Return to running: day 1

The visit with the doc went amazingly well. An appointment with him is a huge pain because he's been running at least an hour late every time I've seen him, but he's a fantastic doctor. He seemed to be genuinely happy for me. Apparently the PT eval said that I've made some huge strides (not literally yet, haha). I don't know how they measure everything, but apparently my leg strength was a 3/3 initially, which basically means able to stand up against gravity. That's it. Now it's a 4/4, which is supposed to be way better. All their other crazy numbers showed improvement, too.

He put pressure on various parts of my leg. Nothing. He had a huge smile on his face and signed off on a walk/jog program. (This was after he misread it as a "walk dog" program, got very confused and asked if I have a dog. Haha!)

It's a slow return, for sure. Here's the plan: I'm allowed to walk/jog every other day and go on to the next day as long as I can do it pain-free and without discomfort the next day.

Day 1: walk 5 min, jog 1 min, repeat for 30 min
Day 2: walk 4 min, jog 2 min, repeat for 30
Day 3: walk 3, jog 3, repeat for 30
Day 4: walk 2, jog 4, repeat for 30
Day 5+: work toward 30 minutes of jogging

I did Day 1 today....and screwed it up already. I was thinking it was walk 4/jog 1. Whoops. I only added in one extra minute of jogging....err....running. I probably was supposed to be taking it slower. My first lap around the track, I covered in 2 minutes. It's a 1/5 mile track. That's a 10 minute mile pace, and I was walking for half of it. But it didn't feel like I was pushing too hard, either - it felt like a pretty comfy pace. I guess I'll have to find out if my cardiovascular endurance will let me hang on to that pace!

It felt great at first, although my leg was feeling strange by the end. Not painful per se, but more unstable. My whole leg, not just the injured part. It feels tired now. Then again, I let them work the heck out of me in therapy the past two days. (I'm allowed to jump now, and they had me doing jumps on the leg press machine - it's so weird!)

My stride has also changed. I used to strike on the inside ball of my foot, now I'm landing on the outside of my foot and I couldn't seem to change it. The PT is going to evaluate me for orthotics at any rate, so I'm not too worried about messing with my form at the moment. I also feel like I'm not nearly as sloppy as I used to be. I felt more gazelle-like, although God knows that may be all in my head!

Anyway, I'll be on day 3 or 4 next time I see the PT, so we'll see how I'm doing at that point.

Oh yeah, the plan specifies "level ground". No hills for now!! :)