Nov 29 - Dec 5

This was a week for three runs: Tue, Thur, Sat.  I had planned (and was allowed) to run 4, 4 & 6 miles on the respective days.

Up to this point in time, my progression had been steady and successful.  My doctor had outlined a good, conservative plan and I agreed I needed to take it slow.  I was resolved to the fact that if I wanted to return to pre-injury levels of performance and higher that I was going to really have to focus on a long term approach.

This past week was the first chink in my armor related to my approach so far.  The runs on Tue & Thur went as planned.  Saturday's run seemed to go as planned as well after initially finishing it.  I had no back pain throughout the run and my left soleus only tightened up a bit the last few miles (the soleus is seems to be an ongoing problem but I am managing it for now until my back is 100%).

Then came Sunday morning.  It was the first morning I had woken up with back pain for as long as I could remember.  The pain was pretty constant throughout Sunday and Monday.  It was a feeling very similar to the pain I had prior to first seeing my doctor though not quite as severe.

Monday night I had an appointment with my doctor.  I told him about what had happened.  He instructed me to continue with 4 miles during the week and this coming weekend I will "retry" 6 miles.  That night was also my first experience with a flexion table.  My doctor said the muscles in my back were tighter than he had felt in a while, so the flexion table would stretch out my back and spine to ease the muscle irritation as well as decompress and rehydrate the discs.

So, progress has turned to pause or maintenance.  I've got my fingers crossed it is just a hiccup in the greater scheme of things.  It does bring back a wave of caution, concern and fear.  The reason is because I expected small problems and setbacks, but not such severe regression in terms of pain.  I'll have to wait and see what happens during my appointment this evening.  I continually come back to the word hope...do you ever run out of hope?