Not much time to post, but Tim gave me some of the details to post for him: Diagnosis: Stress fracture – Bottom of Foot / heel Achilles Tendonitis Bad Heel Spur – Worst one of 3 Sprained ankle – which is almost healed, but bleeding inside of my foot and back of leg, Yuck Bummer!! They want him to wear a boot. For a long time.

Well that stinks. And boot casts are so much fun to wear. But they're better than crutches, which can make your armpits feel like someone's used them for a punching bag. Will the doc let you do any kind of pool exercising if you put a splint on the ankle when doing so?

About all the walking I've done this week has been in the mall and chasing grandkids. Tomorrow will be a sad day for me as I fly back to NC. We probably won't see the kids and grandkids again until Spring.

I can hardly believe biketm's diagnosis. A high tolerance for pain must be the understatement of the year. Tim take care of yourself. Everything you have will heal. Not fun, but in the long run just a bad memory. Best wishes on your treatment.

being active here is healing to the mind

Yes, but after the mind heals, it may be wrapped in a thick impenetrable layer of keloid tissue from the beating it has received. Speaking of injuries, a lot of people here seem to be hurt. Sorry about that. As we say in the Army, "Sucks to be you." Good day here. Latin teaching went well. I finished my drafts of the Veterans Day talks I am giving on Monday at the middle school and high school, and met with the organizers of the events to discuss logistics. I dropped off an article for possible publication in the local paper. My stocks are up, for a change. I may go for a Girly workout at the gym later. Dark Horse

OUCH TIM - I'm so sorry to hear about your injury...listen to the Doc, and it will heal properly if given the time, by the way "high tolerence for pain" is certainly an understatement. Take care buddy I'll be thinking of you. Friday - 5.01 miles - 39:26 - 7:52 - Avg HR 137 Max HR 149 - Overcast, humid & 58 degrees - no rain though I got lucky. 7:59 - 7:55 - 7:58 - 7:54 - 7:32 - :06

Guess it was 4 injuries for the price of one day. Have a little more time right now, so I will give a few more of the gory boring details. I called Holly while I was in the waiting room after my first set of x rays...was getting antsy and needed to hear a supportive voice, thanks Holly. There was so much blood in my ankle and the lower part of my leg, that the doctor had to drain my leg and foot to get a better look of what was going on....ouch to say the least. Actually, I told Holly to share the news, because to be honest...I didn't want to. "Diagnosis: Stress fracture – Bottom of Foot / heel Achilles Tendinitis Bad Heel Spur – Worst one of 3 Sprained ankle – which is almost healed, but bleeding inside of my foot and back of leg, Yuck" Boy, if I do anything, I go all out - HUH? Some here have wondered about my pain tolerances and my Doctor talked to me about that. He said he does not treat too many runners who train and run Marathons, and I was probably 1 of about 10 he has cared for. He says Marathoners have such I HIGH tolerance for pain because much of the training is done on sore / heavy legs, and have little aches and pains we don't notice or care about. Then after a long period of time, we can actually have a injury and really not know how bad it is...he said we are an extremely stubborn bunch too... probably why I was able to make it 16 miles on my Marathon. Guys, when I said I limped up to the start line, I really really did... (I tried to hide it from Kelly the best I could, but she noticed). I can't believe I made it as far as I did, and the Doctor had this look on his face. OK, the doctor gave me 3 options and option # 1 is what he suggested to nip it in the bud quicker. But he said this is totally different than most of his patients that are sedentary people, so he said my treatment plan could and may be different. Option 1 - Wear a boot with wedges in it to keep my foot forward..like toes down, for a month. Then take a wedge out every two weeks till all the wedges are gone...total time about 2 months, then therapy...this one sucks Option 2 - Which for me would be fine, but may take longer to heal, or actually may help more (like I said, he said this is different than most people he see's for these problems. Bike trainer - swim - pool run - elliptical machine - and LOT'S of Ibu and ice. Option 3 - OK, this one may seems bizarre, but he said after another week or two off, I could try light and easy jogging and just take it super easy and try to run light on my feet and off my heel. He asked how many miles a week I run, and he said to cut that in half with NO speed work obviously....he said this option would only be experimental and I would have to be careful. He gave me till Monday to make up my mind, and he wants to take more x rays since the swelling and blood in my foot and leg should be gone. Some mentioned a second opinion. Heck, I don't think I need one because I could see clear as day my heel spur, stress fracture, and everything else. Erika, this doctor is a Orthopedist. You mentioned about how all of these injuries could not have happened at the same time. He could tell the fracture had been there for a while, because it was healing up...I have only ran once in two weeks now. I told him about the pot hole, and he said it more than likely happened then. He said the heel spur is something he see's all the time, and he doesn't want to do anything about that yet??? The Achilles Tendinitis is simply an over use injury I knew I had but ran through it. A while back if you remember, I was having real bad heal pain. I got new shoes and "that" pain went away, but will admit my faster speed work was aggravating my heel, but I was waaaay to far into my training and close to my race to stop...and didn't want Ribs to alter my workouts Well....option 1 2 3....Don't know Mari, me a lurker, ha. The only lurking I do is through my neighbor's bedroom window, when she is getting ready for bed Twokitty - tet, game on... no back'n down now. I have now another 0 mile day, and while my legs feel good now, I am waiting for the "non" DOMS to kick in anyday now. tet, using a doctors excuse...y scared of losing...hey, I have options ya know. I can taper better on one leg for 0 miles, than you can on two. Hey, I may go out and "not" out run ya tomorrow...sting, how does that feel. Ok, that is the scoop. Thanks for your well wishes...you all are great Trying to keep my sense of humor TimBo Oh yeah....where is my Popsicle???

Option 2 sounds like the most typical response. Interested to hear you can do the elliptical... when I had the achilles tendinitis issue that aggravated it. I will say that pool running is about the best thing for all your ailments. And the bike. Bike is good. Yes, we do all run through the pain more than we should. But sometimes it is hard to tell when it's a real "pain" vs just some stiffness/soreness you need to work through. Always takes me a couple of miles to work out the kinks and get into my run anyway... Good luck to you on your decision. Don't really understand the deadline, because I'm sure you'll find out that a lot of this (and the reason he gave three options) is a trial and error sort of thing. If one treatment doesn't work, try something else. I tried the rowing machine today! 20 minutes on the new Concept 2 rower at our newest facility in town, very close to campus. It'll take me awhile to get the rowing muscles back; I used to do a lot of it but haven't in a few years now. Then I did 20 minutes on the bike, and walked 5 to c/d. Then ran a couple errands and was late back to work. Oh well. So glad it's Friday!