melissatwa's Journal, 06 October 2021

The tide is turning. All gaining has been brought to a standstill. Next up, engines in full reverse. Have you renewed your 10-mile walks?  

💚💛💜 

Thank you, gastropod! I appreciate so much you checking on me. I remembered you would and, honestly, it is a factor of my making sure to show up this week! 😁 I do feel like I'm back on plan. I have had one 10 mile and a 7.5. BUT, after the 10 MILE, super fast one, my knee started hurting again. It was feeling the best in a year while on our trip. So many many miles daily, but they were not race walking. I've got to back it down and try to get this stupid thing rehabilitated. I'm back to the gym but carefully. The 7.5 mile walk was last night and I didn't go over 4 miles an hour. No increased pain, so that is great!  

Thank you, shirfleur ❤️😊 

Slow & steady M 👍 

Melissa, great work. I knew you'd be walking! Sub-great about your knee. I can appreciate the desire to go out and crush it as a way to reverse the curse decisively and immediately. I, too, have injured myself that way. Good to hear your backing off some. @timvail shared something last week on the fallacy of going all out vs simply going. I think he showed the calorie burn for doing the same activity at different speeds, concluding that going at a moderate pace was only marginally less effective than killing it. More importantly, going at a moderate pace was infinitely more useful than not going at all. I'm cheering for you 

Thanks, sk! 😁 Gastropod, I did see Tim's post. It was a great. Trouble is I used to run and could much more quickly cover the miles. When my knee gave me trouble last year, I was reduced to walking only... For now. I don't want to feel like an old granny taking forever to get in my miles... But, alas, I'm getting old! 🧓 Better to get them in more slowly than be stuck in a chair! 😁  

have you thought about race walking? different motions, actually hard if you do it right. ask the doc, obvi. 

Walking is great no matter what the speed, although a brisk pace is recommended. Someone else will do a better "brisk" but I get there. The hare and the turtle type of thing.😁 

Kat, I have done work on learning to race walk. I have manage about 6mph, which is slow compared to competitors. Mostly I speed/power walk about 4.5 miles an hour. Both seem to be a bit tough on my knee rigbt now. It isn't the pounding, as in the fear with jogging, but it is the rubbing of the tendon across the outside of my knee causing burning pain which still is an issue. I'm going to see if keeping it at 3.5 to 4 miles an hour will ease the pressure a little. At the same time I'm working really hard on the tp work suggested, which has not made a lot of difference, but it isn't making it worse. Maybe eventually I'll see improvement. Or, perhaps the real answer is that I Ned to just walk around Europe for around 15 miles a day and I'll be fixed for good! 😁 Seemed to work for a month anyway!  

And... That is pt! 😁 * 

Kattay! I absolutely agree! I love to walk. My mother loved to walk. My grandma was walking 5 miles most days until she was very old... I can't say how old, because she seems ancient to me and I have no idea her age! I just remember walking miles and miles and miles down the Oregon beach with her. Humans were created to walk! 😁 I think that is why we don't burn all that many calories doing so. Lift your leg and it just swings forward happily!