I admit that I underestimated how much of my “post morbid obesity” (physical) identity was centered around my ability to cover long distances on foot. Ok, there were times when it was also centered about how much weight I could move.
No, I was never “really good”; my best feats were probably “walked 101 miles in 24 hours” (May, 2004) and, in terms of weight, a rather average 310 lb bench press and 410 dead lift in the gym when I was in my early 20’s. And I was a bit proud of that, at least internally.
But, that is sort of gone. I can lift..with modification, and I am getting used to that. I still get joy out of my modified lifts, of very, very modest weight. But the neurogenic claudication …that is a tough one (roughly speaking, upon walking, I start to get uncomfortable glute pain 1.5-2 miles into it, and IF I attempt to push through it, I get sore after the fact…same if I try to arch when I bench press or do “heavy” (for me) trap bar dead lifts.
So, my adaptation is to mix my walking: a couple of sets of 1 mile walks one day, 2 miler the next..and lifting: do sets of 10 trap bar dead lifts with more modest weights and of different handle heights (low, 4 inch, 8 inch)
Well, enough of that. There are plenty of people overcoming a heck of a lot more:
And so I’ll continue and continue to modify, seek, adjust, and try to improve from where I am.
Today: PT (a lot of it ..did some balance work on the wobble board too)
1 mile walk to the pool. Kept the effort modest.
It was rainy.
Then 2200 yards of swimming:
600 of side/back
400 of drills with 25 swims (fins)
5 x 100 on the 2:20. These were disappointing (slight catch in the shoulder but..not much)
1:43, 1:41, 1:41, 1:42, 1:41
200 of 100 back, 100 side
500 pull in 9:06 (4:33, 4:33); I thought I had picked it up on the second half, but I was just tired.
Weight afterward: 203 lb (ate Indian food yesterday).
Life of an old goat 