Faster

This week's long run was shorter - 20 km. I didn't have any particular pace in mind, just planned to go with how I felt. I'd been a little under the weather the last week, had even skipped one day of running, and still wasn't feeling 100%, so I wasn't expecting much.

I started off at a normal moderate pace, but as my watch displayed the pace for each kilometer, I noticed I was speeding up, although my perceived effort didn't seem any different. By the time I got to the last five kilometers, I was still feeling good and could see I had a chance to beat my best time on this route. That always motivates me to finish strong.

I ended up getting my best times for 1 km, 5 km, 10 km, and 20 km. (Since I've been tracking on Garmin, almost four years.) If I'd realized I was on such a roll I would have kept going for another kilometer and got my best half marathon time as well.

Curiously, my pace kept speeding up all the way to the end. So the fastest, 1, 5, and 10km were all at the very end of the 20 km.

My previous best 5 and 10k times were almost two years ago and I haven't come close since then. I've been wondering if I ever would. I'm running almost twice as much distance per week as I was back then, without the foot and knee problems, which should translate to better performance, but I'm also two years older.

I didn't cut a lot of time off my previous best - 5 seconds off my 5k time, 15 seconds off my 10k time. But the previous run was a total of 12 km on a level, straight out and back paved path, with no people to dodge. Whereas today's was 20 km on my usual mix of winding dirt single track along with paved sections, with about 500 ft of vertical, and the usual obstacle course of Sunday cyclists, dog walkers, and baby pushers. And today's 5 km was after running 15 km. Curiously, my average overall pace for both runs was exactly the same. However, because my heart rate was higher last time it rated that run as "highly impacting", whereas today's it rated as "base maintenance". That seems a little bizarre. Garmin's rating system is more a source of amusement than wisdom.

Last week I speculated I could do better if I tapered and had a cooler day. Purely by accident, I got that today. Since I'd skipped a day my weekly mileage was down a bit, and it was definitely cooler - about 11c when I started and 14c when I finished. It felt a little chilly at first (in shorts and t-shirt) but overall it was probably optimal. Although theoretically I was still recovering from last week's 30 km, that obviously didn't slow me down much.

And yes, I plugged today's 20 km time into the race calculator and it told me I should be able to beat my marathon goal time by 6 minutes - definitely promising. Of course, that's if I can arrange to have another best-in-two-years day!

Robin

Neighborhood Blue Jay

I took this photo from my home office window as it was sitting on the back fence. I've noticed this Blue Jay around the neighborhood, identifiable by the ruffled feathers. But it wasn't till I saw the photograph on my computer that I realized it was standing on one leg. Some birds will stand on one leg, but given the messed up feathers, I wonder if it lost or damaged the leg. Perhaps it had a run in with a cat or some other predator. It appears to be able to fly normally, and seems to be managing ok. It seems like there are more Blue Jays around than there used to be, but maybe I'm just noticing them more. They always seem to have a lot of character.

30 km

30 km yesterday for my long run. Over the winter I only ran about 20 km on my long runs and that's short enough for me to do every week. But I usually don't go much further than that more than every other week. This week was my longer week.

I find if I run the same distance too regularly I get accustomed to it and then if I go farther it seems harder. After so many 20 km runs over the winter, it now feels "hard" to go further. Of course, it is harder to go further, but this feels different. I think it's probably a combination of psychological and physical. A few more longer ones will hopefully break me out of my rut.

It was going to be 25c, so I started my run at 8am when it was 15c. That's just about the perfect temperature for running, but by the end of my run it was 22c which is warm for running. According to one of the calculators, that temperature costs you 25 seconds per kilometer in speed. I wore my running vest and carried two 1/2 liter water bottles which I rationed out for the whole run. But my watch tells me I probably sweated 2 liters. I definitely felt dehydrated by the end. I sweated enough to leave salt stains on my clothes and vest. I used to be able to use the water fountains, but those have been shut down since Covid started. I'm not sure that's rational, but most people won't use them anyway. It doesn't help that I'm not really acclimatized to warmer temperatures yet.

I have a goal in mind for running a marathon distance (42 km). It's purely to give me something to aim for. I'm not really hung up on it. (Any more than I'm always hung up on things like numbers.) The big question is whether I can make that goal. It's a good goal in that respect, since it's on the edge of possibility. Some days I think I can do it, and some days I don't. Trying to extrapolate from shorter distances is questionable, but I plug my best half-marathon time into various race calculators and see what they say. Mostly they say I'm too slow. Today I averaged 6 seconds per km faster than my marathon goal pace for 30 km. So I plug that into the race calculators and this time they tell me, yes, you should be able to make your goal. That's promising. The problem is, at the end of my 30 km today, it didn't feel like I could have run another 12 km. I was 3 minutes ahead of pace, so I could have run 18 secs per kilometer slower for that 12 km. But it still seems improbable. I was pretty tired. But maybe it was a cooler day, and I tapered (took it easy for a week or so before), and if I kept a steadier pace. So I'm left still wondering, which is part of the fun.

PS. And yes, only a true geek would turn something as wonderfully physical as running into a series of math problems :-)

Photos of the Week

An evening walk by the river rewarded me with a few nice birds. There were several Spotted Sandpipers, but like many shore birds they were quite skittish and wouldn't let me get too close.

The warm weather is bringing out clouds of insects as you can see if you look closely in this next shot.

I heard the call of the Killdeer before I saw it. I knew I'd heard that call before, but didn't identify it until I saw the bird. They are only part-time shore birds, often found away from water as well. It was watching me as I slowly tried to move closer. But I'm not sure why it did that with its head turned 180 degrees!

Of course, there were Canada Geese around too.

I can never resist the reflections.

Down the back alley a flowering bush is poking through the fence.

And, of course, the dandelions are out in force. They're hated by the lawn fanatics, but I like them. They are an important spring source of nectar for pollinators. What looks like a single flower is actually a composite of many small florets. Curiously, they can produce seeds asexually, without pollination.

Backyard Photos

It started with the Yellow-rumped warblers in the tree outside my home office. They would arrive and hop around on a branch in clear view, inviting me to get out my camera, and when I did they would play hide and seek hopping around continuously so it was impossible to get a photograph.

But that got my camera out and I managed to get a couple of the other birds, including this White-throated sparrow.

It looked like it was feeding on the flowers on the tree, although the description says it eats the leaf buds. But they're not really leaf buds any more, the leaves are rapidly emerging.

Our patch of tulips usually has quite a few flowers despite our neglect, but this year there is only a single flower. It's quite a pretty one though.

When I was out on my run this morning I stopped to watch a muskrat on the river, right downtown. It stopped to feed on a dead fish. I was a bit surprised because I assumed they just ate plants, but I see they are omnivorous, which makes sense.

Giant Water Bug

Coming back from a run, I found this American Giant Water Bug in the alley. It was lying on its back not moving, so I thought it was dead. I still picked it up carefully since they can give a painful bite. (The origin of their nickname "toe biter".) This photo was taken the next day after it died so I wasn't worried about getting bitten. They must be one of the biggest insects we get in Saskatchewan, and this was the biggest one I'd seen.

They live in the water, but they fly around in search of mates or just to disperse. Like moths, they can be attracted to street lights, leading to their other nickname of "electric light bug".

They are strong predators, able to catch and eat prey larger than themselves, including small fish. Their front legs look a bit like a praying mantis and serve the same purpose of grabbing their victims. As "true bugs" (Hemiptera) they inject digestive toxins into their prey and then suck their juices out.

Although they live in water, the adults are air breathing, keeping a bubble of air under their wings, exchanging it for fresh air at the surface using the two tubes you can see at the rear of the abdomen.

It revived in the house, maybe from the warmth. This was a bit of a nuisance because it wouldn't sit still for photographs. That made it impossible to do focus stacking so I stuck to flash and a small aperture for depth of focus. I was a little concerned that it would start flying around, but luckily it didn't. I don't think Shelley would have been impressed to have it loose in the house.

Print of the Week

This is from a few years ago near Big Bend National Park in Texas, at the start of the Santa Elena Canyon. That's Mexico on the other side of the river.