Broken big toe! Looking for cross-training success stories to boost my spirits and comeback advice :( (Read 43 times)

I broke my stupid big toe June 27 (non-running-related traumatic injury), X-rays at my follow-up appointment yesterday showed that the break is still evident but it's healing well, there's no damage to the adjacent joint and I have good range of motion in the joint considering where I am in the healing process. Bottom line, it's basically healing as well as one could hope for a big toe and it'll be 100% normal once the break is healed, but I'm still not allowed to try running for another 4 weeks and my fall marathon plans are toast. Thusly, I am sad and cranky and need to hear some success stories re: cross-training to keep up fitness, because good lord do I hate cross-training.

I've been spending what feels like a million awful hours a week pool running (seriously though, it's been 8.5-9.5 total hours/week, including a 2.5 hour long "run" on Saturdays) along with 3 lifting workouts (mostly upper body, obviously, to avoid stressing or re-breaking the toe). I'm allowed to add in stationary biking whenever I want, though I might have to keep the pedal under my arch to keep pressure off the toe, and I can try the elliptical in 2-3 more weeks to start getting my legs used to some amount of impact before I'm able to run again.

My log is open, you all can see what I was running prior to the break - I had gotten fairly comfortable at 40+ mpw during training for my spring half marathon (I tend to do roughly 3 weeks up/1 week cutback for the most part) and had a few weeks in the upper 40s/over 50. Once I get to the end of my 8 weeks totally off, what's a smart way to build back up to the 40mpw range so that I don't get sidelined with some other injury from ramping up too fast?