Ok, so I've recently made a new commitment to exercise. I've been relatively active for most of my life, even at my highest weight. I've easily walked/biked/shopped circles around my friends that were lighter and younger than me throughout various points in my life (I've been overweight/obese since I was 12). Even when I weighed 360 pounds I never had one problem with my knees, an issue I hear about from heavier people quite a bit. In fact when I was at 360 I took advantage of my free Y membership and ran off with a 40 pound loss right away by lifting weights, using various equipment, walking the track with an occasional jog thrown in, and of course watching my food choices.
Fast forward a few years . . . there's been a lot of huge changes in my life so there's been a lot of hiccups on the way. While it's true that I've sort of just put my weight loss plan on the back burner at times, I've never gained any of the weight back and have lost lost well over 100 pounds in the past few years in 30 or 40 pound increments. I really can't complain about that. The past year and a half has been a struggle however, mainly due to my agoraphobia. I've felt pretty good about my overall food choices but have had to struggle with an irrational fear of meeting people or even going outside due to my anxiety attacks.
We moved to a new place half a year ago, and I've slowly been coming out of my shell. We bought a new TV a few months ago, so I've been able to browse through Hulu and noticed last month that they were offering episodes of The Biggest Loser. While I'm aware it's a reality show before anything else, it was very inspiring to see all those contestants doing so much exercise and reminded me of my old Y days. Although I don't currently have the luxury of a gym membership, we bought stationery bike pedals and 3 pound dumbbells for me to use while watching the show. And as I got more comfortable with pushing myself again, I became ready to take walks outside in the protection of the early morning darkness. I figured out a route that was a little over a mile and owned it! I was enjoying myself so much that I decided I wanted to do the C25K program.
I thought it was best for me to start at a slower, less intense pace than even the first week of the program, so what I started with was approximately 15 seconds of jogging for every five minutes of walking. This adds up to 15 minutes of walking with about 45 seconds of jogging spread out within it. This takes me a little over half a mile out (I'm slow and steady, lol) and would walk the other half mile back home. I stretch before hand and assume that the walk back works well as a cool-down. Excited with my early morning progress after several days I felt ready to repeat the process in the early evening starting on April first (minus the jogging), making my total daily route approximately 3.6 miles.
All went well until Monday when I noticed I had some soreness in both of my knees, so I only did the early morning walk and felt it was best to give myself a complete rest on Tuesday with the plan of getting back into the saddle on Wednesday (yesterday). So as I went out yesterday morning I realized that my knees were still sore. I continued the normal route for the walk but did not incorporate any of the jogging. The second half of the walk was pretty hard, but I felt pretty ok once I got home. I had my lunch and pedaled some in the early afternoon while catching up on the latest BL episode. And as I got ready to leave for my TOPS meeting, I noticed I was in pain. A lot of pain.
Congratulations if you've read this far, lol. I wanted to throw some background in with my story.
Anyway . . . I was in so much pain I could barely walk to the car. I drove to the meeting and was in more pain by the time I needed to walk from the car to the building; I couldn't even walk normally.
I felt the same leaving it over an hour later and dreaded having to stop at the store on the way home. But I took it all in stride and made it back in one piece.
I broke down as I explained to my husband that I apparently overworked my legs and hurt my knees. He massaged them and between the two of us we figured out that my actual knee joints are fine, it's certain muscles around them that have gotten sore. I moved around s-l-o-w-l-y last night, scarcely able to lift my legs up and barely able to balance as I stood. I went to bed early, slept well, but still woke up in pain. I ended up going back to bed later in the morning and woke up a few hours ago feeling much better.
So to get to my point after so much elaboration . . . should I continue to rest my legs now that they're feeling better? Or should I get maybe a smaller walk in tonight? I've never had to deal with sore muscles like this before and am feeling a little lost. I wonder if it was even a good idea to take Tuesday off like I did. I have the energy, I have the drive, but I don't want to hurt myself further by either overworking it or babying it too much.
Regardless, I'm frustrated. I really didn't feel I was pushing myself too hard.
Hurt Myself While Exercising. :(
