A New Chapter

So, 4 weeks ago I sprained my ankle. I spent the first of the 4 weeks since I last blogged swimming as much as possible to try and maintain any fitness. I then spent a week and a half run/walking to test the ankle out. Finally, I was able to start doing 6 mile runs and this Thursday tried some strides. All ok. Encouraged by that, I (somewhat apprehensively) toed the line at my club’s 5000m track meet. I moved down to a slower race, guessing I was probably in about 20-dead shape, and was pleased to run a pretty evenly paced 19.49. There was definitely no chance of a finishing kick, but the ankle was fairly ok today.

Oh, and it was my first race in my new age group: FV40. Here I am with my birthday cake, and 4 candles (sorry, no one in my family can resist that gag!)

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Oops I Did It Again, And Again, And Again

The one thing I didn’t mention in my previous blog was that on the last day of our walking holiday in Austria I turned my left ankle when I stood on a stone. It hurt a bit but I was easily able to continue the walk we were on, so I thought little more of it, especially as the ankle was well supported in walking boots. On the Sunday during my easy run I gave it another tweak, but again there was little noticeable after effect, save that the area below the ankle bone was a bit sore, so that I was aware I’d done something, but I was able to continue walking/running as usual.

I rested on Monday as I was pretty tired, did 6 miles with strides on Tuesday, and then steady 5 mile runs for the remaining week days. On Saturday I did parkrun, and suffered again in the heat (and the fact it was the dreaded ‘B’ course, with extra ascent), but covered 9 miles ok. That just left yesterday. For various reasons I couldn’t run in the morning, and headed out early evening once I was back from working in chambers. And all of a few minutes into a planned 12 mile run, I went over on the same, weak ankle for a third painful time. I knew I couldn’t run through this one and limped home to start icing and resting it. It’s still painful today, even with painkillers. I honestly just feel numb about it at the moment. It’s hard to stomach that yet again I’m injured, but it almost feels inevitable. Maybe at some point I will manage more than 2 or 3 months of training and claw some real fitness back, but it’s hard to believe it just now.