A weird thing happened today.
I was fast!
I did not plan on being fast. Since the whole knee thing started, I have been afraid of being fast.
I started the run late, just after 1 p.m., but it was still on the cool side, only 13C to start. Humidity was still relatively high, and there was a decent breeze blowing, so conditions were actually quite decent. Due to the late start, I opted to do a short loop clockwise at the lake, which saves me having to walk the extra 5 km to get back to the beginning.
I had to use the Jiffy John™ before starting, and heard voices outside it while I was inside. I waited for the inevitable and sure enough, someone tried yoinking the locked door open. When I came out they made some vague joke, but I just continued on, I had a run to do! I also later discovered the two colours used to denote the door being closed/open (red/green) can be hard to distinguish by certain colour-blind people, so I’ll cut them some slack. Maybe instead of colours, they could use symbols. I’ll leave it to your imagination what those symbols should be.
Anyway, the run! I had no plan, I was just going to run steady and see how it went. I was pleasantly surprised when the first km came in at a speedy 5:38/km. I was equally surprised when the second km was the same. I varied slightly above that for the next two, then finished with a very surprising pace of 5:22/km, which also resulted in an award in the Garmin app for fastest 1K (second one in as many days, woo).
I achieved the overall pace of 5:36/km while also having a lower BPM of 152. Really, it all seemed a bit weird.
The knees seemed fine again. There was a twinge once, but nothing more. The left hip was present, but not overbearing or anything.
One dog on the trail was off-leash and ahead of its (bad) owners, but it was not particularly excitable and didn’t present a problem. The trail was not overly busy, especially considering it was Friday.
Now I wait and see how the legs hold up over the weekend, with two days to rest and recover. I ran four days this week, three of them in a row. We’ll see how wise this was soon!
For now, I bask in the mild glory of exceeding my own expectations.
Stats:
Run 813 Average pace: 5:36/km Training status: Productive Location: Burnaby Lake (short loop, CW) Start: 1:06 p.m. Distance: 5:03 km Time: 28:11 Weather: Sunny Temp: 13-15ºC Humidity: 67-65% Wind: light to moderate BPM: 152 Weight: 167.7 Total distance to date: 5942.6 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (77.6/150/227.6 km)
