sloggy run

Run 333
Average pace: 5:26/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran Spruce and Conifer Loops and Piper Mill Trail
Distance: 5.04 km
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 20ºC
Wind: nil to light
Calories burned: 388
Total distance to date: 2798

Halfway to the Number of the Beast and this run was certainly devilishly bad, time-wise.

On the plus side my left foot was not hurting before the run and even though I could feel it about halfway through it was minor and I don’t feel it affected my pace. Likewise the hip did not seem to affect my start or the run in general and is very close to what I would consider fully healed. From whatever happened to it.

The first km felt good, I had a strong finish and overall it felt like my pace was at least equal to Sunday, if not better. Then the nice Nike lady announced my pace at the end of the run and it was a very not-nice result: 5:26/km. My first km was even worse than the average at 5:28/km and my last km was significantly faster at 5:18/km. Where I normally droop at the 2K mark, today I was allegedly picking up speed, hitting 5:14/km.

All in all, a truly baffling result that makes me think the sensor may be going or has gone haywire.

If you ignore the actual time it was a much better run than Sunday. The temperature was mild and the sky overcast, so it was comfortable running weather. I never developed any weird cramps or stitches, apart from a few brief moments when the upper thigh muscle on my left leg felt a little sore, probably due to the relative lack of runs recently.

I’m pondering what to do for Thursday’s run. I may even get wacky and try the Brooks shoes of doom again or buy a new Nike+ sensor. Or both! Or neither! Who knows!

Distance: 10.05 km
Weather: Sunny!
Temp: 7-8ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 702
Average pace: 5:50/km
Total distance to date: 1120 km

I again ran clockwise today but I had a feeling this was not going to be a great run, despite the weather being absolutely perfect. I opted to not wear a jacket and that was wise, as I would have overheated, especially with the sun out.

The day started out with me oversleeping. I had a late breakfast and set off to run a few hours later. Despite the excess sleep, I actually felt a little tired just doing the 4K walk to the lake. Hence the whole ‘I have a bad feeling’ thing. I started off and my initial 1 km was off by a full three seconds — 5:13/km. There’s pacing yourself and then there’s just plain slow. I pressed on and finished with an overall pace of 5:50/km, six seconds off my previous run. I’m not too happy with that but I’ll chalk it up to mitigating factors (excuses!):

• the sun was out; the sun also tuckers me out a little when I’m not used to it
• I was over-rested and felt ‘off’ because of it
• I missed Wednesday’s run due to hail (!), making it harder to build off of Monday’s run
• I experienced some cramps

I stopped briefly to pause two times. The first was when I came upon a truck on the path that had two men shoveling out gravel to fill in potholes (I had already passed the woman running a small tractor that was smoothing down the gravel). It seemed safer to carefully walk by than continue running. And it was a convenient way to catch my breath. I next paused at about the 6K mark and that was because I was plain pooped. I pressed on after that till the end, though. The whole run felt hard.

Still, I am obviously far off peak condition so I accept this as just another step to getting there. Excelsior!

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