The FastDay Forum

Well Susan, @Franglaise, you were quite right - my new prosthetic PB for 5k is now 58:40 so nearly 9 minutes quicker than before.
Quick enough that the other hip started to complain a bit, unfortunately, but no problem with the new one. Still having to use one crutch as I am only supposed to be partial weight-bearing for another 3 weeks.
Onwards & upwards!

Congrats on your PBs, Brian and Pete.

What I learned this weekend: cold weather is not good for plantar fasciitis.

Attended our local parkrun today but set off before the runners. New post-op PB of 52:08, a good six minutes faster than earlier this week. Things are getting better by leaps and bounds (but not literally!)

Well done Pete, I also had a PB today in my 8th parkrun, but only by 7 seconds.

No PB for me this weekend, but I was very happy with my 10km race yesterday. I was back to my 'normal' time of 46:30 (my last 10k run 2 weeks ago was a not so good 48 mins). I was 17th out of 219 women (5th in my category) and 361 out of 850 overall.
I paid attention to what I ate and lost 3lbs, I'm sure that helped my race time.
A girl I crossed the line with said she had never seen anyone run with such a bizarre style as me, with legs and arms everywhere. Something I need to work on but I've no idea how to change my stride!
Congrats @CreakyPete and @brian1 on your PB times!

...
A girl I crossed the line with said she had never seen anyone run with such a bizarre style as me, with legs and arms everywhere. Something I need to work on but I've no idea how to change my stride!
Congrats @CreakyPete and @brian1 on your PB times!

Your times are admirable. If you haven't experienced a series of continuing injuries, there's probably no need to change anything.

...
A girl I crossed the line with said she had never seen anyone run with such a bizarre style as me, with legs and arms everywhere. Something I need to work on but I've no idea how to change my stride!

If it'aint broke, don't try to fix it. Your times are great and as ADF said then as long as you are not continually injured I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Thanks for your nice comments @ADFnFuel and@Simon Egan!
I know what you mean, I just wonder if I could possibly go faster if I improved my style, if only doing something vaguely useful with my arms
I'm sure I don't lift my legs due to the torn meniscus in my knee which I can run with, but subconsciously I'm sure I'm scared of aggravating the pain if I lift my left knee too high.
Anyway, I'm quite happy with my current times and at my age I'm only going to slow down now!

... I just wonder if I could possibly go faster if I improved my style, if only doing something vaguely useful with my arms
I'm sure I don't lift my legs due to the torn meniscus in my knee which I can run with, but subconsciously I'm sure I'm scared of aggravating the pain if I lift my left knee too high.
Anyway, I'm quite happy with my current times and at my age I'm only going to slow down now!

For me, improvements with running depended mostly on curiosity driving a willingness to experiment with various techniques. Chronologically - with age-graded calculators - I'm faster now than when I was in my twenties. Mentally and physiologically I feel that I have considerable improvement ahead.

The motivating idea behind these thoughts parallels trying 5:2 for the first time. In both cases, after looking into the details and realizing that the inherent risks didn't outweigh the desired gain, there was no reason not to try it to see what happens.

In reality, you can always do better. You just need to find the 'thing' that will make the biggest difference. This could be the cumulative effect of small changes or a huge big change. Starting 5:2ing was massive for me but focusing on being properly hydrated was probably the most significant change that I made.

Experiments (!?) with arm swing techniques for running from a variety of book sources:

1. Don't let your hands and forearms cross the centerline of the body. This saves energy and increases efficiency because the rest of the body doesn't have to counter an unnecesary twisting force.

2. Keep elbows close to the body. Prevents an energy wasting side-to-side oscillation often called chicken-winging.

3. How much arm swing? The most common recommendation is to stop forward arm swing when the hand is approximately level with the upper middle chest; stop the back swing where the hand meets the hip. At least one source source calls this "hip to nip". Note that this works for most running speeds except sprinting where the greater speed and power requires a longer stride and extended arm swing. (Limiting arm swing also tends to help shorten stride length and increase step rate.)

Hope this is helpful.

5k walk around the estate with just a trekking pole for support - a new PB of 48 minutes dead, very nearly 4 mph.
The limiting factor now seems to be my good hip, which has started complaining again after a decent period of light activity...
Just one week now before I can drive again, then another week to see my surgeon for follow-up, then hopefully down to the bouldering wall for climbing rehab. Intending to walk parkrun for the next few months, hopefully jogging again by October, and depending on how the new hip goes might sign up for the other one to be renewed next November.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and impressive PBs to all the runners here!

Christmas parkrun with the whole family today - I set off early so as to not inconvenience the volunteers and walked/jogged a new post-op pb of 41:46, just 5 weeks since leaving hospital. Very pleased so far with the way I have recovered. I suspect my surgeon would not be too happy if he knew, though..
MrsPete had a good run until her knee let her down; the kids ran about as well as they usually do, given they got up about 5 minutes before we left for the run!

A google search for "running after hip replacement surgery" found these CreakyPete:

http://hiprunner.com/

http://www.med.nyu.edu/pmr/residency/re ... %20THR.pdf

http://training.fitness.com/running-cyc ... 39760.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/24096 ... placement/

http://www.regenexx.com/2013/12/hip-rep ... t-jogging/

Overall they are encouraging. Enjoy.

John

Well done Pete, very impressed. We did parkrun this morning; no.1 son did one lap on crutches as he has a broken ankle and no.2 son set off fast but then waited for me and alternately nagged me all the way round or threatened to throw up as he was hung over. Great fun though and beautiful sunshine though chilly.