Trying to Stay in Shape

Well, here I am with my boot, crutches, and sunglaasses for my eye. I was a sight for a few weeks. I wasn't that faithful using the crutches (I didn't really have anywhere to go), but I iced the foot 3 times and day (still do) and used the boot when I wasn't icing. I haven't had any pain in many weeks, but my goal is to baby this foot so that I can hopefully still run the marathon.

So, to keep up my endurance, I have been biking everyday and a few times I tried the aqua jogging. First about the jogging in water. The first time I went, I opted to go to the indoor pool in my town for open swim. Not 100% sure how it works, I looked up aqua jogging and found that all you do is strap a float belt around your waist and run in the water as if you would be running on the ground. So I get to the pool at 6am, ask where the belts are, and jump in. It was a little humiliating as there were 3 high school kids swimming laps on the other side of the pool, but what do I care anymore, I'm an old fogie. It wasn't as difficult as I had thought it would be, but it was nice to be acting like I was running.

I decided that I would travel a few more miles to a neighboring town that also had an indoor pool, but offered an aqua jog class. I tried that out one morning and when I got there I wasn't sure where I needed to go. I asked a lifeguard who directed me to where I needed to go. Again the pool was separated into halves with the high school girls team swimming laps on the one side and the aqua jog class on the other. I was a little self-conscious bobbing up and down like an apple in front of 3 high school boys, however, that was nothing compared to joining 7 or so older ladies as the whole swim team swims wondering why this guy was in the pool (I was the only male in the whole pool, save for the life guard). I soon got over that as the lady running the class invited me in and that class kicked my butt. It was a lot harder than I thought, when done right. It was a hybrid of aqua jogging and water aerobics, but in any event it was good to do to save my foot and keep up some type of exercise.

Biking took a little more time to get comfortable as my muscles weren't used to the demands of biking, but most especially my rear was not used to that seat. Ouch! However, I did become accustomed to biking and have biked now for many weeks. I have probably averaged biking for an hour and a half each time. I looked up that I should be biking 4 miles for every 1 mile I would run. If that is true I definately have not been doing that, but I have been biking as long as it would take me to run the necessary miles. So it takes me about 55 minutes or so to run 6 miles, then I would bike for about an hour. I threw in some difficult hills to get in the best work out possible, so I can make a smooth transition back to running when the doctor clears me to do so.

That's been my life the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll get cleared to run soon as I'm getting very anxious. Gotta run.