Run 313
Average pace: 4:59/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Freeway Trail
Distance: 5.04 km
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 14ºC
Wind: moderate
Calories burned: 400
Total distance to date: 2671
The weather was nearly perfect for this post-dinner run, with the sky clear, the air crisp, the temperature mild and a nice cool breeze to top it off. I opted for a clockwise spin around the lake and again decided to stick to a shorter route, with the plan being to try a longer one on the weekend.
The Avalon Trail had enough slugs on it to qualify as a slug land mine field. I don’t think I’ve ever zigzagged on a straight stretch so much before. I toyed with the idea of detouring down the Freeway trail. On the negative side it would stretch out my run but on the positive i’m sure there would be few if any slugs.
I let my feel carry me where they would and took the Freeway Trail. As I’ve mentioned previously they have completely resurfaced the trail with new gravel but unlike the last time I ran it the gravel is now packed down firmly now, making the trail a much better running experience than before.
I saw surprisingly few people on the trail once I hooked back on the Burnaby Lake loop, save for the athletic fields where several groups were kicking and tossing various balls about. Despite the hip feeling much better I still opted to not extend the run, ending it at 5K. I had a little extra walking to do as a result but other than a giant cloud of gnats it was fine.
What surprised me was my pace. I suspect the switch to the uncomplicated Freeway Trail and still-improving hip were what led me to cutting another full eight seconds off my pace. The big news, though, was that I broke the 5:oo minute mark for the first time this year, with my average pace coming in at 4:59/km.
I am quite pleased by this.
I also swapped out the laces from my New Balance MT100’s and put them in my Adidas EB’s, whose unadvertised specialty is having the laces come untied. Not only did this mean the laces did not come untied (and likely won’t ever again) but the neon green makes the shoes 300% more stylin’. Yep.
