Sunday, October 02, 2011

Treadmill Mini-victory

A couple weeks ago I couldn't run a single step; my injured leg just wasn't strong enough. Two days ago at school, though, I was going to be late for a meeting with a vice principal, so I just started jogging. It didn't feel natural, but I was definitely moving my legs at more than just a shuffle.

So today at the gym I set aside a few minutes and got on the treadmill. I started walking on it, and sped it up to 7 mph (a running pace). This I maintained for 5 minutes, then went down to a brisk 4 mph walking pace for another 5.

My knee is flexible but still swollen with lots of scar tissue in there. I cannot kneel on it yet, and my quads (thigh muscles) are still very weak--but I was able to kinda-sorta run for 5 minutes. I've committed to running a mile on the school track on the one-year anniversary of my injury. When I set that goal over a month ago, I had no idea when I'd be able to run. Now I have every confidence that I'll be able to complete that mile next April.

1 comment:

Deme said...

Sorry to hear the health condition, and glad to see you've already achieved a beginning success. I used to be a gym coach, i suggest you go and see the doc before running a treadmill.