Well, my last post was back in October of 2013 when I was scheduled for surgery to remove a bone spur in the back of my heel. I wasn’t going to be able to workout for many weeks after that, heck, I wasn’t even going to be able to walk without crutches for the next eight weeks when I was finally given a walking boot. During this time, I had lost almost 9 lbs, which I would guess was partly due to muscle atrophy, as my left leg had gotten considerably smaller while in the cast, though I am sure that not all nine lbs came from my previously massive calf (wink wink). It was a full twelve weeks between the time I had the surgery and the day when my surgeon finally gave the word I could walk without the boot. As excited as I was to be done with that episode, I was even more excited to start working out again.
During my recovery time, many acquaintances who knew that I was a fitness enthusiast kept reminding me to take it slow. Slow I could do. I was walking slow and moving slow. I felt like I wasn’t myself. I had been used to scampering up the stairs at the train station. I was used to be able to hop up and run here and there. I could spring up onto the stage and grab my guitar when it was time to play. Then after I was free from the boot, I was limping around. I was getting tired of the gimpy jokes after a while. They were funny at first, I’m all into a little self-deprecation, but now I was ready to move onto getting back to normal.
As excited as I was about the idea of running again, when my therapist/miracle guy gave me my release from the therapy sessions and told me I could run as much as I could stand, I knew I could not stand running. The strength and stamina in my ankle was just not there. But I knew that full healing was more important than rushing my routines. I practiced walking with a normal gait so I wouldn’t develop a habit of walking like Boris Karlov as the Mummy. So now it was time to start getting my strength back…slowly.
I knew that I was cleared to run, but endurance was more important. So my first day back at the Morrison House of Pain, I decided to just walk a half mile. Nothing fancy, just a nice consistent pace. In about 15 minutes and I was done. I slowly climbed back up the stairs and rested. A few days later it was time again. I decided to go for a more full workout rather than just walking on the treadmill. After a five minute warmup on the recumbent bike, I picked up a kettle bell and did some bent over rows and some sumo squats and some hammer curls with dumbbells. After several sets, it was time to hit the treadmill again. I set the speed to 3.0 mph and started going. Twenty minutes and one-mile later, I was done. So I went upstairs, prepared a quick protein shake and crashed a little later that evening.
The next day, I am sore. My back. My arms. My legs. Ugggh. Next week, I added some leg curls and extensions, some seated rows and some items to the routines. The workouts are not superheavy, but I’m getting the routine going. I’m back in the saddle, baby!