Improvement measured in parkruns

I recently entered the more active part of my hip replacement recovery.

Up until the end of last week, all exercise (hobbling with crutches and various strengthening and flexibility exercises) had been strictly limited to around the house.

On Saturday, being parkrunday, I was drawn into stepping outside the house for my first "longer" walk. I set my sights pretty low and headed for the top of the road, roughly 50 metres away. The 100m round trip took roughly 8 minutes. Giving a projected parkrun time of roughly 6 hours 40 minutes. I know all us parkrunners deal in distances based on the unit of a "parkrun". That wasn't quite PB territory, but that wasn't really the aim on this occasion.

On Sunday I decided to follow the post-op advice to the letter, of increasing walking distance daily. So this time I headed down the hill aiming for the second telegraph pole, roughly a 200m round trip. This time it took about 11 minutes, for a projected parkrun time of 4 hours 35 minutes. Getting quicker but still a struggle and not feeling like normal walking at all.

Yesterday (Monday) I upped the target to the third telegraph pole, for a 300m round trip. This time it took about 15 minutes, still feeling anything but comfortable. Project parkrun time at a very similar pace of 4 hours 20 minutes.

I have just been for today's expedition in glorious sunshine and this time I aimed for the end of the road, 4 telegraph poles away and a fully 400m round trip. 

Two gas engineers were setting up some barriers across the path half way down the road, and much as I was tempted to test my post-op hurdling technique they were kind enough to move the barriers out of my way. I mentioned that I was going to the end of the road and would be back in a minute. They jokingly pointed out it would "be more like 15!", and duly took a well deserved tea-break. Needless to say I was down and back in around 6 minutes...in your face gas men! The round trip took only just over 11 minutes, for a projected parkrun time of 2 hours 18 minutes. And this time it almost felt like a natural walking gait, certainly more so than any other time since the op. Today felt like a huge step forward, without being risky. 

Slow and steady wins the race!