Twisted ankle

I feel lucky that I was able to get my long run in this morning. On Friday I had a chance to go for a short walk during my lunch break, and I managed to do something I've avoided successfully for 750 running miles this year: I twisted my left ankle.

It seems like no matter how careful you are, things like that can happen at any time. All I did was step on an uneven spot on the sidewalk - a separation in sections of the paved surface where one section was was a little lower than the other - and wham! Major roll. I almost hit the pavement, but remained on my feet. It hurt, but I knew there was no serious damage, and besides, all I could do was to keep walking, since I had to get back to work. As long was I was walking, it felt fine.

However, after just a few minutes sitting at my desk it stiffened up and got sore. I tried to keep moving as much as I could, and even propped my leg up on a spare chair to keep it elevated. I applied ice once I got home and kept it elevated as much as possible.

The night's rest seemed to help, and I was encouraged as I drove to my workout. But the first 50 feet or so of running were quite painful, and I almost bagged it right there. I talked myself into sticking with it though, figuring it could possibly be just a matter of getting loose. Things did improve gradually during the first couple of miles, and I figured if I could just run 4 or 5 miles I could call it good. But after 3 miles I was experiencing only very minimal pain, and I decided I'd just keep going until I couldn't anymore. I was keeping the pace slow and trying to keep the pounding down, and it was working.

Ultimately, I did my full 16 miles. I stopped a couple of times to give my foot a rest, and once at 8 miles to remove an ankle wrap that was restricting blood flow in my foot and making it sorer than it needed to be. That resulted in immediate relief. The weather was perfect, too, and that helped a lot. It was mid 50s when I started, and it gradually warmed up, but never got hot.

I finished in 2:32:47, which is a 9:33 average. I was impatient in my last two miles, and ran them in 9:00 and 8:28. My ankle never really hurt me after the first 4 miles or so, but the whole foot was kind of sore from the run, probably because of the way I was running to protect my ankle.

Those 16 miles gives me 42 for the week, the most I've run in one week for at least a year.