Less salsa, more crack

Yesterday I ran a light 15 minutes around downtown Willow Glen with Nathan and Shel followed by a yin yoga session at Willow Glen Yoga. Yin involves holding stretches for as much as four minutes at a time. This was my third yoga session in six days, and the yin session was the most strenuous of all. It made my knee feel a crammed from the mild swelling caused by various ligament strains.

Dr. Gina said yesterday that my muscles were all nice and loose. Dr. Mike focused on the right leg today during our chiropractic session. Both of them tried to adjust my right foot to no avail, indicating it was already properly aligned. Dr. Mike did discover a key misalignment in the upper junction between my tibia and fibula, the exact point where I was feeling the sharpest pain while running. He cracked that junction and the release was significant. This may have been the root of all my pain!

Even though my knee is well enough to bear weight and run for short amounts of time, it's not going to propel me over any long hauls in its current state. Continuing to run on it now would at best maintain the status quo and allow my knee pain to linger pesteringly. So to maximize my chances for a successful recovery, I've decided to forgo all weight-bearing exercise for at least the next week and a half – this includes both running and dancing. I plan to swim lightly here and there to stay conditioned. Mentally it will be a challenge to lay off the asphalt and hardwood; it will probably be more of a challenge to step back on. But to have any hope of attaining my ultimate goal, this is the type of sacrifice I'll have to make.