Crossing a bridge?

Normally I hate the treadmill. I hate walking because it causes me pain. Pain sucks.

But part of my cardiac rehab is walking on the treadmill. Every day I dread it. I'm supposed to be doing 15 minutes now, but I have to break it up into halves because I usually can't make it past seven or eight minutes before my lower back locks up and my hipbones feel like hey are made of glass shards. I have to stop and let my back relax, and then I can go on.

But this morning, something changed. I got up to seven minutes, where I usually stop, and the pain was there but not the worst it has been. So I thought I'd just go to eight minutes. At eight minutes, the pain hadn't really changed, so I figured I could make nine. At nine, the pain was getting somewhat worse, but not unbearable, so I went to 10.

That seems like nothing to most people, but for me, it's a very big deal because for years now, I have not been able to walk more than a block without pain -- sometimes even half a block.

I can't wait to try again tomorrow.