We've Been Here Before

Classic line from Lord of the Rings - I believe it's in Return of the King. Frodo says that to Sam - they are lost on the way to Mordor. We've been here before. And so have I.

Yep - the ankle pain is back. I had a run two weeks ago or so that was off-the-charts-bad. I abandoned the run which I never do. When I realized I was shuffling and limping a voice inside my head said "Stop" and I did. For once I did. I hobbled back to the house and took care of my ankle. I have completed two runs since on treadmills that have been spectacularly unsuccessful. I start out the run in a wee bit of pain, it increases and I adapt my stride throughout the entire run so as to not cause myself pain. By the end I have tinkered enough so I am at least in a manageable amount of pain - no more than a 4 on a scale of 10.

Coach Allen has suggested an experiment: run on the same treadmill, same time, same everything today and see what happens. So, I am going to head out here in a bit to do just that. I haven't run since Tuesday so my ankle has had a long time to rest given it's a recovery week.

I've had some time to consider what's going on, and it seems the calf muscle that was the culprit oh so many months ago still isn't that strong. Calf raises are still challenging and that's a problem. I think my body needs time to build. I'm strong in a lot of ways - but I made adaptation an art form and I will land myself back on the bench if I don't take care of this muscle weakness issue. The thing I want to do least is strengthen one little strip of muscle that is so tiny and so weak that I can't bare my body weight. I think that's human nature. I want to strengthen what's already strong - work my quads, do curls, bring on the core work. Why do I want to walk directly into what's weakest? Tell me - how much fun is heading right toward what hurts? Not fun and no I don't want to walk full-on into this. But experience has shown me time and time again I can't go around this, under it or over it. I have to go through it. If I don't, it rears it's ugly little head, knocks me on my a$$ and takes my lunch money.

Having given the "pull yourself up my your bootstraps there champ!" speech, I'll also point out I managed to peel off the pounds I put on over the holidays. :) If you haven't found livestrong.com yet, check it out. The daily nutrition and weight tracking are fantastic. I still haven't figured out whether or not the "Gold" membership is really worth it, but for $45 a year, I think I can spring for it and see what happens...