Weekend update

I'm just doing a quickie post today - mid 3 day weekend, almost halfway through the Prednisone treatment for the kickin'myass poison ivy.  The PI finally really dying down and I haven't had an episode of 2 hour intense itching from what what feels like down inside the bones in over 24 hours.  I'm not feeling crazy, hyper or strung out from the steroids at this point, but I am definitely retaining some fluid!  There is not a whole lot I can do about it other than drink lots of water, which I'm doing.  So I'm not stressing, not stewing and just trying to enjoy the time off.

Yesterday was a big accomplishment and progress point in my journey since this past winter of the knee arthroscopies and assorted related annoyance...I finally walked the entire loop at my beloved Ridley Creek State Park yesterday with a friend and my big silly old dog!  It's a gorgeous walk, quite hilly, mostly wooded and trailing along a beautiful creek, with the measured distance of 4.3 miles.  However, from where you park, walk in and get to the first mileage indicator, it's probably another .3 miles, so I'm always pretty comfortable deeming it a 5 mile walk from car back to car.  Friday afternoon, I went to the gym after work and biked for 30 minutes at a resistance level of 4, at a pretty fast speed.  It was definitely more work on the knees than I'd had to date, and while they felt great and so did the walk yesterday, I've had several glitchy steps in the hours since the long walk.  Dum, da dum dum.......

I'm determined to remain optimistic and prudent in the return to full activity level, but what I've experieced several times yesterday after the long walk and then again this morning are random occurrences of my R knee just sort of giving out for a second, with a shooting of minor pain.  Nothing awful, and not even alarming, but putting me on notice that I'm am not yet fully rehabbed, even though the stiffness and discomfort the knees experienced for so long has been almost totally gone.  Back to paying close attention, advancing slowly, not getting cocky, and listening to my body.  Probably just as well, because after Friday's bike workout, I was starting to think of jogging, couch to 5k trainings....just getting waaaaay ahead of myself.  Damn...I was entirely getting carried away with my bad self! Off and running in my head long before I'm able to go off and running for real!

This will date me (though you already know I'm a woman of a certain age) but I'm reminded of something the comedian from the late 60s and early 70s, Flip Wilson, in his character of Geraldine, used to quip, "Don't let your mouth write a check your body can't cash".  Exactly.  I've been guilty of that very thing as it applies to what I can/will do with excercise!  Another variation on the theme of unrealistic goal setting or setting out to do something I'm not really ready for is another thing I hear in AA all the time, "Ready, Fire, Aim".  DOH!  That too.

So the rest of the weekend will be me not overdoing it on my knee.  I hope to be able to get another shorter but still substantial walk in, but will put the jogging and pole vaulting off for a time!  The body isn't ready to cash those checks just yet.  I hope everyone has a great  rest of the weekend with plenty of R&R.