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.