Well, I've managed to find a way to keep the body tuned despite my three issues: the ongoing (but gradually abating) achilles problem, the kickball-strained butt muscle and now the strained calf muscle, presumably the result of all the limping around caused by the butt muscle.
Yesterday, on a whim I dusted off the old Trek 1000 road bike, lubricated the chain and pumped up the totally-deflated tires before riding off into the sunrise. It's probably been close to a year since I took the bike out for a spin, but I was surprised by how easy it was to get back into the rhythm. And I was especially surprised by the fact that it didn't seem to irritate my various and sundry running injuries. So I went on a 12.7-mile spin around Glastonbury and then hopped on the bike again this morning for 7.3 miles.
Also, since I've limited my bike workouts to 45 minutes or less (no sense in pushing my luck) I've been able to spend the extra early morning time spiffing up the yard. I've weeded, trimmed the lawn, started cleaning out the garage, picked up hundreds of sticks & twigs and swept the driveway. Lots of little things since I wisely decided not to use loud machines at 5am, but they've added up to a much nicer-looking yard. And all of this while listening to NPR, and occassionally some live John Mayer on the MP3. In fact, this morning I also climbed up on the roof (very quietly) and finally cleaned out the gutters which had gotten so bad that they actually had weeds growing in them!
So I have to say I've really been enjoying the recovery period. I can now pull into the driveway without trying to avoid looking at the yard, I'm caught up on the news, Amy's pretty pleased AND I'm still getting in some workouts.
Hey, at 36 is it too early to retire from competitive running?!
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