Trying to bounce back...

The past two weeks have been tough.  I spent the week after spraining it nursing it like mad; I iced almost every hour I was awake and not driving; I drove with my leg propped on the car door to reduce swelling and I used the crutches because I knew putting weight on it was a bad idea.  Teaching was tough and I had to take one day off because I awoke during the night in excruciating pain.  I spent much of the week wondering if I had a stress fracture that was not visible on the blurry x-rays.  But I did not lose hope that it would heal quickly.  I got in the pool daily and pool ran, something I think helped speed up the healing process; I think the water pressure helped ease the edema because I noticed the swelling would go down after being in the pool.  I know pool running helped me stay sane as I needed to get rid of stress and running is my normal means of doing that.  By Saturday I was still wearing the air cast but went without crutches.  I began range of motion exercises (pointing/flexing toes, inversion and eversion) during the week and felt all of that helped the healing process.

How it looked one week after spraining it...

Sunday I saw my friends after they raced the OC marathon/half-marathon and it made me more eager to run.  Monday I went back to Dr. Marcus (best podiatrist ever) and laughed when the first thing he asked was if I ran the OC marathon; he obviously knows runners!!!  He examined the ankle, noted one area where it's still swollen (the area that worried me), approved my request to continue pool running and start walking.  I didn't ask about doing rehab exercises because I forgot but I figured what I was doing was okay.  The swelling has remained in that one spot but I assume that's part of the healing process and I keep reminding myself that it was a bad enough sprain where it will take more than 2 weeks to heal.

Tuesday I walked two miles on the treadmill and pool ran; walking I felt the ankle stiffness and wondered how it would feel the next day.  Wednesday it did not feel worse so I decided to pool run and go for 3 miles...with incline...at about a 13 min/mile pace...with a few jog intervals.  Yes, I suck at the whole walking on a treadmill thing.  Thursday I was exhausted but felt lazy so I hit the TM again for 3 miles...and jogged 2.5 miles of it with incline of 4-5%....I think I'll just say I walked really fast, like those speedwalkers in the Olypics...oh wait, they walk faster than I run!  Friday I went to the TM at my apartment gym and some guy was on it; feeling too lazy to walk across the street (literally less than 0.1 miles) to 24 hour fitness, I decided to go run outside Garminless...about 4 miles later I returned home after forgetting to walk any of it and landing weird on the gravel path, causing pain in the still bruised area near my heel.  Yes, I'm stubborn (that's nice way of putting it...).

Today I put in my 90 minute pool run (way more boring that it was a few weeks ago).  I had plans with my boyfriend to go for a hike today but he was tired this morning and we decided to postpone that.  But when he called and asked if I wanted to go for a walk or run, I jumped at the chance.  I decided to check out a new trail in Sand Canyon/Quail Hollow, one that I'd heard is relatively flat (some rollers, each w/about 150ft climb- so flat compared to SD100!) and runs beside a bike path in Irvine; in other words, one that is pretty easy.  We decided to do 2 miles out/back.  I took my camera to snap a few picks and tried to keep the pace slow...I did that for one mile, the one where I was taking pics.  After that, I enjoyed the rolling hills and found myself struggling to keep my pace in check.  The trail was also gutted in places and had sandbags so I was VERY careful not to repeat my performance from two weeks ago!  I ended up adding a mile to my run and the 5 miles (avg 8:52) in the heat made me realize how little endurance I have now. :(  Ankle is a little sore and swollen so I'm babying it tonight.

Beautiful day for a run with the one I love!!!  How could I resist?!

Til next time...