Taking Real Baby Steps

(Recovering in Bed)

                This title may be a bit misleading as Lilyana has yet to take her first steps. I am assuming it will be many months down the road, but I have been taking some baby steps of my own. On November 27^th I had my one month post op appointment with my surgeon. He checked out my knee and was very pleased with the healing, so pleased in fact that he cleared me for “jogging” already! That was 6 weeks sooner than I anticipated.

                I had to make him spell out exactly what he meant by “jogging.” When my midwives told me I could do “cardio” two weeks after having Lilyana I assumed that meant running. I assumed wrong. But this time he really meant jogging. He told me to always start with a walk to warm up then jog 5 or so minutes, walk, jog, walk, jog, etc. over time gradually decreasing my walk and increasing my run time and taking 72 hours rest between jogging days. Pace is meaningless right now. It is all about minutes.

                The next day was Thanksgiving and before our first Thanksgiving as our new little family Levi, Lilyana and I ventured out to the turf fields for some exercise. I made it about 20 meters, my first “jog.” I was elated and exclaimed, “Look at me Levi! I’m running!” As I did some strange looking shuffle run at a pace Levi could easily walk next to. The people playing kickball must have thought I was nuts. Next, I tried 50 meters and made it. Then I got ambitious and told Levi I was going to jog to the end of the field and back. I made it half way and turned around and decided to call it quits for the day and we walked home. I could now justify eating my favorite Pecan Pie since I had jogged maybe a total of 200 meters.

(Lilyana gets her exercise wrestling her toys)

                Fast forward a few weeks and things are progressing. My jog is actually looking like a jog and the minutes I spend walking are decreasing. For instance today I started with a 5 minute walk. Then I jogged for 20 minutes (around a 9:20 minute mile), followed by walking for 5, jogging for 15 then a walk cool down totaling 5 miles. On the walk portions I put the treadmill at 5% incline and the jogs 0%.

My knee is feeling more and more stable every day. It is not painful but I am being careful not to push it too soon. We are leaving for Nevada tomorrow to see Levi’s family which should keep me in check as I will be busy visiting family and not thinking about exercising too much. When I start seeing gains in my healing it is hard not to want to dive head first into plotting out my training and future racing goals. I have a ways to go before I am at this point. On top of my jogging I am cross training a few days a week on the spin bike and am doing strength work 2-3 times per week. My left quad has some catching up to do with the right one as it has definitely atrophied a bit. Even before the surgery it was noticeably smaller than the right as I was unable to really use those muscles properly due to my knee pain. I am optimistic that things will heal properly and I will be back to training and racing in no time.

For the first time in awhile I actually look forward to being on the treadmill because it sure beats being laid up on the couch.