Ankle Update and Other Stuff

I’m glad to report that I am back to running on a semi-regular schedule. As previously reported, I was having a lot of pain in my ankle and foot and worried that something could be broken or sprained. I took a few days off (though it felt a lot longer than that).

Now that I’m back to running, I’ve implemented a few small “rules” for myself that seem to be paying off: one, I’ve been running every other day and resisting the temptation to go out two days in a row. This might actually be a smart strategy going forward with marathon training, which doesn’t necessarily demand day-in-day-out training. Two, I’ve been running on flat surfaces; in this case, the large gravel track at Schenley Park. It doesn’t have the same scenic beauty as the trails there, but it keeps me from agitating my ankle.

I have reason now to believe that part of my foot problem has to do not with my running practices or my running shoes, but with my everyday shoes. As was pointed out to me ad nauseam over the holidays, the sneakers that I tend to wear every day have gotten quite worn out; not surprising, since I’ve had them since about April 2007. It’s likely that their reduced support has exacerbated what I’ve been feeling in my foot and ankle. Replacing these old shoes is my next priority.

Another item worth mentioning is the unexpected pleasantness of running outside these days. Pittsburgh in the winter is, as a rule, very cold. But we have been in the middle of a cold snap on top of that. It’s likely that if I hadn’t been laid up for a few days, I never would have ventured out into the cold, as I did last Thursday, when the wind chill was somewhere around -5. But I got out there and did 2 miles in the cold. On Saturday I ran about 2 1/2 miles on a treadmill at CMU’s gym. On Monday I got back outside again and this time did 3 1/2 miles. And this morning, I got up early, with the wind chill around -5, and did 3 miles.

So I feel like I’m getting back to where I need to be, though at some point I will have to stretch myself and try to get on schedule for the long-run portion of the marathon training. I’m trying not to think too much about it, because I don’t want to do too much too soon and risk hurting myself more, but the fact is I’m falling behind in the marathon training already. Hopefully this won’t come back to hurt me; I’m thinking that the pre-training training Rich and I did, getting up to 10 miles on our long runs, will help offset some of the time I’m missing now. Let’s hope.

In other news, last week Rich had an interesting conversation with a local bicyclist, Danny Chew, which he’s posted on YouTube and at his website. Danny is an interesting fellow, to say the least, and Mendel did a great job of getting him going. Yours truly was the camera man.