"Walking is your best friend"

“After this surgery, walking will be your best friend.”  Words spoken to me by one of the surgeons just days before my open-heart operation. He was referring to the benefits of walking as therapy for rehabilitation for a repaired heart.

I have been a walker for many years. Initially I was a runner, one who disdained walking as too slow and boring. I started running seriously in the late 60’s. In short order I was running up to 13 miles daily, from 5 until 7 in the morning, virtually every day. Yes, I know it sounds insane. I was told that many times, and looking back on it, I tend to agree. The practice, which I followed for 20 years, cost me two knees (now titanium), a double discectomy on my back (L 3/4 and L 4/5.). I spent countless hours in chiropractor’s offices, hot tubs and on massage therapist’s tables. But I loved it.

In 1989, my body simply couldn’t do it any more. The pain in my back and knees precluded that. So, after a frustrating hiatus of confusion and frustration, I began to walk. Yes, initially I found it boring. The scenery moves by at a much slower pace. On the other hand, it didn’t hurt, and I seemed to derive considerable benefit from it.

By the time we were settled in Calgary, in early 1990, I had route mapped one that took me over the LRT tracks, into the grounds of the University of Calgary, and back: well over an hour. And the surroundings were beautiful. The only drawback I experienced on that route was the odd time when a female student would come off LRT at 5:45 – probably on the way to a low level campus job, and I found myself walking 50 or 100 yards behind her, in the dark, along a wooded University pathway.  Very often these young women became highly anxious, being followed by an unknown male in this situation. Sometimes I would stop and wait until they had gotten far enough ahead so that I seemed to be no threat. Once or twice I walked along in fear that the campus police would show up, and I would be in the uncomfortable position of trying to explain why a man in his 5o’s could possibly have for walking on the University campus at 5:30 on a cold winter morning, if not to hunt unsuspecting females!

I continued this activity when we moved to Banff, walking the trail along the Bow River each day. Hiking in the mountains was much more difficult, because my knees had deteriorated t the point where required replacement. Shortly after moving to Ponoka, I had the first one “done”. The second followed a year or two later.

And then I began walking here. I laid out a course for myself – about 4 km long – on sidewalk, under streetlights, so I could walk in the dark. I began, gain, to rise early, sometimes as early as 4 AM, and walk my 4 km course. Part of the course is alongside open farm field, so the “brisk” northwest wind was often in my face. As a transplanted Manitoban, I loved facing the weather. I never let a cold or windy day keep me off the street. My record is -38 Celsius, with a stiff wind in my face. With a balaclava, a Canada Good parka, heavy mitts, long johns and insulated boots, I loved the walk! I would do it again tomorrow…except it’s the first day of spring.

So when the surgeon said, “walking is your best friend”, I just smiled. I’ve known that for a long, long time. I started my own cardiac rehab a couple of weeks ago with six minute walks, three times daily. By now, I’m up to 15 minute walks, twice daily. This morning I walked all the way to Tim Horton’s for coffee – 23 minutes, and that constituted my second walk of the day. Before long, I’ll be up to a half hour, and then an hour of walking. By then, I’ll be back in the pool. But that’s another blog!