My back has a budget

This is more about my attempt to recover from neurogenic claudication (stabbing glute pain due to a nerve root impingement at L5)

I’ve been able to increase my walking from a rather sorry 0.5 miles at a time to, now, about 25 miles a week. It is mostly a diet of 1 mile commuter walks (M, W, F), 2 mile training walks (M, W, F) and 3-5 mile walks (Tu, Th, Sat, Sun) Pace varies from 11:30 mpm on my fastest training walks to 16:30 on my commuter walks; most is in the 12:30-14:30 range.

Today: 2200 yard swim via

600 of 50 side, 50 back, 50 breast

400 of kick drills/swim with fins

1000 in 19:11 (4:52, 9:42, 14:32) or 4:52, 4:50, 4:50, 4:39. I had the pool almost to myself so no one to push, and I didn’t feel that perky.

200 pull

Weight: 201.0 before, 199.5 after.

Then I did a 3.18 mile walk; I had to dodge some construction and I was a bit heavy legged at first.

This was one of my slower training walks, but I was fatigued. AND..I had some tingles/discomfort (nothing like the bad old days) in the 3’rd mile. First 2 miles were fine.

But …I felt this a bit during my YMCA walks..where there was a hill that I blamed.

I am wondering if the swimming is part of the reason; walks are always harder after swimming. I think that my back has a “done at one time” budget and swimming deducts from said budget.

I won’t make 100

I am at 84.5 miles for September.

It looks like this:

April 19.4
May 32.1
June 43.2
July 68.0

August: 85.9

Yes, I know how feeble these mileages are but neurogenic claudication is a tough condition to recover from. And I am not out of the woods as yet.

Today:

PT plus pushups (5:30-6:10 (break included) push ups: 9 sets of 10, 2 sets of 15

Walk 1 (2.2 miles)

Legs felt great.

Pull ups: got 50 reps. I did 8 sets of 5 singles, 5 negative singles, then another set of 5 singles.

Then at 7:10, downstairs until 7:45 which included:
bench press (legs up) 10 x 134, 3 sets of 150 x 6

curls: 3 sets of 10

high incline: 3 sets of 10 x 94

Lunch: 1.1 mile commuter walk.