It's been roughly 3 months since I was diagnosed with sky-high blood pressure and renal artery stenosis. I also spent a night in the ICU after a false alarm for a stroke. (I was on a super strong blood pressure med for the night and it required continuous supervision.)
Since then, I started taking walks. At first it was a quarter of a mile, then gradually pushed up to 5-6 miles, every day. Sometimes even up to 8-10 miles if time allowed.
Jogging started slow, as I could only handle about 1/8 mile at a time. [Insert knee strain injury here]. I worked up to 1/4 mile run + 1/4 mile walk for as many reps as I could handle for my daily routine.
Rucking once or twice a week was added and am almost at 40lbs of weight. (It hurts, but has taught me pain management.)
Sprints once a week for 10 seconds for about 5-8 reps somehow worked itself in to the routine. (Dunno where that came from.)
Finally this evening, I ran a full continuous mile and celebrated with a round of sprints after that.
I am 46 and hadn't ran a full mile in over 20 years. 3 months ago I thought I was going to die walking up a hill. Walking one solid mile was a huge milestone for me not so long ago.
I guess the point of this post is just a checkpoint and a reminder to myself that things are actually getting better and there are more milestones to reach.
Cheers.
I Love the detailed reply. Keep it up!
Using average heart rate as a proxy for improvement is neat!
Have you looked at other blood pressure interventions as well?
Diet and lifestyle tweaks are next. Aside from the immediate and massive caffeine reduction, nothing else has changed drastically. My Dr. temporarily put my request to quit nicotine on hold until we flatlined every other immediate problem, and I do agree with her approach.
There also the dangling issues of renal artery stenosis and peripheral neuropathy that stem from quite a few years of serious alcoholism. My point here is that what would usually be basic changes to lifestyle may have a higher impact on other ongoing treatments than usual.
Wow, I'm glad your so thoughtful and on top of things!