• Posted on:August 11th, 2007
• Comments:No Comment
• Category:Run Girl Run

I have a tendency to roll my ankles outward when I run at times. I credit the fact that typically the initial ouch fading after a few minutes to what I think are some pretty damn strong ankles. Nowadays kids strap on braces and tape but when I was a kid and played sports? Hell no! You strapped on your shoes, which in my case were low-cut due to my dislike for hi-tops, and went. Junior year of high school I sprained my ankle pretty badly during a softball practice, but aside from that, I’ve been injury free as far as the ankles are concerned.

This morning, about three miles into our 15 mile run for the day, I rolled the right one and heard a pop. Not the thing one wants to hear when they’re in the middle of nowhere and the shortest distance home would be a a round trip of six miles anyway. I walked it off for a minute and kept going, and after a few miles it felt normal. After we hit mile 11 I started to really hurt. It wasn’t my ankles, but everywhere else.

We finished the run and headed straight to Hancock beach to soak our legs for a few minutes in some cool water. Yep, still feeling okay at this point.

Stopped at the store for a few items. Ooh, stiffening up at this point and the ankle is kinda sore but still mobile.

Got back home and went straight to bed for what was intended to be a short nap (I think I only had about four hours of quality sleep last night).

Woke up a couple hours later. Hmm, maybe this pain radiating throughout most of my foot means it wasn’t the smartest thing to run 12 more miles on a possibly injured ankle.

The BF has a friend coming to spend the night from out of town (all the way from Hamburg) so it will be a low-key evening. Feet up, maybe some margaritas, and some Beef Stroganoff is cooking away in the crock pot (who wants to cook after running 15 miles?). I’ve got until Tuesday for the ankle to rest, as Sunday and Monday are days off as far as running is concerned.

Even though I feel pretty lousy at the moment, it feels good to have our longest run of the year so far out of the way for the rest of the weekend. It’s always at this point in the program where I start to doubt, even though I have done this now three times for three different marathons. It’s usually the 16 mile run week where you say to yourself, yeah, I could run for another 10 miles. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. Today I was seriously doubting Hal Higdon though, because the first time I did this, I was three years younger, at least ten pounds lighter, and had way less miles on the legs than I do now. Not to mention I was full of plenty of divorce angst to keep me going (ha).

But I’ll keep at it. This is the best we’ve done in terms of sticking to the training program without missing runs, and I really do want to cross the finish line in October. The finisher shirts they give out are so cool.