Doctor's Orders

I've never been particularly good at following orders, but I've tried very hard since my accident and think I've done a decent job. I took an entire week off of everything, took the pain meds, slept and rested around the clock. I eased back into training slowly and wore the sling at all times to minimize impact. I've been doing the home PT exercises to increase range of motion, even though they are horribly painful and miserable. So today, three days before I'm technically allowed, I defied doctor's orders for the first time and ran a little. Trust me, when I say a little, I mean a little. Just one mile. And on the treadmill.

I was doing my usual elliptical grind and after 30 minutes, I decided to hop over to the treadmill just to test things out. I started it slow and gradually increased the pace to see how my legs, shoulder and breathing felt. Surprisingly, all were fine and it felt really great to be running. It was so tempting to keep going, to squeeze in just one more mile, but while contemplating this, I had a disgusting image in my mind of my shoulder bone cracking just a little more with every foot strike (even though I know this is not the case) and decided to stop.

My shoulder has been hurting a little more tonight, but it was from my post-workout shower, drying my hair and getting dressed, not the workout itself. I've been pain-free during training activity for the past week, but it's the regular life stuff that wears me out and causes pain. I still can't lift my arm and when I overextend it even just a tiny bit, intense pain shoots through my arm. I can't wait for that to be a thing of the past.

So now the big question on my mind is: Am I ready to start running? I was planning to start on Thursday anyway, so what difference is a day going to make? I'm thinking if I run tomorrow, I can go back to the elliptical on Thursday and run again Friday so it's not on consecutive days yet. I think I'll sleep on it, both literally and figuratively, and decide tomorrow. The 90-degree heat in Madison is going to break overnight and the cool front is moving in. It will be perfect running weather.

I finished my workout with 30 minutes on a stationary bike (the ONLY thing worse than the elliptical) , 10 more minutes on the elliptical and a quick round of stregth training for my legs. I want to be sure they are ready to jump back into marathon mileage as soon as possible!

Running
Distance - 1 mile
Time - 9:26

Biking
Distance - 6.69 miles
Time - 30:00

Elliptical
Distance - 4 miles
Time - 40:00