Goals and Feeling Better

Bike Time: 45 minutes 

Distance: 9.19* miles on interval training

When I first hurt my knee, my medical team asked me what my goals were for recovery. I said I wanted to walk my dog. Now I see this is a harder, more ambitious goal than I had originally imagined now that I am back walking Fox for short walks.

While walking Fox through Ravenna Park is far less ambitious than Lindsey Vonn flying down a ski slope at 78 miles per hour, it is not without its challenges for someone who is recovering from knee surgery. I am having to walk on uneven grassy fields and gravel roads that slope downhill all while holding a dog on a leash, walking fast and trying to stay balanced. I want to walk him up and down trails, not just on sidewalks. For me, this is hard. Not impossible, just hard. I was walking with Jack this morning, and he didn't realize how slowly I moved on a lumpy lawn in the park.

I am getting better, though. This week was the busiest week I've had since my surgery, which is good. I was out and about and enjoyed being with people instead of spending much of my time by myself. I ran into a friend on the sidelines of the soccer field. It turns out she was a physical therapist before she had kids.

"I bet you are a great patient," she said.

"Yeah..." I said but was thinking Not so much this week. The downside of being busy was that I found it harder to squeeze in my exercises. Tuesday, I asked my physical therapist Evan if I could take a day off and he said, "If you take one day off, then you might take another and another." (Translation: "No.") As much as I would like a day off, I can see his point. Once you are on task it is easier to stay on task. Eating one cookie isn't going to make you gain twenty pounds, but eating one cookie five hundred times will.

Part of feeling better is that it doesn't feel so awful if I start to slack. In the first few weeks after the surgery, I was terrified to skip my exercises. What if I couldn't bend my leg properly or walk up stairs like a normal person ever again because I did 35 leg lifts instead of 45? I was really motivated. It is not that I am unmotivated now, but my motivation is less since I have made progress. I am not out of the woods, but I can tell that I am going make it out.** Or maybe I am like the hare who decides to take a nap mid-race and blow the whole thing. I suppose that can happen, too.

I still have goals, I need to keep looking at them so I am motivated to keep working. Friends are starting to call and ask if I can go for a walk. I want to say yes. I need to get in shape for my vacation this summer. 

Perhaps what will also motivate me is a small, odd goal: I also want to sit on my left foot again. I used to be able to sit on my chair and tuck my left foot under my bottom. I can do it with my right foot, but it isn't that same was with the left. Again, this goal is not quite as ambitious as a Lindsey Vonn goal, but if it keeps me going, that's good enough.

* I bike every day, but I only post my milage on days when I've have a good number to report. I don't mention when I bike 7.34 miles in 45 minutes.

** Sorry about cliche day on my blog.