Finding Balance

Since the first of this month (April) I've increased the walking distance to 7-8 miles 5 days a week. The legs (and body a little too, meaning losing fat) are getting stronger ever so slowly with the Sciatic nerve which still rears it's ugly head to be a problem with both legs.

What I've learned though from this increse is that I'm more tired physically and mentally, so I've discovered I can get better physically, meaning get stronger and lose the fat by pushing the exercise, but not better mentally by feeling tired most of the time, or I can reduce the exercise and not gain much if anything physically but feel better mentally.

I notice this when I take two straight days off from walking instead of the normal walk 3 days take one off, repeat. When I take the two days I actually get work done, run errands and take time to enjoy things. I mentally come back to life.

And that's the conumdrum now. Finding balance between physically improving just to be where I was a year ago before the Sciatic nerve problem left me flat on my back for 4 days and hurting for two months, and even better to where I was physically a few years ago, and mentally feeling good to be productive again.

I'm not sure there is a balance per se between the two, but more time spent more on one then the other and hope for the best. The goal is to get better physically to resume hiking I quit a few years ago from other physical problems and issues while working on the photography guide and history project for Mt. Rainier NP.

But that's easier said than done these days as walking two hours a day now takes more to recover when I get home and then focus on the errands around the place and in life. There's always too much to do and too much not getting done while I try to get better.

Such is life these days. No answers and progress is variable depending on the day and what issue. And finding balance harder than either of the two.

Better & Worse

For what it's worth, after a day off Tuesday for appointments and errands because I can't walk and run errands on the same day, it takes too much energy to walk and then go out around town or to appointments, I decided to increase the distance.

On each leg of the walking, the way to Gig Harbor and return I've looking for additional routes which I check the maps to see if I can add distance in quarter, half or whole mile increments to the route. As I've noted I had identified two additional routes of 1-1.10 miles on each leg.

Recently I found another which added 0.5 and 1.1 miles to the route to town increasing the distance there from 3-3.2 miles to 3.7-4.2 miles. This includes a long hill of a quarter mile which is a good test of the legs.

So yesterday I added the longer route making the whole trip 7.5 miles and suffice it to say it made for some tired legs, but today it was easier, which shows me the choice is that I can settle for what I have and live with the results and slow improvement, or I can push the legs and body and see what happens.

This means the leg muscle will get better with the exercise but also will be tired more each day. Since the legs strength, coordination and balance aren't where they were a year ago, to me it's not much of a choice, the more I walk the longer distance the more the legs and body will improve and the back hurts less.

Just an interesting change discovered while walking.