Walk-Jogging

For the first time in 103 days, I went on a little walk-jog outside today.

Six minutes of walking, five minutes of jogging, five minutes of walking, five minutes of jogging. 1.31 miles total, with a max pace of 11:26 per mile.

It was glorious and pathetic at the same time.

It's not really painful, but it does feel super awkward. I think there's some nerve damage in the shin and then the muscles in my right leg are all just weak, atrophied, and not used to doing any work.

It felt great to get back out there.

May 20-26

A particularly uninteresting week fitness wise, even by my current standards.

May 20

Am: 35 minutes recumbent bike, level 9, HR 110-120

May 21

Crazy busy day with work; 1 dog walk; .25 miles

May 22

35 minutes recumbent bike, level 10, HR 110-125, dog walk, 10 minutes treadmill, prog to 2.8 mph; .65 miles total

May 23

35 minutes recumbent bike, level 11, HR 110-130, dog walk, 11 minutes treadmill, prog to 3.0, .7 miles total

I feel like I’m now at or beyond the level I was pre-May 14 surgery; only thing that’s worse than then is the dressing and the sutures on the surgical area

May 2

2 dog walks, but no formal exercise today; .5 miles total

May 25

5 hours of yard work, planting about 20 trees; no formal exercise

May 26

Another 3 hours of yard work, planting more trees; 32 minutes recumbent bike, level 12. HR got up to low 140s.

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I'm never going to get that jazzed up about getting on a recumbent bike, which has been a decent incentive not to overdo things. And that, of course, is almost certainly a good thing a week after surgery. Also, I still have an ace bandage and sutures in my leg, so that makes it hard to do much. Also, I have two holes in my tibia and fibula where the screws used to be.

I had signed up for the Bolder Boulder, but obviously kind of hard to do that when you can't walk more than a mile. 

All negativity aside, I can feel real progress most days. Sometimes I can sort of imagine running on my leg. With that said, if everything continues to progress as planned, there might be some activities that could arguably be classified as "jogging" in the latter half of this week. I have a post-op appointment on Thursday, when I get the sutures removed and I'm hoping to get the all-clear to start my return-to-jogging progression. 

May 6-19

May 6

Two dog walks, half mile walk in 13:40, max pace 2.6, with incline of 7; 1 mile total

May 7

One dog walk, plus mile treadmill walk in 25:11, max pace 2.7, with incline of 9; 1.25 total

May 8

Pt, .33 mile walk on treadmill, max pace 2.8, two dog walks; .83 total

May 9

Am, 25 minute treadmill, 3 minutes easy walk, 5 minutes, building to 3 mph, 5 minutes easy walk, 5 minutes building to 4 mph, 2 minutes easy

Drive to Denver

May 10

Airport, travel to Austin

10 minutes of PT pm

May 11

10 minutes pool running, shallow end; 30 minutes swimming

May 12

Mother’s Day/Father in Law retirement party; lots of standing around

May 13

5 am wake up call after late night; 10 minutes pool running, shallow end; 25 minutes swimming

May 14

Surgery; Two crutches, full weight bearing, in boot

No exercise/no PT 
Total surgery fog

May 15

Recovery from Surgery 2

No exercise/no PT

One crutch, full weight bearing, still in boot; no exercise or PT

Pretty damned painful. Day 2 after surgery is the worst.

May 16

Recovery; out of boot, full weight bearing, no exercise or PT

Big decrease in pain today, super slow minimal walking

May 17

10 minutes treadmill walking, build to 2.2; .3 miles total

Before surgery it felt stiff; now it feels loose; feels very wonky and unstable whenever I first get up on it

May 18

30 minutes recumbent bike, HR 110-120, taking it very easy; just trying to get some light exercise
Can't go to the pool for at least a couple of weeks because of the sutures

Feeling better today; still feels wonky when I first get up, but it feels ok once I’m moving.

May 19

Feeling better again, saved my “up time” for overdue yard work rather than exercise.

Surgery #2

Had surgery #2 yesterday. Yesterday itself wasn’t too bad, but now that the anesthesia’s worn off and I’m just sitting around, yeah, I can feel it. Even with painkillers, it feels like someone just drilled holes into my bones.

I was able to keep the screws they took out of me.

As a friend of mine said yesterday, it looks like they just picked a couple of screws off the shelf at Home Depot.

Fortunate to have a great law partner covering for me at work and a great wife covering for me at home. And I’m already weight bearing, so I can get food and water for myself and handle basic chores. Just kind of a mental challenge to go back into the boot after a few weeks without it.

More than anything, just content to have the last of the major obstacles (knock on wood) to recovery in the rear view.