Abort, Abort!

Workout: Flattop

So, yeah, about my glorious return to running. It was a bit light on the "glory" and "running" and a bit heavy on the "realizing my ankle isn't healed enough to run on yet." In other words, a complete failure.

[Quick recap on the ankle situation for anyone who missed it: I tweaked it on the gravelly section of my marathon but didn't even realize it until a few days later when the soreness didn't disappear along with the rest of my post-marathon soreness. It seemed to return to normal, but then I re-tweaked it last week during a hike.]

I was totally pain-free on Sunday when I jogged on it for a bit, but when I woke up on Monday it was sore again. "Sore" sounds a bit strong, though. I didn't feel anything while walking, just when I rotated my ankle to either side. Still, it was disconcerting.

When I set out on my very first run back, I knew there was a possibility I'd have to cut it short, a suspicion that was confirmed roughly 5 steps in. I hoped against hope that it would stop hurting as I warmed up, but after a total of a mile (a glorious mile, might I add!), I yelled at myself for being an idiot and walked back to my car.

If you ever find yourself short on motivation to run, try injuring yourself. It's the best motivation ever. Now that I can't run, it's all I want to do. I'm filling the void with hiking (which, okay, maybe I shouldn't be doing, but it only hurts very slightly on uphills, plus there's NO WAY I'm staying away from my beloved mountains before I move to Oregon), which is great but just not a comparable workout. I spent much of today's hike out of breath, but as soon as I finished I didn't feel like I had done anything at all. As strange as it sounds, I miss being tired!

And no, as of right now I'm not planning to see a doctor. I have extreme doctor trust issues resulting from doctor fail ("Oh, you've got a 105.2 degree fever and you're here in the emergency room? It's just the flu, you don't need antibiotics, even though your fever's been over 104 degrees for four days straight. That'll be $1,200 for your IV fluids, please") after doctor fail ("You show all the symptoms of a stress fracture and no symptoms of plantar fasciitis but I'm going to go ahead and diagnose you with the latter for now") after doctor fail ("Your iron levels aren't low, you're just stressed out"). This could well be a dumb decision, but it's one I take full responsibility for. Deal with it.

Anyway, enough pouting. I think blogs about injuries are boring, and I also think that people don't really like reading about hikes (pretty though they may be), so I may or may not lay low until I'm up and running again.

Let's end this on a happy note and look at some photos from today and Tuesday.

Summer/winter comparison:

This idiot of a dog chased a rolling rock halfway down the wrong side of the mountain. She was so hot by the time she made it back up that I had to give her the rest of my water and sit for like 10 minutes while she recovered. She seemed rather pleased with herself.

 It's called Flattop for a reason.

From Tuesday.

Happy running!