June 19: At my house and in Stow at Judy’s for my rehab.

June 17: Did a hike with Judy today and went even further than yesterday, doing like 6 miles in 1:53 hours on the Kent-Stow bike & hike trail. Felt really good, especially the hilly sections. Still have a bit of pain in my chest with deep inhalations, like when I’m walking up a hill, but it feels pretty dang good compared to weeks one and two where it just hurt like hell with even the slightest of a moderate inhalation. 

So my walks feel really good at just over a 3 mph pace. My HR, which I took on my right arms radial artery, is still around just 100 or so, so I’m still staying within my intensity parameters. The thing I really like about going further is the fact that my legs, shoulders and arms are sore at the end of the walk. That makes me happy to know that they’re getting an endurance workout at the very least. I’m hoping to get my volume up to about 2.5 hours in the next couple weeks. Just that alone will bring some super light endurance resistance training to my legs, and to a lesser extent to my upper body. Then, when I can actually do true resistance exercises I’ll at least have a base level of fitness established. 

Now I have to admit that after the hike I worked for a couple hours and then took a really light nap. I mean man, my legs were tired - in addition to the rest of my body! And it wasn’t as if I was just totally fatigued, no, it was more of a good kind of tired, like I got a good workout kind of tired. 

Later in the day we came over to my house so I could hang with pop while Kim and Mike went to a social function that evening. Made dinner with Judy and then hung with pop the rest of the night to give Kim a break. All this, hopefully, has shown me that I can get back to my regular “care-taking” role back here at home in the next couple of weeks. My sister has just done an amazing job of taking care of me and pop, working at her profession and trying to have a personal life these last six weeks. I couldn’t imagine doing what she’s done while I’ve been on the mend. Her and Mike have a very well deserved vacation coming up in July and I’m anxious to get back to normal such that they can go away and enjoy themselves for a change!

Well, that’s about it for this Saturday. Hope I get the green light to be on a bike by the 4th of July. Can’t wait to ask my doc and the exercise physiologist if I can re-enter cycling….on a freaking fixie!!!!!!!