Backing Off

It's been a long time since I've written here, and a lot of water under the bridge since. We've moved to another country--south to Mexico, where I've imagined training along the sandy lakeshore or its paved walkway. This move--visas, packing, storing, travel, immigration, customs, house-hunting-- has taken a much of my energy.

I tried keeping up with the PT's recommended strategy for getting back into running, but the knee was still complaining. I wasn't used to its complaints. My knees had never been a problem before last summer, either of them. And the left knee ached after running--actually, jogging--for two or three minutes.

I chalked it down to something I needed to overcome.

About three weeks ago, though, I was talking to Matt, my friend, former colleague and trainer. He asked me how the knee was getting along and I told him--just what I've written above. Matt urged me to just get back to walking, preserving my knee for the hiking I love, and foregoing running until it felt stronger. He told me it might take a year, but keeping active was much more important that continually stressing something in the search for a trophy.

Matt is a wise person, especially about health. Since that conversation, I've pretty much been doing what he suggested, maybe even slacking off too much, but most of that's down to preparing for this big move I mentioned.

I'm looking forward to the time when I can burst into a run and feel, once again, almost like flying. But I'm not going to push it--not at all.

Hiatus

Checklist I've been using the past couple of months. Just
started a new week.

I spent the first half of the past six weeks adhering to my daily workout and every-other-day rehab regime.

Then came the distractions of preparing for our upcoming move to Mexico, doing some substitute teaching for my friends at school, and finally coming down with a cold as a consequence of spending time in that germy little petri dish.

Mid-May we fly south to spend a year in the sun. I'm going to try spending the next five weeks getting back on track and up to speed.

Adelante!

Recovery Enters Another Phase

Daily walks down this path were healing.

It's been seven weeks since I wrote about the slow progress of my bunged-up knee's recovery. I spent most of that time in Mexico where I focused on healing.

The first three weeks there were in a tiny fishing village where I had nothing much to do except the prescribed exercises and daily walks of increasing challenge. I'd lay off a little if there was any pain that didn't quickly go away, and made good progress until I was brought low by stomach distress.

In the middle of recovering from that, it was time to travel again. We moved our act about 5000 feet up and 180 miles inland, to the small town of Ajijic, on Lake Chapala.

Add to the body slump that comes from being jammed in taxis, airports, planes, and more taxis--add to that another helping of gastric discomfort, abetted by the high altitude--and over a week passed before I felt up to much more than stirring and drinking my Metamucil, and going for easy strolls over Ajijic's cobblestone streets and sidewalks.

Second Station of the Cross...it gets you to thinking about pain, 
and overcoming it

It wasn't more than a couple of days, though, before I was ready for a hike to the five-hundred foot ridge easily visible from our balcony--above a little chapel with stations of the cross along the trail.

This got me primed, a couple of days later, for a hike that was triple the previous distance and altitude gained. Even with a difficult descending trail--steep, with dust and scree--I made it through without my knee hurting at all. I celebrated with my hiking compadres, a huge pile of nachos, and several Coronas.

More taxis, planes, etc. and last week we sadly returned to our wet, cold and cloudy home in the Pacific Northwest. Two days later I saw Kirsten, my excellent physical therapist. She said that I'm ready for the next phase of recovery:

The "Return to Jogging Program" is where, for 15 minutes, I alternately walk and then jog, gradually increasing the proportion of time I spend on the latter, until, by the end of six weeks, I'm just jogging--no walking at all. Every other day, when I'm not on the "Program", I've devised a set of strength building exercises do go with my daily morning routine.

This is where the "Long Run" thinking comes in: I'm not even looking forward to speed training. I'll leave that up to whatever Kirsten thinks I'm ready for in mid-March. Until then, I'll just keep focused on my new recovery checklist, one day at a time.

Onward, or as we say south of the border--"Adalante!"