Surrendering...

I should be posting my DCTRI Club practice Tri recap, but I am still waiting for the results. It was very low key, only 102 participants, and the race director is working hard to get all of the numbers calculated but as of this morning, they still have not been posted.

But the one thing that I can write about is the injury. Yep.... just 2 weeks before I am to begin my marathon training program, I tweaked my ankle in a small pothole during the run. And it still hurts.

I have tweaked this ankle before... actually many times. This is the ankle that suffered much of the damage during my roller-blading years. But usually, if I keep running, it "goes away". When I have stopped, it tends to hurt more.

The pothole was about 1.5 miles in, on a sidewalk. There was some shade of trees and I just missed it. The guy behind me kind of caught me when I stumbled, but I shook it off and kept running. And then this "pain" felt different. Not the typical pain that I have felt before when I have tweaked this ankle. I started to walk a little, stretched it a little... but the pain was still persistent.

Let me clarify the pain: It isn't the type of pain that I cannot move. It is actually barely noticeable... but enough to make me feel like if I pushed it, I could really be out. So I took the last miles slowly, walked some... because it was just a practice Tri, not a goal race and I didn't want to hurt it.

The rest of the day, I still noticed the persistent "pain" but nothing horrible. I immediately FB, G - since she suffered from a f'ankle injury earlier and asked her: "Need advice: met Mr. Pothole during the run this morning; cankle hurts. What did *you* learn from your injury? Rest? Ice? What would you have done differently?"

Her reply: "BOO. If I could go back and tell myself anything, it would be to take a full week of rest from running & walking ~ wrapped, iced, elevated as much as possible. And by rest I also mean from LIFE. Don't walk to the pool, don't walk around the mall, don't do a cleaning marathon of your house. Baby it. Swim and ride this week. Cankle? are you sure it's not a F'ankle?"

And I did listen. I tried to swim yesterday and it still hurt. After 500 m, I decided, you know... maybe I need to rest from swimming too.

Let me explain where the pain is:  It seems to be where this image indicates the Peroneus longus and brevis tendons. the pain starts right behind my ankle, and continues up the side of my leg about half way up.

I did the "calk squeeze" test as some sites recommended to see if it was a high ankle sprain and there was no additional pain. Actually the area is just tender... does that make sense?

So since swimming was not completely pain free, I have decided to REST. *eeek*

I know, I know... how am I going to rest? I have decided to take a week off form running, swimming and biking... and see how it feels. If by Wednesday there has been no change, I may go see my Doctor. Not because I think something is torn or think that I need an MRI, but because maybe there is something I should be doing (icing, heat, stretching) that could help.

And while I have surrendered to REST for my legs, my poor core and arms are going to be in for a long week.

I do have a fun 8k this Saturday evening. If I still have "pain", I am going to go out and volunteer instead of run it. I would like to run it... but it is not a goal race, so I want to take it easy. I have bigger goals: marathon training begins on July 25th!