11 Weeks

I've never had an injury put me on the sidelines for more than six or seven weeks. What felt like simple muscle soreness has now put me out of the game for 11 weeks and counting. The maddening aspect of this injury and primary reason for it's duration, is that to test the healing I have to go out for a run. And if I've guessed wrong, BAM, the injury re-occurs and I'm back to where I started from. Had I taken four weeks off in the beginning I would surely be back on the roads now. But hindsight is 20/20.

It's now been 23 days since I last ran. Do I chance it tomorrow? What if I'm wrong (again)? Will I need 30 days off next time? I've had a handful of injuries before but there was always a point where I'd turned the corner and even though I wasn't 100% healed, 95% was good enough. Not so now.

Thankfully I haven't gained much weight and have continued to lift weights and try to stay in shape as best I can, though my cardio-respiratory fitness has to be near the couch potato stage at this point. But there's a decent runner buried inside somewhere and the legs and lungs will know what's expected soon.