The first workout

I finally worked up a sweat again! After the hernia surgery on December 3rd I was forced to take an entire month off from doing any exercise at all. Well, I made it almost a month anyway. January 1, 2020 (Wednesday) I forced myself to go to the gym and work out. And I've done so every day since.

For the record, I weighed in at 163 pounds. That's probably about what I weighed when I ran the last marathon. I think I lost about 5 pounds after that. Then came the holidays...

The day before returning to the gym I did 10 squats and 10 pushups... and I barely made it! I felt so weak. It's crazy how quickly one can get out of shape.

It had actually been THREE months since I'd done any running. I had hoped taking that time off would be enough time to heal my knee and ankle. They actually felt better for awhile - especially the week of Ibuprofen following surgery and the week of steroids for the rash. Unfortunately, the pain came back! I don't know what is up with that.

Anyway... the first workout... It wasn't too hard. I want to be very intentional about not overdoing it. So I did 10 minutes on the stair-climber and 35 minutes on the treadmill. I alternated every 5 minutes between jogging at 5 mph and walking at 3.5 mph. It felt good just to work up a sweat.

I followed that up Thursday and today by increasing the length of workout a little each day. My legs (knee & ankle) are actually feeling better. Maybe I just need to work through it.

I have a follow-up doctors appointment next week, but if the soreness remains I may make an appointment with the physical therapy office in my building. If nothing else I would like to know if I will do more damage by starting back or if I need more time off. We will see.

I would like to do something at least 30 minutes every day - even if it's just walking. It's hard to not do anything. Hopefully I can gradually get back to running on a regular schedule again soon.