The forecast for today was calling for partly cloudy with a high around 20, so I figured I would run in the late afternoon instead of my usual early evening time. As it turned out, the clouds were all around the edges of the city with blue sky directly overhead. The sun blazed down on me the entire run. It was 21ºC in the shade when I headed out so probably a degree or two warmer in the sun and there was a fair breeze blowing.
My CTN (Cap Tug Number) was two.
On the bright (ho ho) side, my start was thew fastest in months, with the first km coming in just under the 5-minute mark at 4:59. The second km was also brisk. In fact, the fast start meant that I was pretty much on pace with my previous run up to the halfway mark, but by then the relentless sun, shining on me like a spotlight, began to take its toll and my pace flagged noticeably. By the last few km I was feeling baked (and not in the noted BC way) — my whole body had this weird and unpleasant swimmy feeling, my mouth was completely dry, including the tongue. Using a dry tongue to lick dry lips provides about as much relief as you’d expect. As a result, I staggered to the end 10 seconds off my previous pace.
I’ll be sticking to early evenings on sunny days from here on out.
The park was fairly quiet for a Sunday afternoon, though more people began filtering in toward the latter part of my run. One person had a black wiener dog and it made me think, that’s got to be the worst kind of dog to be when it’s hot. You’re covered in black fur, so you get maximum sun absorption and your body is so low to the ground you get bonus heat emanation from that when it’s hot out. A black wiener dog walking over a midday parking lot must feel like the proverbial hot dog. Fortunately this and the few other dogs present did not knock me down. I’m not paranoid about this happening again but I do maintain an extra level of vigilance now that it has happened.
I saw someone use the port-o-potty early in the run and on the next lap I could smell it — and for every lap thereafter. The good news is what I was smelling were the chemicals and not what the chemicals were for. I suppose y design, they don’t actually smell that bad. Still, port-o-potty odor is not on my list of neat things to smell when jogging.
Chart (red denotes running in especially warm conditions, green denotes cramps during run):
| km | Aug 22 | Aug 19 | Aug 11 | Aug 7 | Aug 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 km | 4:59 | 5:02 | 5:07 | 5:04 | 5:02 |
| 2 km | 5:03 | 5:04 | 5:09 | 5:08 | 5:08 |
| 3 km | 5:08 | 5:08 | 5:13 | 5:12 | 5:15 |
| 4 km | 5:13 | 5:12 | 5:16 | 5:16 | 5:19 |
| 5 km | 5:16 | 5:15 | 5:18 | 5:19 | 5:23 |
| 6 km | 5:20 | 5:18 | 5:20 | 5:21 | 5:26 |
| 7 km | 5:24 | 5:21 | 5:22 | 5:23 | 5:29 |
| 8 km | 5:27 | 5:23 | 5:24 | 5:26 | 5:32 |
| 9 km | 5:30 | 5:24 | 5:26 | 5:27 | 5:35 |
| 10 km | 5:33 | 5:23 | 5:26 | 5:27 | 5:37 |
