Shuffles

I've graduated from "Hobbles" to "Shuffles". Today I had my first real run since The Injury of '13. What a great feeling that was!

This is how I felt. It may not have been how I looked.

I started off slow, as per my trademark. When I say slow, I'm talking S-L-O-W. It didn't take long for the group to leave me in the dust. On the warm-up!
The plan was to do 5x 200m sprints followed by a 3k time trial. Ha!
That was other people's plan. My plan was to walk/jog as many 200m sprints as I could before my ankle started to ache, and then shuffle back to the car and put my foot on ice.
Initially I thought I could focus on superb form since I was stuck running so slow anyway. But after two steps it was very clear that a shuffle was the best I could do. And since it felt silly to use the shuffle-style of running for my right leg and the cycle-style for my left leg, I stuck with shuffle-style all around.
After 3 reps of 200m shuffles (with a 200m walking recovery) I was feeling okay. The 4th one was definitely at my limit. My body wanted to limp but I sternly told it to go slower than the 8min/km I had been doing to prevent any limpage from occurring. I have learned the wrong way that limping should be avoided at all costs if one wants a speedy recovery without any complications.

I'd like to think I'm of the category of "Runner stops running until injury goes away" because that seems like the smartest category. But I look at myself - at the runners around me - and notice how we all get up before 5am multiple times a week to run before work, and I don't know that I can classify any of us in the "smartest" category.

I called it a day after my 4th 200m rep that and shuffled back to the car. On the way I had the blessing of introducing myself to one of the most cheerful men you will ever meet at 6am. Every early morning walker & runner knows this cheerful bloke who greets you every day with a big smile and a jovial "good morning! It's a very beautiful morning today!" But as I am always running, I don't really have the time to stop and chat. Until today! I'll let you insert your own thoughts about training hard & fast vs stopping to say hello. I certainly have my thoughts.
So after I chatted with my new friend for a bit I continued to shuffle back to the car. All up, I only walk/ran about 3k. I iced my foot as my kind but stern running pals all told me to do, but I think it was alright. I hadn't pushed myself hard and - while a part of me is wondering if I could have pushed a bit more - I'm satisfied with this first run back post-injury.
So far I've been seeing almost daily improvements in my ankle. Let's hope it keeps happening in this fashion!

Water Running

I have returned to running! Okay, not really. It's actually running in the water, but that's pretty close, right?
I haven't done water running for years, and last time I did it I could actually touch bottom because the pool was so shallow.
To help me with my rehab, a friend lent me a flotation belt to use for water running, which I fastened to my waist and set up right underneath the starting block.
On your marks...get set...don't go!
Man, was I slow. I went with a friend, which was great as I might not have dragged myself out to the pool without her encouragement. And as she lapped me again and again, I ever so slowly "ran" through the water. Geez, I thought I was slow at that land running stuff. I had it easy, running above the water mark.
After two laps of painfully slow "running" I gave up and went to kicking rather than running. Easier, but a few laps later my ankle started to ache a bit.
So I went to 'arms only' front crawl with the floatie belt on my feet. Geez, that's hard. I have always struggled with the highly sophisticated breathing/head turning pattern required for the front crawl. So as I result I would breathe in water and then be too flustered to breathe out at the right time, only to breathe out when I was supposed to breathe in and...well...let's just say I finished off the 100m of that as fast as I could and decided to return to water running. Slow, but preferable.
I'm hoping to be back on the roads shortly. I'm happy to report that I am still seeing improvements every day and I'm looking forward to getting back out there.

Update: Return of the Ankle

Wow, I didn't expect to garner as much sympathy and concern as I did with my last blog entry. Thanks everyone for being awesome! I loved the advice and sympathy and kind thoughts and offers for help. 

Okay, so a non-running update on my foot. At first my physio told me it was an itty bitty Grade 1 sprain. While I was mucho grateful that it was the mildest sprain possible (which means the quickest recovery!!!) I was a little bit sheepish about making such a big deal about it.

But sadly it's not healing as fast as it should be for an itty bitty Grade 1 sprain, so it's been downgraded to  possibly a Grade 2 sprain. Or it could be an itty bitty fracture that didn't show up on the first x-ray.

Fear not, faithful readers! Trust me that it's feeling heaps better and the swelling and bruising have gone down fantastically. I'm pretty confident it's not a fracture. 

And since I can see the progress of my foot much easier than anyone else, I thought I'd put everyone's minds at ease by posting the pics from today comparing the range of motion of my two ankles. Notably - I have an ankle again! My faithful ankle has reappeared. 

I've been doing the typical physio exercises of strengthening with a band and increasing range of motion by pretending to write the alphabet with my foot. Today I even succeeded at some lateral movement. I don't think I'll be writing any recognizable alphabet letters with my toes any time soon, but at least my "O"s don't turn out like "I"s.

I hope to be back to running soon (this isn't a blog site about injuries, thank goodness!). But as a wise person told me, "worry about walking first", so hopefully I will be back to walking extra soon. I like walking. Walking is good.

 

 Left! Left! Left right left! Left!

 Not up to ballerina toe-point juuuuust yet.

Sidelined

When I was younger I grew like a weed. Seriously. I'm talking over 12cm in the course of 1 year. So as joints moved around, I was bound to sprain something. As it turned out, it was my left ankle in the school's long jump sand pit.
Because I didn't know about things like "physiotherapy", it never really healed properly and I sprained it another two years in a row in basketball.
The end of my basketball career was when I stopped spraining my left ankle and broke an ankle instead. My right ankle.
But I stopped growing, joint strength improved, and I have been ankle sprain-free for a beautiful 11 years.
Until last week.
Yep, I have been sidelined with an ankle injury. After all my twisting of feet on trail runs, I sprain it with a personal trainer doing step-ups. I told people it was a bench to give them better imagery, but I was actually doing step-ups onto a big truck tire (the same height as a bench). My left foot was on the tire and I was tapping up and down with my right foot as fast as possible. As I fatigued my left foot wobbled ever so slightly on the tire, causing me to lose my balance just a little.
That just-a-little loss of balance caused me to step down awkwardly, and over my ankle went. Instant pain!
My PT was not just any PT - he was an awesome PT. As it turns out, he had a spare pair of crutches in his house (hmm, I wonder if this happens a lot?) which I am still using a week later. He then drove me home in my own car so I didn't have to worry about trying to pick it up the next week.
An x-ray the next day revealed no broken bones. Just a "lateral ligament sprain". I felt a bit lame about the whole affair (har har).
I was on a trip to Uluru with a friend and I managed to do it all on crutches - nothing is impossible! I'm off to the physio today to hear the rehab plan and I'll keep you posted. But for now, I guess it means I'm sidelined for running.
For your entertainment, pictures of the injured site! See if you can figure out which foot is swollen. (Hint: It's the one with the weird stripes on it from the compression sock I was wearing.)

 Where'd the ankle go?

I don't remember hitting the tire when I collapsed, but the bruise on my shin tells me I must have.