Average pace: 5:30/km
Location: Burnaby Lake, CW
Ran Piper Mill, Spruce and Conifer Loop trails
Distance: 11.13 km
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 804
Total distance to date: 2136 km
For the first time ever a flock of geese determined which way I ran. to be more specific, a bunch of geese, including adorable little goslings, were gathered on the trail at the north side of the dam, where I would normally start my run if I was doing my usual CCW loops. I didn’t want to freak out the geese families so I instead went clockwise. This turned out to be good for the geese, not quite as good for me as I’ll explain shortly.
Because of the trouble I’ve been having with my left foot recently I decided to apply a little padding to the affected area in advance by folding over a moleskin bandage over it and holding it in place with a few strips of medical tape.
As it turned out, the padding may have helped a tiny bit, as the left foot wasn’t quite as sore after the run but the fold of the bandage dug into the big toe, resulting in a blister. Blargh, as they say. I’m going to try padding again but will adjust the position of the bandage and also wrap the whole shebang in a tensor bandage to better hold everything in place.
The tendon on the right foot made its presence known throughout the run (and after), though I’m still thinking this is more it getting used to be used again after injury and not necessarily it getting hurt again.
For the run itself I headed out and seemed to be on about the same pace as the run one week prior, which is to say on the slow side. I’ve resigned myself to that until my feet feel better and I run a more regular schedule. I’m clearly well off peak condition.
I noticed a few signs heralding a ‘spring sprint’, with handy arrows pointing in the direction I was heading. As it was about noon I figured the run would likely already be over and indeed I wasn’t seeing anyone else out other than the occasional walker. But lo, somewhere around the 3 km mark (right when I began to feel the first twinge in my left foot) I passed by a few unusually large clusters of people blocking the path. Some moved to let me by, most seemed utterly oblivious to my presence or the presence of anything except the neighbor they were busy gabbing to.
It was also clear that if these people were here to sprint they were doing so at a pace that could be described as very very very deliberate. A lot of them had those giant ATSes with them (all Terrain Strollers). The crowds stretched out to about the 5 km point and there were times where I came to a complete stop as I had no way to get around. There’s a conspicuous drop in my pace in the 4-5K stretch of the run. You’d think getting this mini-break would leave me re-invigorated but it had the opposite effect and I ran for probably a km past the crowds before I fell back into a steady rhythm again.
Overall I’m a little displeased with the run. The left foot is obviously now a chronic issue and the tendon on the right foot has me worried that it may not have healed properly. I’ll have both checked out soon.
I’m planning on running Tuesday and it looks to be my first soggy run of the year. I may get a chance to see how well that waterproofing wax I dipped my light jacket into works. I’d prefer actual late spring weather. 😛
