Last week I had pondered doing a 10K run for the first time since my knees issue started up, and today as I headed out, I knew a few things:
- That I would run at the lake
- That I would go counter-clockwise
- That I would do a full loop, even if it was 5K
When I got to the lake, conditions were very similar to Friday. Despite the forecast giving a better than 50% chance of rain, it stayed dry, and my single layer was fine in the balmy, calm conditions. I thought about trying for 10K and began at a slower pace. My first km was a pokey 5:58/km. Even slower than I planned. I did pick up the pace a bit, getting to 5:46/km by the fourth km, but when I hit 5K and found myself still going, my pace seemed to naturally slow. And slow some more. My times starting creeping past the six-minute mark. Not surprising, given how long it’s been since I last ran a 10K. By the 9th km, I was at 6:06/km and wanted to finish stronger. I applied gentle boosters (my BPM only rose to 154) and it was enough to lift my final km to 5:39/km, bringing my overall average down by two seconds. Nice!
I get a bit obsessed with numbers.
M<y legs could definitely feel the extra distance, with all the muscles being all, “What is going on? What is happening?!” but I’ll see how the knees feel later today and tomorrow. The left hip seemed to appreciate the slower start.
And the dogs! There were a fair number of dogs being walked at the lake, but all of them were on-leash. Hooray. Maybe people are more rule-abiding on Mondays.
Overall, I am glad to finally have gotten another 10K in. If nothing else, I will finally have an answer to how the knees will hold up to the extra effort. The last 10K I did was on April 7th (Run 769) of this year–seven months ago! I did not expect to take this long to try again. I noted after a 5K run for Run 771 that my knees had felt stiff after the previous two 10K runs (Run 770 was a sort-of 10K). Little did I know what was to come.
Also, my pace for that last 10K on April 7th was 5:41/km, which is faster than most of my 5K runs since have been, showing that there has been some long-term impact due to the knees, even if it’s just me being more cautious in how fast I run.
Still, it felt good to do a full loop around the lake again. We’ll see how good it feels later!
Run 826 Average pace: 5:55/km Training status: Productive Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 9:36 a.m. Distance: 10:03 km Time: 59:25 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 10-11ºC Humidity: 86% Wind: light BPM: 151 Weight: 168.6 Total distance to date: 6020 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (155/293/448 km)