It’s been roughly 3 months since I was diagnosed with sky-high blood pressure and renal artery stenosis. I also spent a night in the ICU after a false alarm for a stroke. (I was on a super strong blood pressure med for the night and it required continuous supervision.)

Since then, I started taking walks. At first it was a quarter of a mile, then gradually pushed up to 5-6 miles, every day. Sometimes even up to 8-10 miles if time allowed.

Jogging started slow, as I could only handle about 1/8 mile at a time. [Insert knee strain injury here]. I worked up to 1/4 mile run + 1/4 mile walk for as many reps as I could handle for my daily routine.

Rucking once or twice a week was added and am almost at 40lbs of weight. (It hurts, but has taught me pain management.)

Sprints once a week for 10 seconds for about 5-8 reps somehow worked itself in to the routine. (Dunno where that came from.)

Finally this evening, I ran a full continuous mile and celebrated with a round of sprints after that.

I am 46 and hadn’t ran a full mile in over 20 years. 3 months ago I thought I was going to die walking up a hill. Walking one solid mile was a huge milestone for me not so long ago.

I guess the point of this post is just a checkpoint and a reminder to myself that things are actually getting better and there are more milestones to reach.

Cheers.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
    23·
    12 days ago

    This is such a huge achievement, nice work! Starting out is always so tough and it sounds like you’ve done the hardest thing which is establishing the habit and sticking with it. Hopefully now that you’ve seen that progress you’ll get addicted to that feeling of being able to do something that seemed so far off before. You’re kicking ass!

    Edit:. Just wanted to add that rucking is amazing. I’ve been doing it for a little while now as well and absolutely love it.

    • remotelove@lemmy.caOP
      16·
      12 days ago

      You are the person that suggested rucking to me when I was trying to figure out how to deal with busted knees.

      Weirdly enough, it fixed my serious knee pain issues, almost overnight. I forced myself through the pain one evening and woke up the next morning and my knees were at about 90%. Any time my knees start hurting, its proving to be a decent “cure”. None of that makes any sense to me, but I am not going to question it.

      It seriously hurts me though and it’s developed into a tolerable love/hate relationship now.

      Edit: Forgot to say thank you. Thank you!

      • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
        10·
        12 days ago

        Oh nice I was wondering if that was you but I was too lazy to check post history. I feel you on the pain, I broke a big PR recently and my shoulders were hurting so so much but it’s been really good, helps to build that mental toughness too I guess.

        • remotelove@lemmy.caOP
          2·
          11 days ago

          I understand your point. An exercise bike is probably the best option and those get super boring for me.

          It’s not as flexible for me where I live, unfortunately. A bike is better used for actual transportation here and trying to figure out routes for any kind of sustained cardio would be challenging.

          While I say I have a “routine”, that is not exactly true. My only routine is that I get my ass out of the house for a couple of hours and move. I am too scatterbrained to have a fixed exercise schedule and I usually have no idea what kind of exercise will be in store for me.

          Maybe a bike will be a better option for me later when I roll into a more steady and planned out routine.