It is getting darker in the mornings now. It wasn’t long ago when I’d go for my morning jog at 5:30am and the sun was shining, but now it is only just getting light at 6am.

In my post last week titled Making and Breaking your Routine, I told of my sore foot and how it has thrown my morning routine. Well, this morning I decided my foot was feeling pretty good so I’d go off for my morning run.

I set off with the plan of doing 10km, but less than 5km into it, the pain was back – and back with a vengeance. I ended up walking the last 5km home and I’ve been paying the price ever since. I am now limping and feeling a little nonplussed – particularly as this it totally self inflicted.

What do you do when your body conspires against you?

The easiest thing for me to do now is rest my foot until it is better. I’ve already given it 9 days and now, after this morning, it is hurting worse than before, so it could be weeks or even a month before it heals – and that is too long to do no exercise at all.

The answer is to find another activity that doesn’t cause any stress on my ankle nor pressure on my foot. So, for now, I’ve chosen swimming as an alternative.

Whenever you are stuck reaching one objective, it is time to adapt and change course. Keep your eye on the ultimate objective, not the detail and the process. My ultimate objective is to regularly do exercise before breakfast to get the blood pumping and kick start my day.

It will be good to work the upper body instead of the legs for a while anyway. My only regret is that I can’t listen to my trusty iPod while I’m swimming.