I had been faithfully walking, and I had completed at least thirty miles on foot when the front of my ankle began to hurt. My feet were covered with blisters, so I decided it was time to take a day off from my usual five mile hikes. It didn’t bother me much sitting out one day, but then my foot was still quite tender, so I took a second day off. The third day was to be a problem of a different sort.

Lacing up my faithful leather friends, I hit the pavement only to be stopped a few minutes later with a strong “pop” in my left calf while crossing a busy street. I almost fell flat on my face, but managed to remain standing. Since I didn’t have any experience on this sort of thing, I assumed it was a muscle that snapped out of place for a moment because I could still walk, although gingerly. Hobbling back to the house, I put my foot up and relaxed it on a heating pad, figuring that would make the Charlie horse style pain go away.

I stayed off my feet as much as possible for the next three days, and then I wandered back outside. My feet got about 100 yards from my house when the muscle popped again, so once again I hobbled back home and to the safety of the heating pad. Sitting it out, I was becoming frustrated because I couldn’t exercise, and diet is only one component of a healthy lifestyle I’m trying to make a permanent habit. After a few more days, I again wandered outside, and sure enough, the muscle popped, but I was too frustrated to return to the house, so I made my way to the grocery store and then back.

Strangely, I had this sensation of the popping in that same leg about a year prior, but it acted like a Charlie horse and then went away in a day or two. I thought I might be able to gently walk it off a little, but with each step, it became clear what I had done was not something I could just “walk off”. Picking up the phone, I dialed Laurie, and asked her what she knew about this. She always seems to have some great advice, but this time around she didn’t have the answers that really fit my problem. So I called Fred and he thought it might be nothing more than a simple leg cramp that would work its way out after a few more days of rest.

The Internet is quite a source of information, albeit, not always accurate, but that’s why you read multiple pages on the same subject from different sites. Medicine doesn’t always agree with itself, so I’m not that worried when it comes to researching information on the Internet. Well, after doing some reading, I discovered a site that told me the difference between a strain and a sprain and it directly mentioned the “pop” I had heard and felt. I had strained or torn my calf muscle, and that’s not good news.

This affects everything I want to do because it could mean healing in the best case, in two weeks, or as much as three to four months! No cardiovascular exercising, limited stretching and strength training! I have to be very careful to avoid re-injury of the muscle, which I’ve already done a few times. At this point, I’m feeling a bit low because I’m already seeing my metabolism slowing down with no activity, but if I don’t care for the muscles now I’ll definitely be in greater trouble later.

I didn’t realize I needed to warm up for walking, and I wasn’t power walking. I did throw in the occasional 100-foot jog, but that only started to happen in the last two sessions of exercise. Whenever I’d get home, I was responsible and hydrated myself as well as crawled into a hot bath to heat up the sore muscles and soothe the blisters.

What I used to look forward to is now something out of reach at the moment, and I’m going to have to rethink how to do a workout without any stress on the calf muscles so as not to stress them. Currently, I’m waddling like a duck because I can’t roll on the ball of my foot while walking, and that’s placing an undue amount of stress on my lower back and hips. The only types of exercises I can do would be upper body strength training.

Like all obstacles, I’ll figure a way through this with God’s help and a bit of reading to find adaptive exercising I can perform. One thing I’ve learned from this lesson: start a good stretching program BEFORE you engage in a walking program! When my leg heals, I won’t race back to walking at all, but will work on a stretching program to create flexibility in the muscle so I won’t be sidelined again.

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.

quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here

socyberty.com articles can be located here

relijournal.com articles are here

picable.com photographic images are here

Short walks to the grocery store were a necessary trade off – if I didn’t walk, I didn’t eat. It was a pretty simple equation with obvious consequences, and although Momma didn’t raise no fool, she at least taught me how to weigh the lesser of two evils when it came to picking between “bad” and “worse”.

On my first walk, I got a cat call whistle from a pick up truck – totally unwarranted because I weigh one hundred and <cough!> pounds, but I knew at some point I’d run into some wise guy that would pull that stunt. Granted, it felt a little embarrassing and slightly good – even if it was to make fun of me. No, don’t even ask at this point how much a cough weighs…I’m not going to tell you! People who know me in person know approximately how much it is. When I get to the end of the line, I will reveal the starting number.

Once I heard God’s voice, the whole game plan changed overnight. I knew I would have to get back in the saddle and begin exercising. There’s something in the overall picture I cannot reconcile in my own brain. I wouldn’t exercise for myself, and I wouldn’t exercise in an attempt to look perfect to attract a mate. Why God’s voice turned out to be such a motivator this time around, I don’t know, but I find myself struggling to answer the question.

The first couple of walks to the store were for selfish motivations; the walks that followed were for exercise. It started simply enough – I would walk down the alley and around the duck pond and when I ran out of breath, I would take a rest and then head home. The best laid plans often have a way of being written by someone else, as I was to discover.

First I made it down the alley without losing my breath then I made it around the duck pond. I was feeling good, but not sure how long it would last, so I kept going, figuring I would make the next left turn and head back towards home. As I came up on the first left turn, I realized I still had the energy, so I kept going. After awhile, I found myself walking a lot further than I had anticipated I could. Laurie, a good friend of mine, came over to help me take care of something and I asked her to drive the route to measure it. I figured it was maybe two and a half miles, but to my surprise, it turned out to be five miles!

I honestly didn’t think I had that kind of strength in me. The next day, I tried it again, and for my effort I was rewarded with nature’s gift: my first blister. At this point in time I’ve walked twenty miles over the measured trail, and I’m guessing another six miles over a new path I need to ask Laurie to drive for me with her trip odometer set. It doesn’t take long to shed the tender foot syndrome, thankfully, or else I would’ve given up with all the blisters I’ve created.

My goal is to walk 35 miles a week, which is good cardiovascular exercise to start getting in shape with. I’m already feeling my low back, legs, and butt gaining strength. There are times when I just don’t feel I can walk another step – my feet hurt, my leg sockets beg for me to take a break, and I can feel my blisters growing in size. When I’m tempted to complain and grumble, thoughts that aren’t my own pop into my head to encourage me.

• I am glad to know I am capable of feeling pain – many who are paralyzed wish for this.
• I know I have the strength to walk, while many are trapped in bed with debilitating health situations that drain away the quality of their lives.
• I think about St. Paul ’s long journeys over thousands of miles, wearing only sandals, and I am grateful for my beat up sneaker friends and the socks I am blessed to own. It’s more than what St. Paul had!

It’s all a matter of perspective. You can choose to whine about the lemons you’ve been handed, or learn how to make lemon aide. It’s not easy to try and rise above your circumstances, but eventually the view makes it all worth while.

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.

quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here

socyberty.com articles can be located here

relijournal.com articles are here

picable.com photographic images are here