Hoping for good knees I gave myself some extra time off (four days between runs) and here's how the right knee performed: For the first km or so, it felt stiff and a bit achy. It didn't affect my pace and it wasn't painful, but it was there. After this, most of the rest of the run it settled down and felt fine. Were endorphins masking the discomfort? Possibly. If so, they did a great job! I did feel some mild discomfort return when I had to unexpectedly detour and divert up a reasonably steep hill near the 4 km mark. It settled back down after that.
My original plan today ranged from:
- Maybe rest another day
- Just do a moderately-paced walk. Walking is still exercise!
- A run on the river trail
I headed off under cloudy skies on this last day of spring, and when I got to the river trail I felt I wasn’t ready, so I kept walking. I also realized that when I paused the workout to wait for the light to change at Braid, I forgot to restart it, meaning I lost nearly a km on the walk. Whoops!
I kept walking and then decided I would run a short loop at the lake, clockwise. This is the “easy” direction. As I began, it occurred to me that it might be easier to just run the whole 5K clockwise, because if I stop and turn halfway through, I’m now going counter-clockwise and much more uphill. Bad! So that’s what I did. I then broke the walk back home into two parts again–5K around the lake, then a rest and 4K for the rest. I also moved slower for both than I normally would.
The right knee was feeling stiff but not painful as the km piled up, but I elevated and iced it when I got home, so it doesn’t feel too bad now as I type this, about an hour later.
The run was fine–153 BPM, 5:46/km pace. I am fully confident I could do more if I wasn’t being extra cautious right now.
It was 15C and 73% humidity, so conditions were actually quite nice. Some fancy young guy whizzed by me in the other direction (I’ve seen him before). He might be fast, but he dresses like a noob, because he was wearing a jacket and it was way too warm to run with a jacket. Another guy passed me around the 1K mark, but I passed him around the 4K mark when he was doing the walking part, so that felt nice. He was not wearing a jacket, but he was wearing a backward baseball cap.
As for the slugs: yes. They were everywhere. I dodged many.
As for the bridge out: Technically, it was just closed “for a few days” for repairs. This is the rickety ancient bridge over Deer Lake Brook. I’m not sure what they can do in a few days to make it seem safe. Maybe encase it in concrete? I have to believe Metro Vancouver Parks has plans to eventually replace it.
Overall, things went better than expected. The knee survives. I am tentatively going to say it’s not getting worse. But is it getting better? Answer unclear…for now.
Stats:
Run 784 Average pace: 5:46/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 2:26 p.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:00 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 15ºC Humidity: 73% Wind: light BPM: 152 Weight: 164.5 Total distance to date: 5805 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (477 km)
