I’m happy to say I returned to the gym today, did a little crosstraining … about 20 minutes on the bike, and 15 minutes on the CC machine, then some easy stretching of my back. Its been about 3 hours since i finished, and there seems to be no additional pain or stress (spasms), although I am taking it easy since that. Its weird, but my back actually feels somewhat better than it did before I started, the sharp pains seem to be gone, its just more of an aching type pain now.

We’ll see how we feel later on, and agan tomorrow to decide whether we want to try an easy run on the treadmill or not. Dr. Mark recommended that its a good thing to get back to activity, so i’ll take his advice, although he did say that I cannot run through pain. If it hurts, STOP. Good advice I guess, but he also suggested to take it easy. It just felt good to get back in the groove of things again, I really missed working out.

Its unfortunate that I missed the best weather week we’ve had since September (temps in the 60’s), but I guess I have to be smart. Its true that when you feel pain, you have to stop. I really think I made this injury worse by pushing it when I shouldn’t have. I think that based on where the pain is in my back, its not where it was when I first felt the pain, so I think when I twisted on Sunday night, after aggravating it with the 12.34 mile run, that injured something else. If I just would’ve taken it easy, I wouldn’t be where I am. Well, I have 2 weeks to go to continue to recover. I scheduled a light running week (if I can) this week, and we’ll stay indoors so that I can stop if I feel any pain. THe following week, I pick up the pace, in prep for a 12/18 start of training again.

I do return to the foot guy on Monday to get a cortisone shot, its healed up somewhat, but is still a little tingly, I figure he’ll set me up at that point. The only other thing is that i’m going to start taking Aleve (Naproxin) instead of just ibuprofen. I remember my doctor suggested that for the tendinitis after Steamtown, so i’m hoping it keeps down any swelling I might have in my back.

Thats it for now!