Friday, July 15, 2011

A Final Fifties Walk

My plantar fasciitis is somewhat less painful nearly three months after it first cropped up, and I decided that I should try a short walk. So I got up a little early yesterday and went outside to take a two mile walk. After a week or so of horrendously hot weather, it was a delightful morning - about 60 degrees F. and low humidity.

This would be my last walk as a fifty-something year old. When I think of how many thousands of miles I have walked and run in my fifties, most of them since surviving cancer, it is a little anti-climatic to have the last walk be two measly miles with a sore foot. But so be it - at least I was finally walking a little, something more than a third of a mile from the parking lot to work.

I walked slowly - about a 17 minute mile pace, which is a good 3-4 minutes off my fastest sustainable walking pace. My foot hurts a little more when I try to walk fast. It still seems like such a huge hill to climb to be able to walk 60 miles in a little more than two months, but I must find a way. But Wednesday, there was no point worrying about all that. I just enjoyed being able to walk a couple of miles on a cool morning. My foot hurt a little more during the day - I ended up walking over 16,000 steps for the day - but it seems no worse for wear today. So I talked to the doctor about starting to add some walking, and he agreed. I'll see how that goes, and keep my fingers crossed.

Big Six-OOOOO, here I come! What will the next decade of life bring?

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