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.
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.