stupid ankle

The suspiciously fast run

Average pace: 4:35/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Freeway Trail
Distance: 13 km
Weather: Hazy cloud, sun
Temp: 22-24ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 940
Total distance to date: 2219 km

This was a weird run.

I bought new shoes — the Merrell Trail Gloves, a minimalist trail running shoe. The construction of the shoe is immediately noticeably superior to the 1010s I’ve been using, with fabric, stitching, laces and tongue all better. The soles are not as chunky, though they are also made by Vibram, like the 1010s. They retain a lot more of the slipper-like feel of me beloved MT110s. The only downside is they are a bit tight to get the feet into but are cozy (and not too tight) after that.

I was a bit concerned about how the run would go because my left foot was already warbling even before I set out. When I got to Hume Park I noticed that I’d placed the Nike+ sensor up a little higher than I’d meant to on the laces. This meant it would not lay as flat, possibly affecting accuracy.

The weather was warm and with little wind there was a mugginess for much of the route around the lake. It wasn’t horrible but it definitely contributed to leaving me feeling worn out. Also for some weird reason I went clockwise and decided to throw the Freeway Trail detour into the mix, to see how it had changed since the last time I’d run it.

This helped stretch the run out longer than normal, probably not a great idea with the left foot already acting up, but my curiosity has now been satisfied. As it turns out, fresh gravel was poured along almost the entire stretch that I ran along, taking care of all the dips, squishy dirt and uneven surfaces. This was good. Because the trail is not used nearly as much as the others, the gravel was still loose and felt quite lumpy under my minimalist soles. This was less good.

Having already stretched the run out, I opted to skip the three optional loops I normally take on the north side of the lake. I finished at just over 59 minutes and with a pace of 4:35/km, having run a shade over 13 km.

This is the suspicious part. I went back to some of the detour runs I did last June when the first boardwalk was being replaced and compared distances. One run, in which I had included the optional loops, came out to 13.06 km, a scant 60 m more than today’s. It seemed the Nike+ sensor was being a bit generous with the distance, probably by a factor of at least a few hundred meters. However, the time of that run last year was about 64 minutes, so even taking into account the extra distance, my pace was still apparently faster today (back then it was 4:58/km).

But 4:35/km seems way off. I felt fairly springy to start but definitely did not toward the end. I felt hot, sweaty, tired, the left foot was achy (but tolerable) and the right tendon was occasionally pinging, though it ended up fine for the majority of the run.

When I uploaded my data I was informed that I had set four new records for fastest 1K, 5K, 10K and mile:

1K: 3:53
5K: 21:56
10K: 45:47
mile: 6:39

Even more bizarrely, the 1K record apparently came during the 7th km. That’s often been where I’ve started running out of gas, not magically conjuring it. My pace allegedly shot up by 11% then plunged by 13% for the next km. I’m trying to remember where the 7K mark hit and it may have been near Still Creek. A couple on bikes (grr) were there and heading the same way as me. I silently pointed to the two (1) No Bikes signs as I went by but picked up my pace to give myself a little extra distance. The last thing I wanted were a pair of cyclists at my heels on a fairly narrow stretch of the trail. They may have heeded the signs, though, because I didn’t see them again. If they did turn around and leave the trail, they’d be the first cyclists to do so and I offer my e-thanks to them for doing so!

So while 3:53 seems absurdly fast, it is at least possible that it was still my fastest km. I’m going to move the sensor down lower on the shoe and see how it compares on Tuesday. I may calibrate it at the track, too.

For the record, here’s the splits as seen on the Nike+ site:

Lickety splits

The one lingering concern is that my right tendon, which did not bother me much at all during the run, is still feeling sore hours later. I suspect I simply overworked it (especially if the times are actually accurate) so I’m hoping it will be okay tomorrow after some rest. I’m going to start icing it after runs, I think.

Also I caught a glimpse of a snake slithering into the grass along the Cottonwood Trail, first snake of the year. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, just a thing. Plus snakes are cool.

The everything hurts run

Average pace: 5:25/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Ran optional Piper Mill, Spruce Loop and Conifer trails
Distance: 11 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25-26ºC
Wind: none
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2178 km

Blergh.

Here’s today’s run in handy list form because as always, I really like lists:

The Good: My left foot does not seem to be getting worse. It may be getting better but at a rate that can be generously called slow. I also completed the full 11 km loop around the lake. It was also not raining.

The Bad: It was right on the edge of being warm enough to be uncomfortable. That was tolerable, especially with the sun lower for the second half of the run. The bad part was the complete lack of wind combined with the late afternoon warmth meant it was very muggy and the air had that ‘sucking the energy out of you’ quality to it.

Also in the bad department: my right tendon was twinging more often than not. It still isn’t painful but it’s discouraging to spend only a small portion of a run’ in the zone’ where I’m thinking about other things and not the constant ping of various discomforts. The right knee even made its presence known again near the beginning, although it settled down. And not forgetting the left shin which is growing a bit tender due to the number of runs I’ve put in now. This is the closest I have to a normal side effect of the running right now.

The Blah: I have not been as impressed with the MT1010s as I was with my MT110s, possibly the best running shoes evar. I still can’t part with them despite having put a combined 1400 km of running and walking on them. In all that distance I never had the laces come untied.

Today the MT1010 laces came untied. Twice. The first time was the right shoe a little under 2 km in. I ran to the 2K mark and used the bridge near the Nature House to prop my foot up to tie the lace. At the same time I paused my workout. When the lace was tied, I hit the home button on the iPod, as the screen had shut off. This apparently ends a workout. My run was now declared officially complete at a whopping 2 km.

Undaunted, I started a new run and kept going. Exactly 2 km later the left shoe came untied. This time I didn’t pause the workout, I just bent down, tied it as quickly as I could (overheating all the while) and took off again). Amazingly both laces remained tied for the rest of the run.

The one sliver of good news in all this is my pace combined over the two runs looks like it was 5:25/km, a minor improvement over the previous run. But what a miserable trip to get there.

For the next run I’m going to swap the old braided laces from the MT110s to the 1010s to prevent more untyings.

The ‘This is spring!’ run

Average pace: 4:31/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.06 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 12ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 355
Total distance to date: 2075 km

The weather was about perfect for today’s run and it was my first of the month where I wore a short-sleeved shirt (and didn’t feel cold, to boot).

I was again mindful of how my stamina is not quite there yet and paced myself deliberately for the first km or so. The last few again felt much better and I finished with my best time to date of the four 5K runs this month, coming in at 4:31/km.

The only note of caution was my right ankle feeling a bit tweaked. This isn’t related to the tendon and I’m pretty sure it was just strained because I had spent a lot of time today at work crouched down while working on computers. Everything feels fine now that I’ve rested and there was never any pain, just soreness. Still, worth noting now in case it does become an issue. Heck, I’ll even add the ‘stupid ankle’ tag just for the heck of it.

Walk this way (around Burnaby Lake)

I did one more Big Walk® around Burnaby Lake before my first tentative steps back into running next weekend.

The weather was sunny after several days of monsoon-like weather thanks to the Pineapple Express. I took advantage and found it to be mild, with little wind and most of the big puddles already having dried up along the trail. Even the cyclists and dogs off-leash didn’t bug me. It was a nice hint that spring is on the way after The Rains.

My favorite “rules are not for me!” moment came when crossing north on Roberts Street, near the rowing pavilion. As you approach the resumption of the trail on the other side of the road there is an especially giant sign that states DOGS MUST BE LEASHED AT ALL TIMES. I watched a woman stop and remove the leash from her dog in front of this sign. I don’t know if she was going for bonus irony points or what. At least the dog was well-behaved.

I used the iPod pedometer to track my pace and came in with the following stats:

2:23:53 duration
17.6 km distance
898 calories burned
18,746 steps taken

I was walking fast enough that any faster would have been a light jog. Things seem to have held together nicely both during and after the walk. Next weekend I’m heading to the resplendent gold and blue Mercer Stadium Track to do a simple calibration run fort the new iPod. It will probably be 2-4 laps or 800-1600 meters, enough to get the calibration and see if my Achilles tendon will weep in protest or behave itself. From there I will be doing a few short runs per week, starting with some 2Ks, moving up to 5Ks and finally back to my usual 10-11.5K runs. I don’t have a set schedule in mind, I’ll just ramp things up based on my stamina and pain/discomfort after each run. If all goes well I’m going to aim to beat last year’s mark by running 1,000K. Since I’ve already missed two months, I’l need to hit at least 100K each month going forward. If I stay healthy I can do it. If not, I can always lie lie lie.

No runs plus Nanaimo bars = fat

After my run on Halloween I decided that heading out for another run in two days would be even scarier than the ghosts and witches I’d seen decorating the neighborhood, mainly due to my right Achilles tendon still being sore.

I’ve decided to rest it until at least this Saturday, November 10th. That will give me a week and a half for the tendon to recover. I think that may be enough time but we’ll see. If I still feel I am not up for a full run on Saturday I’ll probably at least do a walk as the low impact nature of that shouldn’t aggravate the foot.

The combination of not running and snacking has seen me inch above my maintenance weight for the first time in months. Granted it’s only by 0.2 pounds so far but still, it took me weeks to gain back the three pounds I’d lost from the flu. Now I seem to be having no trouble at all with the whole gaining thing. I’m trying to exercise (ho ho) a little more restraint when it comes to nibbling on calorie-laden goodies.

Day 88 of 84

This is the last day I’ll do this, I swear.

Today started with temperatures well below freezing and another blanket of snow fell (damn snow) but we saw the return of a more typical weather pattern follow than has been seen in recent years as temperatures slowly rose and that snow turned to freezing rain and then plain old-fashioned rain.

Torrents of it.

This left the roads and sidewalks seas of slush. I opted not to return to running. I’ll monitor the weather over the weekend but with warming temperatures and the relentless assault of ‘liquid sunshine’ I suspect the snow will not be an issue for more than the rest of today.

Day 85 of 84

The first day I can officially start running again and the ground is too icy to run on. Plus I had to wait for a bed to show up during the daylight hours.

On the plus side it’s a pretty nice bed.

Day 84 of 84!

At long last the three months of non-running officially comes to an end today. I am relieved more than anything.

I had joked that on the day that I was first able to resume running again we’d get a major snowstorm. It turns out I accidentally predicted the future as Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Metro Vancouver tonight, warning of ‘significant snowfall’. Ho ho.

I’m also going to be busy doing that ‘wait for a vague but large block of time’ for delivery of a new bed tomorrow and on top of that am hoping to squeeze in the time to get to a career fair downtown, even though these things usually amount to a whole lot of not much.

So I can jog tomorrow but I’ll be up to my shins in snow and too busy, otherwise. Maybe I’ll jog in place inside for 10 minutes just to make the muscles know they’re there.

Day 79 of 84

Zounds, I am mere days away from being able to run again.

I am afraid and uncertain.

I will run either 2.5 or 5K to start. I expect to be sluggish and for my leg muscles to be sore afterward. I am going to wrap my ankles in titanium or something.

Day 73 of 84

Yes, a mere 11 days to go to reach the vaunted 12 week mark of No Jogging For You!

I was thinking about this earlier today but away from a calculator and my manual math skills being such that I’m a bit lost once I run out of fingers, I didn’t know exactly how many days I had left, just that it was less than two weeks. The feeling that first came to mind once I pushed aside the attempt to add/subtract/long divide or whatever it was I needed to do, was not one on anticipation but trepidation.

There is a part of my math-challenged brain that very legitimately fears that my little test run on January 17th will result in that ankle (the stupid one) feeling sore after. I’d probably give up on running altogether if that happened.

I hope that doesn’t happen.

2012: The Year -or- Day 69 0f 84

After managing a couple of bike rides and a hike without collapsing under my own weight (now a pudgy 160 pounds, 15 over my goal of 145) I am more assured that my return to running won’t be an embarrassment or worse, an embarrassment with injury. It’s hard to believe there are just 15 days left until I have completed my enforced sabbatical from jogging.

I am still expecting a huge snowstorm on the first day out.

Meanwhile, my lower legs were notably sore after the 500 steps hike but the right ankle seems to have come though in good shape. Getting back into running regularly in 2012 is one of my Big Goals, so this is a good sign. I think.

I’ll know in 15 more days.

Day 61 of 84

I am a mere 23 days away from completing my 12-week sabbatical from running. I have a tentative plan on where and how far I will run on January 17th (Day 85). I confess that I shall be utterly crushed and dismayed if I go out on my wee run that day and my ankle starts to hurt. I may have to seriously consider learning how to swim if that happens, the thought of which gives me the cold sweats.

In the meantime I continue to go on walks, hikes and bike rides to keep myself in reasonable shape. I’ve also vowed to go back to a more sensible diet come the new year to help improve my overall health. Hooray for me, or something.

P.S. Stupid ankle.