Last catch up post for the day. On Sunday, May 26th I jumped into the local "Turtle Trot" 5k, which is a pretty competitive, quite large 5k held in Stone Harbor every Memorial Day. Last year I did my first run of my post knee replacement life where I was able to run the whole 5k, albeit in a very slow 34:19, which over the 3.16 miles I clocked the race at worked out to a 10:54/mile pace.
While I was happy enough to just be able to run 5k with no pain last year, this year I expected to go quite a bit faster. Specifically, I wanted to beat my PKRPR (post knee replacement PR) of 28:53, which I did at the Ivy 5k four weeks earlier.
I tried to open the run more conservatively then I did at the Ivy 5k and ended up clocking 9:13 with an average HR of just 135bpm (which is a solid Z2 effort--certainly conservative!)
My 2nd mile was in 9:18 and my HR stayed steady at 136bpm. Mile 3 I picked up a bit and ran 9:08 at an average HR of 137bpm.
I crossed the finish line in 28:45, which works out to about 9:12/mile for the 3.13 miles I clocked it at this year (would be about 9:15/mile if this was the correct distance).
So, I took another 8 seconds off my PKRPR. I averaged just 136bpm vs. 153bpm at the Ivy race and my max HR was just 141bpm vs. 163 at Ivy. So not a lot faster but at a much easier effort (obviously, I have the capacity to go faster!).. I was also 5:34 faster than last year--it's been a long time since I've been doing something I have a lot of experience at and finding myself getting faster! Fun!
Anyways I finished 5th out of 19 in the 60-69 YO Age Group (79th %-tile). I was 191st out of 425 vs. 325th out of 397 last year. So I went from 18th %-tile last year to 55th %-tile this year. For this nearly 67 year old learning how to live with a new knee this is what progress looks like. I’ll take it. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish, PT wise, over the last 5-8 months. Lots of hard work, but it seems to be working, at least a little bit.
Onwards and upwards!
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