Back on the work-out wagon

Well, the first day back actually feels really good.
The two weeks of layoff, while necessary due to injury, didn't seem to set me back too far.
This morning I walked for 20 minutes at 3.7/MPH on the treadmill here at home. The distance was over a mile, but not the 1.55 miles that was my initial distance.

I can feel the blood pumping through my left knee. I'm very aware of it and where the pain used to be. However, the is no pain this morning just some soreness. I'll be watching/feeling it very closely during the day to see if I can continue at this pace tomorrow.

Before I started today, I decided to listen to my iPod. As if I was in some cosmic "strength of youth" moment, the "shuffle" put of Merle Haggard, Bruce Springsteen (twice), and the Eagles. Exercise always makes me feel young, but there was something special about this workout.

Last day or rest

Well, today makes the last day of rest before I restart my training tomorrow. I'm still not sure what happened to my knee, but I'm sure resting was the right thing to do.

Yesterday was the first day that I had no pain at all and today everything feels as good as new (new as in almost 50!) and I'm excited about starting up tomorrow.

Progress, sort of

Today is the first day that my knee pain has prevented me from walking normally. I've only been up for about 15 minutes, but it feels much better. However, the knee feels nowhere good enough to tax with a workout.

I'm on a tough stretch of travel. Home tonight on the last day of a three day trip to Houston. Sort of regular day tomorrow with a long drive to/fro Chicago in the mix. Three day trip to NY starts on Wednesday.

I'll be monitoring the knee very closely during all this travel with the hope of restarting workouts over the weekend.

Time grinds on and so does my knee

Well, I am now on day seven of knee rest.
Last Friday (2/18), I jogged just over 7 minutes and everything was fine.
Then I got on a plane to DC and during that ride, which took place 7 hours later, my knee began to ache like nothing I'd felt since High School. Here I sit a full week later and it still hurts!

One of the main cautions around starting to run again, is to not overdo it. 7 minutes hardly sounds like overdoing it, but I might be beyond my current running limit. The weird thing is, there was no pain until I got on the plane.

I'm hoping this is something non-workout related and that with some more rest, I'll be fine.

I'm going to give it another several days and we will see what happens.

I'm seriously bummed, but I really don't want to do any permanent damage.

Catching up after missing time

Due to the undocumented corporate policy of the people that run O'Hare International Airport, is was almost midnight on Thursday when I got home from my trip to Texas.

I was dead tired on Friday morning and it was just too easy to pass on my opportunity to do my workout. The fault for being late clearly goes to O'Hare. The fault for missing the workout is all mine.

I made Saturday morning a "speed" day and everything was fine. In fact, the treadmill in Austin showed me that I could run a little faster than I thought.

The price for skipping that Friday morning was paid this morning. It took everything I had to do the 40  minutes (I've just rounded up from 39min45secs) and I'm still feeling it at almost 11:00 this morning.

The good news is that I did complete my time this morning and that I've learned a valuable lesson along the way.

Tomorrow starts a tough stretch. I'm flying at 08:00, so I'm doing a speed day a 05:00. I'll be in NY for Tues and Wed working long conference hours. My hope is that this morning's pain will be a strong reminder to keep me on the workout path and on my broader journey.

Stay tuned to see how I hold up under this trip.

Another distance day

In an odd way, the fact that the treadmills at this hotel don't have the same sort of controls as the treadmill at home has worked out for me.

This morning I set out to do my 39 minute 45 second walk at 3.55MPH. However, I ended up with a 40 minute walk at 40 minute walk at 3.6MPH. Not very much of push, but a nice forced step toward upgrading both distance and speed.

I really didn't even notice the difference.

Great start to what should be a great day. Headed to my favorite place in the world today, the arms of my lovely bride at home.

quick 2 day update

Hello from the Republic of Texas. It is above freezing down here, yet some people are wearing coats??

After that real awakening workout on Monday, I had a pretty easy day on Tuesday. It was a flying day, but I didn't leave the house until 09:00. Therefore, there was plenty of time to do my new full walking workout. The 2.32 distance is already seeming normal.

This morning, I was scheduled to do the 4.66MPH run for 6 1/2 minutes. The hotel has a nice little workout room complete with fancy treadmills. However, the fancy treadmills didn't have much flexibility. So...this ended up being a 7 minute run at 5MPH. It was tough, but not as tough as Monday.

I think that initial off period of 31+ years from running carried more shock value than body punishment. I was prepared for the run this time and I handled it well this morning.

All of this seems much more real. Feels good!