I started a walking routine back in May.  I know I need to be more fit, and I need to be taking better care of myself.  I’m over 50, and although I don’t smoke and rarely drink, and have great yearly blood tests, I am not necessarily as fit as I would like to be.  I am a busy person, getting a lot of things done in a day, but exercising was never part of that plan.

But having been in Colorado for a year, and realizing I needed to be outdoors more not just because it was good for me but because I like to be outside, I started that walking routine.  First was just three days a week and 1.2 miles, but I quickly graduated to 7 days a week and 1.5-3 miles a day.  I would walk in the morning before work, then go to work and shower (we have showers in our building) and then go to my desk.  In a few short weeks I was already feeling the effects of the walking.  My legs and knees felt stronger, I had more stamina overall, tired a lot less doing ordinary things, and my breathing was better.  By August, I hadn’t lost any weight, but I’d lost inches, and lost my lazy “have to sit down every time I see a bench” attitude.

I took a week-long trip home to Missouri to visit family and friends, and did not do a daily walk while I was there.  We were too busy. The first day back to Colorado, I didn’t walk because I was exhausted from a straight-through drive back.  The second day, I got up early, suited up in my usual shorts and tank top, laced up my shoes, and away I went.  I got about 50 feet before I had severe pain in my left foot, on the outside.  Like someone had hit it with a baseball bat.  I made it about 3/4 of the way through my walk that day, telling myself I was just out of shape after having not walked for 9 days.  The next day I tried again, with the same result.  I started my plantar fasciitis exercises, thinking I was having a flareup.  By the third day, I knew something was wrong.  Very very wrong.

I already had an appointment scheduled with my orthopedist to see about my right knee, which has been bothering me, so I brought up the foot issue with him.  The determination was a strain/sprain of the peroneal tendon, although he was not a foot/ankle specialist.  He gave me a cam boot to wear, and said that if it wasn’t better in three weeks, he would refer me to a foot/ankle guy.  At this point, you are probably realizing that three weeks in the boot did not help.  I saw a foot/ankle guy, and had a series of MRI’s last week.  He also suspected a peroneal tendon injury, and this is exactly what he found.  I have a 4 cm high grade longitudinal tear of the peroneal tendon, at about the point it turns from my ankle bone and starts to make the descent down the side of my foot.  The best way to imagine it is to think about a strand of yarn, and with wear and tugging, the fibers begin to split, until the split through and are no longer a single strand.  This tear will not heal itself, no matter how many weeks I spend in a cam boot or wearing a splint.  It will get better, but it will never truly heal. I’ve been in the cam boot for 7 weeks; the injury is better, but the wrong kind of activity and I’m right back where I started in August.

The solution is surgery.  Of course.  And I will eventually have to do that, but now is not the time.  I am getting a different splint later this week, one that I can at least drive with, so that I can get back to doing some form of exercise.  My doctor was very clear: even after repair of this tendon, I will never be able to walk as a form of exercise again.  Not for the rest of my life.  As in, never ever ever.

Which is completely depressing, since I loved walking, and it was easy for me to do, and it fit into my schedule and I didn’t need any special equipment.  Now what?  I was feeling so good, seeing so much good result.  And I didn’t want that to end.  I want to get in shape, stay in shape.  I want to feel good.

So, I am now the proud owner of a Trek bike.  My mom kept insisting that we look at one.  She has her bike with her here, and I rode it a little, but I felt wobbly and like I couldn’t turn.  She had to take it in for a tire repair, and I went with her when she picked it up.  Her bike has the pedals set forward, called a “crank forward.”  The idea is that the pedals aren’t right beneath you, and therefore are easy on your knees.  This is true, it is easy on your knees, and as we all know I have terrible knees.  But the bike doesn’t feel stable.  So at the bike shop, I tried another crank forward bike, one with the pedals not quite so far forward.  It was better, I could at least turn, but I still felt wobbly.

The salesman at the shop knew a sucker when he saw one.  He said, “you need to try this one” and rolled out a sturdy-looking but traditionally-laid-out bike.  The seat adjusts to a good height for a leggy person like me, and it turns and maneuvers like a dream.  I loved it instantly.  All these years, I could not picture myself riding a bike. I gave up bikes in my teens.  But riding this one was easy, a pleasure, and gave me such a feeling of freedom.  I could not believe it.  I took the bike home with me that day. The Trek Navigator 1.0 WSD is a women’s bike with a sturdy frame, wide tires, and 7 gears.  What more could a girl want?

Isn’t it beautiful?  I have ridden it every day since I got it.  I am still getting a feel for everything, and I’m not feeling as confident on it as I will later.  It needs a basket or two, and a ding-ding bell, to be complete.  But those things will come later.  I have big plans to ride my bike around town, running small errands, riding at least 30 minutes a day, which is how long it took me to walk a 2.5 mile path.  I’m thinking I need more, but I’m going to work up to it, considering I have no really done any kind of exercise in at least 8 weeks.

I love my new bike.  I love that it’s comfortable for me to ride and that I like riding it.  It felt like an impulse buy, bit really, I don’t think it was.  I was ready to jump on anything to be able to get back out there and do something.  I intend to be Fit At Any Size.  Not being so is really not an option any more.

Wish me luck.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.