On the eighth day...

Recumbent bike, for those not in the know.

I went to the gym, as instructed by Adam.  I warmed up and stretched (gently) for 20 minutes then got biking.  There are two kinds of bikes at my gym:  the normal upright kind and the recumbent kind.  I tried the upright one for 10 minutes, but my knee cramped up so I tried the recumbent instead.  Success!  I managed 20 minutes before boredom (due to an inability of my knee to handle more than 80 rpm) made me stop.

I moved on to the elliptical cross-trainer.  I was a bit nervous about this, as it mimics running and I wasn't sure how my hamstring would feel about that, but it was surprisingly fine.  My heart rate got up to an appropriate level and I was able to work hard enough to sweat.  Mind you, I wasn't sweating as much as the very large fellow next to me but then I also didn't have my bulk oozing into his exercise space so that he had to reposition his arms to avoid body contact with me. 

Not all gadgets need to be high tech.

I stopped after 30 minutes because I didn't want to risk overdoing it.  I stretched for 20 minutes and noticed that I seem to be able to move a bit deeper into each stretch without causing pain.  A good sign.  Then I went to Tesco to buy a rolling pin (as suggested by Adam, not because I was about to engage in cooking behaviour) to help loosen and mobilise the bottoms of my feet.  I was very happy to realise that I was limping in anticipation of pain, not because I actually was in pain.  Another good sign.

It feels like I haven't run in months but, really, it's only been eight days since The Injury.  I'm meant to take tomorrow as a rest day and then go back to the gym on Friday.  That day's run would have been nine miles, so I'm looking at 1.5 to 2 hours on the cardio equipment.  I'll stop if it hurts, though; Sensible and Cautious, that's me!