"If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it."

Swimming and some bike at the Gym

Swimming and bike at the Gym

4 mile run with my brother.  Minimal pain starting 1/2 way through, but quite a bit of pain later in the day and the next day.  I'm so discouraged.  We ran about a 7:30 pace and I was breathing a lot harder than I was a month ago.

Swimming and Bike at Gym

Bike at Gym

Yoga (I hate yoga)

Physical Therapy exercises, walk for 20 minutes on treadmill and yoga.  None of it's as fun as running 10 miles.

30 min bike at Gym

Achilles is feeling much better this week.  Can walk without pain.  Still nervous about running though.  Will wait until at least Saturday. 

I'm not holding out much hope in doing the SLC Marathon.  I feel like I've lost a lot of conditioning the last 6 weeks.  My focus is now to take it slow and hope for Utah Valley. 

My daughter didn't have preschool today like usual.  I took her with me to the gym, but she wasn't as interested in coloring while I biked as she was on Tuesday.  I biked for 12 minutes.  How pitiful is that!  She said, "I want to go swimming now" and I quit.  That's how much I like biking.  We went to the pool and I worked on teaching her how to swim.  We've got a lot of work to do there.

Did 20 min yoga show before bed.  Yoga can potentially be a very good strength workout, but this was easy yoga, more like meditative stretching than really working out. 

I was a little more motivated to cross train today after I got on the scale and realized I've gained about 3 lbs.  Swam for 45 min, walked for 10 min and biked for 20 min.  The PT said I should be able to walk pain free before I started running.  I was encouraged I could walk for 10 minutes without pain, only a little sensation towards the end like it wasn't quite right.  I think if I kept going another 10 It might have hurt.  But a few weeks ago I cold only walk about 2 min before I was in a lot of pain.

Not much today, just 1 1/2 miles walking on the treadmill and some leg exercises.  Was encouraged that I could walk for over 20 minutes with only minimal pain starting at the end.

Bike for 1 hour at the Fitness Center.

I went to the Chiropractor today.  Along with my Achilles problem I have also had pain behind my knee.  It's a strange sort of twisting / pinched nerve kind of thing. 

I went to Ben Higbee.  He ran at BYU and is very good at working with athletes.  So he worked on me, adjusted my back and neck, and even did some acupuncture on my Achilles/leg and I think it really helped. 

He said Achilles problems are often associated with stress. and I said, "I'm stressed out because I can't run!"  Hopefully I'll be back soon. 

Thanks to all the people who have encouraged me and sympathized with me these last few weeks.  It really helps.

Physical Therapy exercises and walked on the treadmill for 22 minutes or 1 1/2 miles.  I felt quite a bit better today.  The pain behind my knee has lessened and my Achilles didn't bother me for the first time in 8 weeks.  I still have one real tight sore spot on my calf. 

I'm so nervous to run though.  I don't want to undo all this work I've done to get it better, but of course the whole reason I even care about getting it better is so I can run.  I don't mind walking around in pain all day as long as I can feel good on a 10 mile run.

I think I might be on the right track with the chiropractor.  Yesterday my whole body felt better than it has in months.  Then it popped and cracked a few times and today wasn't quite as good.  

I ran 3 miles.  The pain behind my knee came back, but not as bad as before and the achilles started to feel funny after 2 1/2 so that's why I quit at 3.  I think my back has been out since the day after Thanksgiving, so it may take a while to get it used to being where it's supposed to be. 

I ran just over 7 min miles.  90 % of my body felt good to be running again.  After about a mile my lungs were burning and my mouth tasted like blood.  I've definately lost some of my endurance if that's how I feel running 7 min miles. 

4 miles with my brother at 7:49 pace.  It was very discouraging to be breathing so hard and feeling so tired running at that pace.  The pain I've been having behind my knee didn't bother me while I ran, but still bothers me a little at other times in the day when I move certain ways.  My achilles only hurt a little off and on during the run, but bothered me the rest of the day, which was also discouraging.  Oh, and the inch I can usually pinch around my middle is now two inches!  That's discouraging too.