Week 1 of Rehab Thoughts

In my first 7 days of no running, I did the following to attempt to stay in shape:

• Biked 104 miles
• 24 miles on the Elliptical
• Walked 10 miles
• Lifted weights 1 time

In order to survive the next 23 days, I must: not forget my headphones when I go to the gym.  Have you ever tried to do 6 miles on the elliptical without headphones?  I forgot mine twice this week which was like torture.  I'm contemplating get a back-up set to put in my gym bag if I forget them again.  

Biggest accomplishment of the week:  Biking my second metric century

Longest elliptical mileage of the week: 7 miles.  I think it is truly a miracle I did not die of boredom on the machine.  

Realization of the week: It is hard to go fast on the elliptical.  A sub 9-minute mile on the machine feels more or less like an all out effort.  The time it takes to run one mile on foot does not have the same value as an elliptical mile.

I'm scared...to get a MRI done on my knee this week.  I had one done a few years ago on my foot, but I feel like this one has so many more hopes and goals attached to it.  

Level of hopefulness:  8 out of 10.  My body is young and can recover.  A friend from running club told me some stretches he does to help his kneecap, which is also misaligned.  I'll be starting to do wall squats tomorrow.  I've been told by doctors things that have not come  true in the past, and I hope this is the same case.  In high school, I hurt my left foot.  I was on crutches for a few weeks and had weird, random pain.  After an x-ray and MRI, it was determined that I have two bones fused together in that foot that should not be.  They told me that I would need surgery to correct it, most likely when I was in my late 20s.  I haven't had foot pain since that occurrence, and don't think I'll ever need surgery on it.  I'm hoping my knee can recover the same way.    

Overall happiness level:  I am surprisingly doing ok with not running.  I think it might have helped that for six out of the past seven days it was over 100*.  I don't cry, get angry or feel resentment when I see another person running.

I hope to analyze each week of my recovery to get healthy again.  

7 days down....23 to go until I run again.