of the run in particular a real slog. The first part my right Achilles tendon felt very stiff and sore as it worked out its kinks and it really didn’t start to feel okay until the last few km, when I had no energy left to run. 😛

In the end I matched my previous pace exactly, coming in again at 5:13/km. I suppose holding steady under the conditions could be considered a quasi-victory of sorts.

The trail showed little sign of the few showers we’d seen after the month-long dry spell, though the work on the trail along the athletic field is now complete. The fencing is still gone (permanently?) and the freshly gravel-covered section is now at least twice as wide as it was before right up to the corner where it abruptly shrinks back to its original width. The gravel has been pressed nice and firm, so it’s already fine for running on.

I plan on taking a more normal two days off before the next run. Hopefully the conditions will be decent and the foot will be flexible enough to not give me much trouble.

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity run

Distance: 11.29 km
Weather: Overcast, light drizzle
Temp: 19ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 789
Average pace: 5:10/km
Total distance to date: 901 km

Today I completed the third part of my Burnaby Lake loop trilogy after a couple of days’ rest and achieved two new milestones (or kilometerstones as we call them in Canada):

  • I officially passed 900 km on the Nike+
  • Had my longest run to date at 11.29 km

The conditions were a fair bit different for today’s run vs. that of Thursday. To wit:

  • I ran in the early afternoon (1 p.m.) instead of the evening
  • I ran on only one meal instead of three
  • There was absolutely no wind at all
  • It was extremely humid
  • The slugs had mysteriously vanished
  • I ran past a horse

The run was much harder than the previous one and at times I really felt myself laboring to continue but I pressed on and even ran an extra (but short) leg just to make sure it would be my longest run to date, if not the quickest.

I still finished the 10K portion with a second best-ever pace of 5:09/km and an overall pace of 5:10 (or 5:11 depending on which part of Nike+ you believe), so my performance was still good despite the struggle. My shins are feeling a bit tender now but I am unsure if it’s due to the intensity of the runs or if they’re getting hurt. I’ll know better tomorrow on my day off.

One of the important things here, I think, is to not run after just a single meal (breakfast). After the run my caloric intake for the day is actually negative as I burn off all the calories from breakfast and then some. This would be handy if I was trying to lose weight, but I’m not. I’ll also keep in mind the conditions at Burnaby Lake for future runs there. There was a heavy rain yesterday and today the air was thick, warm and heavy — very unappealing for a run. I sweated not unlike the proverbial pig.

Interestingly, I had a rare instance of my second km being faster than my first. No idea how that happened.

Chart (blue indicates the run was done clockwise):

km Jul 17 Jul 14 Jul 11 Jul 9 Jul 6 Jul 4 Jul 1 Jun 28 Jun 26
1 km 4:56 4:45 4:54 4:58 5:08 4:58 5:04 4:58 4:59
2 km 4:54 4:47 4:56 4:58 5:11 5:02 5:06 5:03 5:05
3 km 4:56 4:51 4:58 5:03 5:14 5:08 5:07 5:05 5:10
4 km 4:58 4:54 5:01 5:07 5:17 5:12 5:09 5:08 5:13
5 km 5:00 4:54 5:03 5:10 5:20 5:14 5:11 5:11 5:15
6 km 5:02 4:59 5:03 5:12 5:22 5:15 5:12 5:13 5:19
7 km 5:04 5:00 5:04 5:15 5:25 5:17 5:14 5:15 5:21
8 km 5:06 5:02 5:06 5:17 5:27 5:19 5:16 5:16 5:23
9 km 5:08 5:04 5:08 5:19 5:30 5:21 5:17 5:18 5:25
10 km 5:09 5:06 5:10 5:20 5:31 5:21 5:17 5:19 5:27
11 km 5:10 5:01 4:59 — — — 5:19 — —