Should I? Or shouldn't I?

Just taking a few moments to write before I head out.  Today will be my first, formal "exercise walk."

For some time now, I've been sorely feeling my lack of physical activity.  I've always been physcially active.  In my youth there were the usual farm chores (I love throwing bales and chopping wood).  During high school I took karate and lifted weights.  I've never been able to do aerobic type exercise - my days of running for the sheer joy of running ended when I grew breasts. *L*  I loved to dance, though.

As I've grown older, however, things have changed a great deal.  First, there were availability issues.  Leaving the farm meant leaving my chores.  Then there were cost issues.  I couldn't afford a gym membership or karate lessons in the city.  Of course, moving back and forth across the country makes organized efforts rather difficult, too.

For years I cycled as both exercise and transportation.  That went by the wayside when babies arrived.

One thing that I was able to maintain, however, was walking.  I love walking.  I have the sort of stamina that allows me to walk for hours.  At least I used to.

Then I got broken.

When Eldest was just a baby, I over did things and wrecked both my feet.  Being in no position to stop, I kept going through the pain.  I also share a family trait: unless it's bleeding or obviously broken, I tend not to go to the doctor about things.  I've tried to move away from that - especially since that sort of behaviour almost killed my brother.  Still, I felt really weird complaining to my doctor about sore feet.  After all, don't all new mothers have sore feet after a while?  In retrospect, I should have had them checked out, as I now believe I'd developed stress fractures in the metatarsals of both feet.

Regardless.  What's done is done. It's the long term results that are my issues now.  I have since developed osteoarthritis in both my feet and both my knees, with bone spurs in both heels and both knees as well.  Though things have improved greatly since I've left the wet coast for the dry prairies, it's still a problem.  My feet will unexpectedly dislocate, as do my knees, which also like to do the patella polka at inopportune moments.

Which means that today, the simple act of walking is something I no longer take for granted.  And I miss it.

For the last few months, I've been feeling the urge to push myself.  When I first discovered I had arthritis, I was living on the west coast.  I was in so much pain, I could barely walk from one end of the house to the other.  What I eventually worked out was that I could go for a 20 minute walk, ever other day.  If I walked for longer than that, or if I went for a walk every day, it would take me about 3 days to recover - 3 excrutiatingly painful days, were just getting out of bed was barely more than I could handle.

I now know that the high humidity made things worse, as I've never encountered that sort of pain since returning to the prairies.

Today, I can once again walk for hours at a time, though I have to remember to take pain killers before I leave.  I know my limits in things like stairs.  These walks, however, have been group walks, with frequent stops to take photos, etc.

What I no longer know is, how long can I go for a power walk?  How often?

At the same time, with that desire to push myself physically, I've found myself thinking of taking part in walk-a-thons.  The closest I've come to doing that was a 1 km walk that involved people across the country walking at the same time, in an attempt to set a record.  I have no idea if we broke the record.  It was fun, though.  One kilometer, however, isn't a challenge.

I ended up talking about this with Eldest, and we've decided to give it a go.  We're going to go for regular "exercise walks" to see how much I can handle.  We'll work out what my limitations are now, and see if I can improve on them.

Recently, I've found out about a Breast Cancer Awareness walk-a-thon in August.

It's early yet, but I'm debating whether or not I should register for it.  Right now, I have no idea how long of a walk it is.  I'll need to send away for more information.  Until I've been walking regularly for a while, though, I won't know if I can physically do a walk-a-thon.

So I find myself wondering.  Should I, or shouldn't I, register for the walk-a-thon in August?

A decision I will make in the next couple of months.