Back in December I decided to stop running temporarily as it seemed to be aggravating my shoulder/neck strains. I have switched to walking until I feel healthy and fit again. It’s been a difficult transition as I just don’t feel like I’m getting much of a workout from walking, and have felt little motivation to do anything for a while now. I had a doctor tell me back in November that I simply MUST start exercising daily, an hour a day, no less. Finding the time to fit this into a student & working mom’s life feels almost unattainable.

I am still working on the routine and trying to establish something workable… My hope is that eventually my sleep will have improved enough that I can get up early to do a half hour workout (i.e. bike trainer), and walk on my lunch break for half an hour/day.

The good news is, my new osteo/physio (started seeing him just before Christmas) seems to be getting to the root of some of my longer term issues (neck/shoulders/back – woohoo!!!!) and also seems to have determined what is wrong with my ankle and why it’s still not “right”. The bad news is that what he has determined is that the retinaculum(s) of my ankle is/are damaged. This is not good news, as these tissues are not able to repair the way muscles can. I will likely always have to tape my ankle for support. He’s going to give me some exercises to strengthen around it, so that I am less prone to rolling it, but I worry that in the long term he’s going to tell me not to run anymore.

Thankfully I’m enjoying walking when I do it, and am happy to be back on my bike(trainer). If only I could find a way to swim that doesn’t aggravate my shoulder so much, I could almost get back to my old favourites.