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Recovery gets more active

For three weeks my most strenuous activity was walking the dogs around the neighborhood, but I’ve finally started getting out and sweating a little bit.

Elizabeth and I took the dogs to Runyon Canyon a couple times over the weekend. Runyon was a nice way to get active again because it’s local, it’s dog friendly and while the main loop is just about 1.75 miles, it’s got some nice climbing that works the legs, heart and lungs a little bit. We usually do the loop counter-clockwise, which means a rocky ascent and a smooth, paved descent. Runyon gets a bad rap because it’s “sceney” and crowded and stinky because of all the dogs and even though it is all those things, it works perfect as a way to get in a quick hike.

On Tuesday morning I stepped it up a bit and met Billy for a seven mile hike from Los Liones to the Parker Mesa overlook. It’s a trail that I only discovered a couple weeks before my surgery. And it’s one that will fit into my rotation nicely going forward. It’s a great hike that starts with a nice long climb. Usually, there are amazing views of the ocean, but the marine layer had us fogged in for most of the hike.

It was a nice test for me to see what I could do – strength-wise, fitness-wise and comfort-wise. The good news is that I felt great. I was a little more winded than I would have been a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have any real discomfort during or after the hike! It’ll be at least a couple weeks before I’m running, but it’s nice to know that I can hike instead.

And then today I went for a swim. I should really describe it as a “kick”, because that’s pretty much all I did! I took it really easy and I kicked about 700 of the 900 meters, some with the kickboard, some without. Again, no pain or discomfort during either the kicking or the swimming. My hips and shoulders burned a little; the good kind of burning. This was my first swim since July 2 (and the last swim before that was June 2), so even without the surgery in mind, I wanted to be really really careful – I want to be able to move tomorrow!

Onward!