Walking it off
Recently, I came to the realization that I’m walking less in my current town home than I was in the apartment downtown. This may sound odd, as I now have to leave the building to go to work, but I have a garage now so no longer have the mandatory two blocks each way to park the car.
Having come to this realization, I’ve started taking steps (no pun intended) to increase how much I’m walking. Primarily, this takes the form of making sure I leave my desk at work and go walk around outside. I don’t have much time for too long of a walk, but I can at least walk around the block. I’d gotten to the point of making it around the block (four tenths of a mile) without too much difficulty, so tonight was the first night I’ve expanded my circuit to walking around two blocks (six tenths of a mile). I know six tenths of a mile doesn’t sound like much, but I let my back and leg atrophy too much, so have had to start low. As it is, I was already aching by the time I got back to the building.
I’m thinking my next step on this recovery is to add additional walking at home to my stretches and the walking I do at work. As the town home is located on the edge of a subdivision, I should be able to find plenty of room to walk without having to worry about too much traffic. My short-term goal is to be able to go a mile without any difficulty, but that may not happen for a couple weeks.