One more thing crossed off the to-do list!

I got the 2nd COVID-19 shot this afternoon. It is pretty amazing how much getting jabbed with a needle and injected with a vaccine that didn’t exist a year ago has reduced my stress level. Due to a few factors, beyond being 63, I am in a higher risk category to not do well if I got COVID-19, and we have been taking our precautions very seriously for over a year now.

Even with having the second shot, I know that I can still get COVID-19, but the probability of becoming a statistic on the death toll roll is considerably less, which in my mind is an excellent thing. No, I am not running out and doing everything that I used to do or getting rid of my masks anytime soon. However, at the same time, I can see a few hints of changes on the horizon and even planning to be competitive in a race come October of this year.

So getting the COVID-19 vaccination was, in my mind, a big deal.

Now to get back to Rehab Day #3.

There have been some noticeable improvements in the Achilles tendon, not enough that I can walk too far without it grumbling rather loudly but encouraging hints of progress.

I feel that icing and getting rid of the swelling helps as much as anything, but I am feeling fewer of those tiny nodules as I run my fingers firmly up the Achilles tendon. It isn’t smooth yet, but spaghetti strands that don’t feel quite right are fewer than before, and the discomfort is significantly lower on the scale.

The mobilization exercises, or should I say physical manipulation with torture devices, hurt while doing it, but it seems to clean some of the gunkiness out of the legs that need to be clean-out. Gunkiness isn’t that quite the word to describe the crud that builds up inside our legs that others call scar tissue. There is a lot of that in these old legs of that, I am sure.

I did 20 minutes on the elliptical again without any discomfort, so I might bump it up to 25 minutes next time. 

This evening I was even able to use Facebook how it is supposed to be used, at least in my opinion. I got to talking with another runner about running and stuff. It was a fun conversation, and when I got done, I had a smile on my face and felt good that someone had read one of my blog posts, and we discussed that a little and thinking about big scary goals.

Some parts of rehab are not physical. Many of us have demons that need to go away from our past and often the only way to deal with them is to do it head-on. That is what I did with that big scary goal I published.

If you missed it, I went waaaayyyyy out of character for me in a post earlier this week and said precisely what I want to accomplish with my running through October. It was scary as hell putting it out there for anyone to read, but at the same time, at this point in my life, there are only so many tomorrows left. 

It is time for me to see what kind of runner I can be even though I am an old fart and not let yesterday’s demons slay tomorrow’s running or living. I will have more to say on that in the next week or so. I have to wrap my head around if I defeated the demons or they just got tired of dealing with an old head case of a runner and gave up on me.

Part of my thinking on this came from this article on Mariko Yugeta that I got the link from Mario Fraioli’s newsletter this week and he ended his little snippet on his thoughts about her with this quote.

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

That quote hit home – hard. While I might never be an elite runner or a power forward for the Boston Celtics (yeah, I am 5’7” and too damn old, without any ball skills), but I want to challenge myself to do more than run to run.

At least for a few more years, I want to learn what I can do with what my knowledge, skills and maybe a little ability as a runner, not worry so much what I might have been back in the day.

That ship has passed and needs to sail away into the sunset.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I want it to be a better one, and it is time to stop treading water and go after the things that are important to me.