Recently in Exercise Category

I started physical therapy for my knee this afternoon, at Turning Point in Temple City. My tech Eric was great, and I think we'll do good work together.

We started by reviewing my overall health, and the specifics of my surgery. He evaluated my strength, flexibility, and pain situation, and we got a good dialogue going, with both of us asking and answering a lot of good questions.

After the evaluation, I started with 7 minutes of 60 rpm's on the upright stationary bike, followed by 5 minutes on a recumbent. It felt good to finally do something, and I had a little discomfort, but no pain.

Next, the helpers supervised some stretching exercises, which led to one inescapable conclusion – I am tight, and not the cool kind of tight. The hamstring stretches were most uncomfortable, but I manned up and got 'em done. At the end, they hooked up some electronic stimulaters and iced my knee up for 15 minutes. My knee was well and truly numb at the end.

They gave me a file with a list of exercises to do at home twice a day, and I go back on Friday morning for another session. I can already feel my knee loosening up, and I'm looking forward to making progress.

I wasn't feeling all that well yesterday, and I easily talked myself out of walking. I felt much better today, and rashly decided to start out with a one-mile run. It turned out a little better than I hoped.

I geeked out with all my gear - CamelBak, iPod, sunglasses and sun hat, and headed up Colorado. At the crest of the hill, I started running &mdash jogging to most people, but running to me &mdash and headed down Ave. 64. From past bike riding experience, I was anticipating the hills with some dread, but from the beginning my wind held out much better than my legs, which I found odd. The climb up to Malcolm was not fun, but I perserved, and made it all the way to La Loma without stopping.

I changed to a walk as I headed west on La Loma, and noticed a lot of soreness in the outside front of my lower legs; the right leg was worse, but both were sore. I slowly walked up La Loma to Glen Holly, trudged up the hill to Cheviotdale, got slightly lost before finding for Cherry Alley, and did the upper Sequoia steps. I seriously considered going up Cherry, but sucked it up and headed up Sequoia. By the first crest, my legs were feeling much better - tired, but not as noticeably sore.

Glenover to Alice, then back to work - tired, but still walking.

I ditched the benefits presentation at work (there's a online version), and headed out around 3:10pm. I wound up doing almost everything there is to do north of La Loma and west of Ave. 64. (minus the south east corner).

Brixton to La Loma, then a loop up Sycamore Glen, around Elmwood, and down Redwood back to La Loma, then immediately up Tamarac. Down Glenullen back to La Loma, up the Sequoia steps, the left on Cherry back to Glenullen. East to Sequoia and back down to the top of the steps, east on Cherry to Juniper, around Glen Holly and Capinero to Anita. Up Anita to Glenullen (again!), then up a short, steep climb to Sequoia. Up Sequoia to Glenover, down Anita to Glenullen (!), down to Malcolm, and back up to Glenover, then back to work. S&T says 3.8 miles, and I felt good during and after. Got back upstairs at 4:45pm.

Again, I didn't get out until a little after 3:00pm. Brixton to La Loma, then south on Tamarac, around Kaweah, Tamarac, then east on Kaweah to Poppy Peak, west on Pleasant Way (which was), and northwest on Evergreen back to La Loma. I counted - 97 steps up to Sequoia, and my heart was really pumping. I pushed on heartily to the crest, and it was all good on the way back.

I didn't start my walk until 3:00pm, but had a good time. Each day is better and better fitness-wise. Today was longer, with good hills on Sycamore Glen and Capinero, and my first trip south of La Loma for quite a while. Of the three routes from Glenullen to Glenover, Malcolm is the flatest.

I felt a little weird at noon, so I had a tuna sandwich and waited until 2:00 to do my walk. I felt good, so I headed to the Sequoia steps - a long set of stairs that go from La Loma up to Cherry and the south end of Sequoia. It makes for an intense workout, but other than some leg soreness before and after, I felt pretty good.

High school refereeing is coming up fast, and I needed to build some fitness after my long layoff due to migraines. To start, I walked the hills south of my office building.

A few years ago, I started walking this area and found I really enjoyed it. There's a lot of different route possibilities that range from 1.6 miles to 2.7 miles, all through beautiful homes with interesting designs and landscaping. The big selling point is the hills - there's lots of them. Most walking will not get your heart pumping, but cranking up and down these hills is definitely a workout. Just the thing to build leg strength and endurance for the upcoming high school soccer season.

Here's my route for today. Almost all of these walks start with a trip down Brixton to La Loma. I wanted something short for my first walk of the season, so I took the shortest way back via Tamarac. There's still plenty of elevation gain and loss, and when I hit the last climb on Sequoia my legs were getting jello-y.