My knee has been bothering me this past week, more so when I use my
elliptical. When I first started this new WOL I would have just taken a
week or two vacation from using it. Now, however, I found myself very
reluctant to not do some sort of exercise. Even though I hate going
outdoors, I decided that perhaps going for a nice brisk walk might be a
good thing.

So on the way home from work I stopped at Walmart and got a cheapo
pedometer, under 4 bucks. I got home at midnight (I work second shift),
changed clothes, strapped on my new pedometer, and headed towards
downtown De Soto. I planned to walk about a half hour, and hoped to get
over a mile in.

Well, I did walk for about 35 minutes. If my cheapo pedometer is to
be believe, I came in at just under a mile and half. But I have to say,
I was honestly surprised at how hard it was to walk that long in one
stretch! I've been staying on my elliptical for about 40 minutes a day,
and I thought that walking would be much easier than that. But it
seemed that somehow I was working different muscles somehow or
something, because I could really feel it in calves by the time I got
home. I was also sweating and out of breath a bit. Nothing I couldn't
handle, you understand. But it really did feel like I was doing
something. I didn't really realize that walking would affect me so
much. It didn't seem to aggravate my knee like the machine does. I'll
be taking a walk tomorrow when I get home as well.

So, is walking for this amount of time and distance likely to be
doing me any good, or am I just being overly hopeful?

Annie, you are using different muscles. On the elliptical or , etc. the machine does part of the work keeping you balanced. When you're walking, you use all of your body to keep you upright and balanced. Humans have something called propriosensors that keep us oriented as to where we are in space, and basically keep us walking upright. Plus, I think doing any exercise outdoors is preferable in terms of not being bored looking at the same thing the whole time. 1.5 miles in 35 minutes is about 3 mph, a good starting pace. Enjoy!

Another issue could be the incline you were walking on. I don't know where De Soto is - although it sounds like a flatlander kind of place - but around here just about everthing is WAY up or WAY down and it gets to the point that you don't notice small inclines just looking at a road/trail. When you are walking/running it makes a huge difference. Whenever I'm on the treadmill I use the highest incline setting just so that when I go for a stroll outside I'm not sucking wind within 10 steps.

Weather will make a huge difference here especially if you are used to AC. I played soccer for the first time in 10 years last Sunday when it was relatively cool and low humidity and was pleasantly surprised to be able to keep up. Played again this Sunday in blazing sun & dripping humidity and literally almost passed out within 10 minutes (the ball straight into my nose from 4' away didn't help ).

De Soto Missouri, Population 6500. Missouri has it's fair share of hills, but the route I take is pretty flat.

I never thought about the balance thing before. It does make sence to me. I've decided that even when my knee heals, I'll keep walking at least some of the time to keep working those muscles in new ways!