The day after surgery, my nurse came in and told me it was time to "get up and walk around." I was in pain but doing OK, so I got up and moved to the chair in the room. While I was there, the nurse informed me that they wanted me to walk around that wing of the hospital (each lap was about 180 yards ~0.1 mile) later that day. I told her that I was already up so that we should just get going.
For that first walk, I walked just a single lap of the wing. They asked me to try to walk at least three times per day, so that was my "training schedule." I timed my walks to occur long enough after taking pain medications that I wasn't too woozy but no so long that I lost the pain killing effects. I kept that going for most of my stay in the hospital - trying to do something to keep active (move to chair, use the toilet, or walk some laps) after taking pain medications.
While in the hospital after my recent surgery, I came to the realization that other than the pain of surgery, I felt GREAT. Perhaps the best I've felt in two or more years. Of course part of this may have been the mild euphoric feeling some pain medications instill, however, I firmly believe a significant portion of feeling better was the removal of all of my inflamed (and diseased) intestinal tissue.
It means that as my incision and wound heal, I should be able to resume my running training. This training started with the requests by the nurse to move around after surgery. When I get permission from my doctor to resume light walking (I'm hoping to get that permission on 9/3), then I'll start walking greater distances. On or around 9/17, I hope to get permission to resume light running and perhaps do a little light weight lifting (strictly for muscle tone and not to build bulk).
Since my first walk in the hospital, I have walked at least 3 times per day and most of those laps were more than one lap. Since getting home, I have spent some of each day walking around (literally in the grocery store these last two days), to get some additional mileage.
I'll blog about my progress as I move from a hospital bed to my first post-surgical 5K. I do plan to run another marathon before the end of 2015, however, I haven't selected the race yet.
For the record, the distances I walked during my first week of recovery:
Starting the day after surgery I walked around the wing at least 3 times each day (often I did more). For each walking adventure I always walked at least one lap and sometimes walked as much as 4-5 laps per trip (I believe I averaged about 2.5 laps per trip). Each lap was about 190 yards.
Average distance traveled per day = 0.8 miles
Total distance traveled in the first week (6 days of walking) = 4.8 miles
For that first walk, I walked just a single lap of the wing. They asked me to try to walk at least three times per day, so that was my "training schedule." I timed my walks to occur long enough after taking pain medications that I wasn't too woozy but no so long that I lost the pain killing effects. I kept that going for most of my stay in the hospital - trying to do something to keep active (move to chair, use the toilet, or walk some laps) after taking pain medications.
While in the hospital after my recent surgery, I came to the realization that other than the pain of surgery, I felt GREAT. Perhaps the best I've felt in two or more years. Of course part of this may have been the mild euphoric feeling some pain medications instill, however, I firmly believe a significant portion of feeling better was the removal of all of my inflamed (and diseased) intestinal tissue.
It means that as my incision and wound heal, I should be able to resume my running training. This training started with the requests by the nurse to move around after surgery. When I get permission from my doctor to resume light walking (I'm hoping to get that permission on 9/3), then I'll start walking greater distances. On or around 9/17, I hope to get permission to resume light running and perhaps do a little light weight lifting (strictly for muscle tone and not to build bulk).
Since my first walk in the hospital, I have walked at least 3 times per day and most of those laps were more than one lap. Since getting home, I have spent some of each day walking around (literally in the grocery store these last two days), to get some additional mileage.
I'll blog about my progress as I move from a hospital bed to my first post-surgical 5K. I do plan to run another marathon before the end of 2015, however, I haven't selected the race yet.
For the record, the distances I walked during my first week of recovery:
Starting the day after surgery I walked around the wing at least 3 times each day (often I did more). For each walking adventure I always walked at least one lap and sometimes walked as much as 4-5 laps per trip (I believe I averaged about 2.5 laps per trip). Each lap was about 190 yards.
Average distance traveled per day = 0.8 miles
Total distance traveled in the first week (6 days of walking) = 4.8 miles
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