Seems like it’s been one step forward, two steps back all winter. We’re back in ouch mode once again.

A long run last Sunday started off promisingly enough but ended in excruciating pain. The first third of this 26-kilometre jaunt – down from the previous week’s 36 k – was the usual loosening up of my middle-aged joints and limbs. The second third, almost gliding. The home stretch started out well enough, until nagging soreness developed in my lower back with a few kilometres to go.

By the middle of the afternoon, I could barely walk.

Brain would say, “Move left foot six inches forward.” But the message would be intercepted on the way down. By the time it navigated that blockage down the back road, the message was garbled and the old foot feared that if it moved, there’d be a painful price to pay.

At an afternoon brunch buffet with my wife and her father, I couldn’t keep up with the blue-hairs blazing by to load up on beef and potatoes.

With a little more than four weeks to go, my return-to-Boston dream was in jeopardy.

Seems I’ve spent too much of the winter trying to feel better rather than trying to get better. And that’s discouraging when you see a lot of your training buddies making really good progress.

Although I’m nowhere near the same league, I’m beginning to understand how high performance athletes must feel when injury prevents them from competing in the big one.

Maybe my winter is payback for a fairly pain-free season last summer, when I didn’t so much as pop a single painkiller. Over six months, I stretched a total of maybe half an hour. Now, it’s almost half an hour a day.

Yeah, I’m taking action. Booked appointments with a sports doctor, athletic therapist and a massage therapist pretty quickly. Reluctantly stopped running for this week and put some time in on the stationary bicycle. Not a bad workout. But, still, it’s a boring close cousin of the treadmill.

Another option I’m looking at: deep water running. You wear a float belt, get into the deep end of a pool and go through the same motions you would if you were running on land. The advantage is you get the same workout without the stress on your limbs and joints. The downside: it makes the treadmill look like a night at Studio 54.

But it’s effective. At least that’s what running pal Ron Peddle advised after my bike workout the other evening, as I looked longingly at the track this Peter couldn’t pitter patter on. Eight years ago last month, Ron suffered a stress fracture. He’s a doctor in his regular life, so he didn’t have to be convinced what regular running would do to that fracture. Into the pool he dipped – for six weeks of deep water running. It was the only way he could recover enough to run the 100th Boston marathon.

This is another personal setback, but my string of one consecutive Boston Marathons may be extended. The sports physician I saw this week says I should be able to run the thing next month. And my athletic therapist is confident I’ll be there, putting my black toenails to the test.

My big concern now is that the period is fast approaching during which the training is supposed to be scaled back. And with so much time spent getting over injuries, I haven’t spent enough time getting into better shape.

So I will run Boston. And maybe I’ve learned enough to scale those expectations to my level of training in this winter of my discontent.

LETTERS   [Email Peter here]

Hi Peter, just came across your columns on the CBC page and spent the morning reading them.

I'm sort of an old pro myself, 65 or so marathons and 17 Bostons, enough so that I can close my eyes and picture any mile of the course. If I was you I wouldn't worry about the injury, it may be a blessing in disguise. Just go down and run it and the results from your well rested body may well pleasantly surprise you.

Good luck!

- Gordie Johnson