After noting that the first day of summer was poop, I will now note that the ninth day of summer has been a bit of an overachiever. I’m not sure if we broke a record but it looks like it will have hit at least 32ºC in New Westminster today. As they say, Africa hot.
Death Valley was expected to get up to 54ºC (130ºF) today, which is not Africa hot but Stupid hot.
This is when the global warming deniers tend to stay quiet.
Given the extreme heat, I did the sensible thing and ran. Three times in the past two days, ho ho.
Just so the blog doesn’t become 100% jogging posts, I will note that the first day of summer–Friday, June 21–was cool, blustery and damp.
In other words, normal. June is truly the Weather Grab Bag month for the Lower Mainland. I would prefer it grabbed a bit more sun but you takes what you gets. It also beats the wacky flooding going on in Calgary right now.
Average pace: 5:18/km Location: Brunette River trail, Burnaby Lake (to Still Creek)
Distance: 9.48 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 14ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 684
Total distance to date: 2145 km
Tonight’s run was after work so to minimize walking I started the run from Lower Hume Park (about a 10 minute walk), took the Brunette River trail then crossed over to Burnaby Lake, taking the three optional trails before forking off at Still Creek and wrapping up at the Burnaby Lake SkyTrain station. By my calculations I figured I’d come up a bit short of 10K and I was right, covering 9.48 km. Without some creative zig-zagging this particular route will never hit 10K. I will ponder possible alterations to stretch it out.
In the meantime, though, this run went much better than the previous. I shifted the moleskin bandage down to just cover the pad of the foot and my toes emerged unscathed this time. I didn’t feel the first twinge until about 3K in and it wan’t until 8K in that it became a lot more noticeable, much later than before. At the end of the run I could walk on the foot and not feel any pain. The tendon in the right foot also warmed up nicely and behaved itself. While I won’t call them happy feet they were certainly no longer grumpy.
As a result my pace was a lot faster — 5:18/km, a 12 second improvement over Sunday’s 5:30 pace. With occasional spitting and the promise of much worse I wore my recently water-treated running jacket but I ended up not needing it. The skies did open up but they obligingly waited until I was on the SkyTrain heading back. I will note that I felt warm with the jacket. Not uncomfortably so but it’s pretty safe to assume I won’t need multiple layers until after summer now.
Average pace: 4:36/km Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.03 km
Weather: Overcast, light rain
Temp: 8-6ºC
Wind: moderate to strong
Calories burned: 355
Total distance to date: 2070 km (adjusted to what Nike+ is reporting–this may be taking into account a few walks that were uploaded)
I skipped the planned run on Thursday because I got home a little late and the weather at the time was a torrential downpour and with only two real runs in this year I couldn’t muster the desire to go out and get soaked to the butt. I also don’t have a proper weather-treated top yet, which I should probably do, since the chance of having rain-free runs for the rest of the year is approximately zero (times infinity).
As for the run itself, I charged out a little faster than I should have and as a result the second km left me feeling a bit more winded than I would have liked. I moderated my pace and felt fine for the remainder, though. It was rather brisk and the temperature actually dropped 2 degrees over the course of the run. It was warmer three weeks ago in March but April is often a blah month when it comes to weather.
I ended with a pace of 4:36/km, two seconds better than the previous run, so it’s nice to see I’m at being fairly consistent. The right foot is still not presenting any issues, also a plus.
I plan on doing two more 5Ks this week on Tuesday and Thursday, then I may try my first 10K on the weekend.
Amusingly, the iPod Nike+ app is still using Lance “Yes, perhaps I used steroids a lot” Armstrong’s voice to offer congratulations but they’ve surgically removed the bit where he identifies himself. If you don’t know his voice, it seems like some random guy saying “Good job!”
Tiger “I’ll trade my wife for 12 of yours” Woods, by comparison, still identifies himself because his transgression was outside the actual sport he plays in. If he starts cheating in golf Nike may have to start canvassing for new voices for the Nike+ app.
April Fools Day, especially in the era of the Internet, seems to be split between clever and obviously fake ads, stories and such, along with other ‘pranks’ that are mean-spirited, insulting or deliberately meant to confuse and/or falsely raise expectations.
I’m glad it only comes once a year.
On the plus side, today was another sunny, mild day. The weather is expected to change tomorrow but I’ve taken advantage and walked or run over 40 km in the past three days. My feet may not be on speaking terms with me at the moment but I plan to bribe them with new comfy shoes next weekend.
Yesterday I walked around Burnaby Lake in anticipation of actually running it again (hopefully sometime in March–once I resume jogging I’ll have to ramp up slowly before I can tackle the lake’s 11+ km circumference). There was a wind warning in effect that I was unaware of–until my cap whipped off as I strolled around the athletic field. These are the only conditions under which it’s okay to wear my cap in dork mode (backward) because that’s often the only way to keep it on my head.
The walk went quickly (two hours for 14.5 km) and apart from the wind it was decent, with mild temperatures and sun for about half the way. Most encouraging, though, was the first tentative appearance of buds on tree branches. I am calling this the first confirmation that spring is on the way. I approve.
If you have a look at this post from July 13th of last year you will see me list off my 14 least-favorite running conditions. I figure it’s time to update the list, so here we go. Changes are noted accordingly.
As before, the list is presented from least worst to just plain bad. The four options outside the top 10 aren’t really bad at all.
14. Overcast and light breeze. This is actually ideal conditions. It is usually never too cold or warm when the weather is like this.
13. Moderate wind. Moderate wind is fine. I have a cap that stays in place now.
12. Warm sun. Warm is no big thing. I’m talking about 20ºC or thereabouts.
11. Light rain. The only issue with light rain is that sometimes my iPod gets wet straight through my shorts’ pocket. If rain looks likely I put it in a plastic baggie.
10. Snow. I’ve only run once in light snow and it was fun. I’m thinking a foot of snow would probably be less so.
9. Cold rain. Cold rain means cold hands and if you wear gloves they need to be waterproof. Cold rain is never fun.
8. Hard rain. Getting soaked to the skin is kind of refreshing. Unfortunately if it’s raining hard, it’s almost always cold, too. Not so refreshing.
7. Extreme cold. I’ve run in sub-freezing conditions and been fine. I’m thinking Arctic tundra-type cold here.
6. Heavy wind. The resistance means you work a lot harder to achieve the same result and my cap has to be on tight enough to cut off circulation so it doesn’t fly away.
5. Hot sun. My body feels like a furnace and I’m left parched as all get-out. Dry mouth and lips are yucky. I’ve improved my stamina to where it has to be close to 30ºC to really affect me, though.
4. Hard rain and heavy wind. Likeliest weather to make me wonder to myself, ‘What was I thinking?’ when on the run.
3. Hot sun and heavy wind. Heat dries you out, the wind makes it harder to run and dries you out even more. Bleah. This combination is, however, very rare.
2. Hail. Getting pelted by little ice rocks is unpleasant! I’ve been caught in hail twice now and did not like it either time. Hail has moved from #7 to #2 on the list as a result.
And the worst weather to run in is:
1. Dogs. See here. I’ve had a dog knock me down while running. The weather has never done this.
Yes, I wore shorts today. Outside, even. I was worrying they would start to moulder in the chest drawer.
Update on the Nike sync issue: Doing a Google search for the Nike sync issue gave me a link to my own blog post complaining about the issue. How circular! Today the iPod successfully synced to the Nike+ website. Yay. But Wednesday’s run still didn’t show up anyway. Boo. My second Twitter message ever has been sent to Nike Support (yes, tech support over Twitter) and I am awaiting a reply but it appears the solution will likely be for me to provide the basics of the run after which they will manually update it for me, hopefully with all of the data intact (splits, etc.) The new Nike+ site is definitely much improved over the old one but it seems they are still having the same old problems with the back end of it. Bleah.
