Today's walk report: 121313

Ouch.

While I always could thin about and find pain somewhere on my body during a walk today it was focusing on me. It was a distraction. Foot pain, for example, is omni-present. It's something I have to get transcend during a walk and for the most part I'm good about this. My body is also generally real cooperative in letting endorphins kick in and taking me outside of a lot of pain. Today there was simply too much to deal with. The most pronounced was tensor fasciae latae (TFL) pain. This is something relatively new in my life. It gets tight, on both sides, especially walking uphill and it can really be painful. It might be exasperated by my long strides but I don't really feel like changing my stride and slowing myself down to find out. I just want to get to the top of the hill.

Here's where the TSL is...

I can rub it with my knuckles or the palm of my hand and get some relief but the best thing to do is stop for a moment and try to stretch that area. Tightness in the TFL can also cause pain in the lower back and in the lateral portion of the knee. That's what I was getting today.

I was also experiencing pain on my left side trapezius muscle which I think coincidently is where my camera strap lies. I use a BlackRapid RS-7 camera strap which goes over one shoulder while the camera lies on the opposing hip. I think the pain though was from stress.

My feet were really bitching too. Eight days ago I mentioned it may be time to switch to a new pair of shoes and I haven't done that. It appears that I've been wearing my current pair of Nikes for just over 15 weeks. I've had the same model shoe last over 20 weeks but time isn't the only factor. If for some odd reason you want to know what shoe that is it's the, Nike Free 3.0 Men's Running Shoe. On clearance I can usually get away with a pair for about $65 including shipping. Retail is $100. This is the shoe that works best for me. This is not a commercial. If you have problems with your feet and you're looking for advice on a shoe I totally understand and sympathize.

So, despite all this struggling, would you believe I had a nice walk? I compensate and try and adjust for pain. It's hard sometimes and it was really hard today but the walk still managed to take me somewhere beyond that struggle. At least it did for the last 3 km or so of a 7.69 km walk.

On the photo front there wasn't much going on except I got a Christmas "gift" today. It was my gift to myself because I think I deserve it. I won't go into the details why I deserve but I'll say this... I thought about it really hard. I thought about everything that went into the year 2013 and decided it was warranted. I picked up a Canon 40mm pancake STM lens for the holidays. That choice based on the low price, the size and the STM (quiet stepper motor for focus) so I could try and shoot some nice video again and enhance/refresh some post production skills while I'm at it. About 3 years ago I thought I was going into a DSLR camera for video. I've hardly shot any video. Certainly nothing very serious. I rediscovered my love of photography though and that was a good, healthy thing for me to do. Hopefully come spring I'll have some of what I've offered here on the photo level on video... We'll see.