Tri RobbyB Tri :: injury

Three days of running and no worries. The ankle has held up well. I'm starting slowly, combining short run intervals with bits of walking.

Saturday I did one-minute intervals of running and walking for twenty minutes total. Sunday, I upped it to 1:30/:30 for thirty minutes total. And then today, I extended it to 2:00/:30 for 37.5 minutes total. To my surprise, towards the end of the run, I was more worried about my legs and how out of shape they are than I was about the ankle. At the end, I looked at my watch to see that I covered 4 miles in 40:00, which is a big surprise.

Crazylegs is in two-plus weeks. I thought running it was completely out of the question. Now, my mind is going through different race strategies.

I'm being a wimp about the whole ankle. I'm going to work out. Even if it does hurt. "No pain, no gain," right? "What does not kill you makes you stronger," no? "Where there's a will, there's a way," correct?

It's time to run, or this whole year is going to flash before my eyes and I'll still be whining that my ankle hurts. I did the one minute run/walk interval again yesterday and it felt fine. I'm going to do more today. And I'm going to do more tomorrow. Wednesday, I will see another physical therapist and plan to get some guidance on how much training I'm capable of, how to treat myself as I recover, and how to train properly for a fall marathon (if possible.)

This all happens after I can get that damn squirrel out of my attic and walls.

It felt good to be out again. The sun was slowly fading, as were the snow banks. My watched beeped, and I was off. Running for the first time in two months. Then my watched beeped again and I was walking. I kept switching, a minute at a time for a total of 20 minutes.

It was a series of events that brought me to where I am. In January, I sprained my ankle. And my stubborn side decided not to see a doctor. (No need to rub it in, Ms. IronWil.) It was hard to bike, and even harder to swim. Running, of course, was out of the question. The planned-to-be-written workout remains planned-to-be-written. Work got really busy. I was spending many late nights there, skipping any kind of workout that I could've fit in. When you're working late, you grab food when you can from where you can. Add to that more work and less working out.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, in the fervor of a spring day and new bike parts, I decided to jog a bit on my way home from the bike store. And later that night my ankle throbbed with pain. My desire to workout was growing, but my body wasn't accommodating. Thanks to friends in the business (the physical therapist business), they helped me understand that my fibula bone had slid forward off the talocrural joint (ankle).

You see, when "I sprained my ankle," what I'm really saying is that I damaged my anterior talofibular ligament. And, from what I have deduced, the weak, injured ligament allowed my fibula to slide forward. And when I tried jogging it, I aggravated it, and thus, the pain. They're recommendation was to "mobilize" it by gently nudging it back into place. After a couple nights of that, and things seemed to be back on the mend. Fast forward through another busy week of work, a last minute work trip to Dallas yesterday and some more spring like weather. All that and my gut has begun to press against the inside of my pants with a little too much gusto.

The watched beeped for the last time, and I started walking again. No pain. It felt good enough that I just might try this again. Nice.

The ankle is healing and also revealing. You can see in the image that I've managed to squeeze some blood out of the ankle and into my foot and leg. That's a result of the C part of RICE: Compression. I've managed to keep up on the other letters, too.

R: Rest. I played over five hours of Super Mario Galaxy yesterday. I think that counts.

I: Ice. I've kept ice on it 20 minutes a time every four hours or so. I'm tempted to just stick it outside in the sub-zero temps, but the rest of my body doesn't need to be frozen, so I don't.

C: Compression. I had Kris pick me up an ankle support strap. It's basically two big elastic straps sewn together. It works nicely, as evidenced in the picture above.

E: Elevation. Notice that both pictures my foot is on a pillow on the couch. Keeping it up in the air has helped the swelling recede quickly.

My mobility has increased rapidly every day. After Thursday night's game, Friday morning, I couldn't put any weight on it, and even stayed home from work to nurse it. Saturday, I could climb stairs without help. This morning, my normal walking motion is back, and stairs aren't even an issue. I plan to take a full two weeks off of running, and figure out some exercises to strengthen it as I return. Everything I've read so far says that once you sprain an ankle, it's more susceptible to sprain again.

So I've been developing this "kick-off" post to say how well the new year has been going. To say that I had a great run Tuesday, maintaining a great pace at a superb heart rate. I wanted to tell you that I got in the pool for the first time on Monday, and started working on tweaking my form a bit to gain some effieciency. I wanted to tell you about my rides on the trainer, watching Lance win his 7th Tour de France, pretending that I'm climbing the mountains with him. I wanted to tell you all that. I did. But the good vibes ended tonight.

Ten minutes into our basketball game, I reach to go after a pass, and my left foot gets stomped on and I hear (inside my head) and feel my ankle go pfffft, much like the sound a proper card deck shuffle. I'm on the floor pretty quick, get up, stumble a bit, try to walk if off, realize it's not gonna take too much weight, finally hobble to the bench. The ref got me an ice pack and I was done for the night.

Now home, I have it elevated and iced. And boy does it hurt now! Check the pictures to see the egg that's formed. I'll put a tight sock on it tonight for the compression, and sleep with it elevated to complete the RICE equation.

With any luck, I'll be back within a week.