Run 391
Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 7.10 km
Time: 39:54
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 26ºC
Wind: moderate to breezy
Calories burned: 526
Weight: 158.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 3186
Device used: iPhone 6
Today is the first day of summer and it felt like it. The temperature was 26ºC, right at the tipping point between warm and maybe-a-little-too-warm for my comfort level when running. A good breeze, normally refreshing, meant I suffered from Dry Mouth™ for much of the run.
The run also ended at 7K instead of 10K, even though I was not ailing in any particular way. My left foot behaved itself, I wasn’t cramping up or otherwise hurting. What I was, was slow. Again. The pace was a fairly awful 5:37/km. This past week has been strange and very disappointing, run-wise.
My walk to the lake went fine, showing no signs of the fatigue I’d been hit with earlier in the week. Given the higher temperature, I was still concerned. I started out and had again wrestled with getting the iPhone in the SPI-belt. I’m beginning to not like this combination. If I could have the run start after putting the phone in, I’d be good, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to do that, alas. Maybe this is a conspiracy to get me to spend $450 on an Apple Watch.
When I hit the first km mark, I knew my pace was way off. This continued and although I could have pushed on to a full 10K I had visions of not hitting it until I was actually looping back over the start of the run. The thought was so depressing, I stopped at 7K, as it would at least provide a point of comparison to my previous 7K.
That comparison is also depressing, as it turns out.
Looking at the stats for today’s run, I note a few things:
- The first km pace was 5:26/km. This is strangely slow–it’s slower than the pace of the entire 7K I ran on June 11, just ten days ago. The phone/belt struggle appears to be partly to blame here. I also see a huge drop in pace right at the 1K mark, suggesting I was mentally defeated by the pace already.
- My fastest km was the third at 5:22/km, with the fourth km also faster than the first at 5:24/km. It is very unusual for later km to be faster than the first. It’s only happened a few times in hundreds of runs.
- Save for the third km, every km my pace flagged more and more.
There was also an event sponsored by the Running Room. Fortunately the event had wound down by the time I was running, so I didn’t have to face hordes of runners unused to the trail (I also wisely chose to run in the same direction the signs pointed out), but I suppose I ought to check for these things beforehand when I run on weekends. There were a bunch of people moving from the central gathering area at the rowing pavilion parking lot, but luckily they didn’t clog things up much.
Oh, and a few cyclists walking their bikes. You’re not fooling anyone, cyclists!
Overall, then, a very disappointing outing and the third run in a row (of only six this month) that has gone poorly. I’d say it can only get better from here, but even that almost feels like a bold claim at this point.
We shall see.
