Normally at this time of year I would be focused on the weather forecast for Saturday instead I am at the point of not really caring. I am only planning on participating in the 25k as my ankle and calf will probably not be able to tolerate any more.
From this point on, I am merely documenting my situation as sometimes when I write things down, the answer appears, if it doesn't, well then my bitching and whining at least make me feel better, so feel free to ignore this post as it like most of my other ones is written more for me than anyone else.
Back to Murphy, actually I think the calf might be able to handle the 50k and who knows maybe even 50 miles but the ankle is not where it needs to be and will bug me within a few minutes of the race start. This might be the most frustrating injury I have ever had as it is just sore most of the time. It was more sensitive a few weeks back. So I would like to think it is getting better except today after running Sat/Sun/Mon it is sore again (it was actually sore every day, today it just continued). I say run but my outings were more walks than runs. When I run, it isn't sharp pain, just a constant ache that adds up after a few miles and takes all of my mental energy to push through. Then after an hour (at best) I really can't seem to run through it and I end up having to walk and then run and then walk and so on.
I ran on Saturday with Wayne and Karen in Murphy and I had to walk a lot, they had already run 6 miles before we met up so they may not have noticed it as much as I did but I wasn't happy about it. I did make it almost 9 miles with them, so Saturday won't be an issue to complete but it won't be fun if I try to run it like a race, heck what am I thinking, I am sure I can't even if I want to. So I intend to meander my way through the course and just enjoy myself. I love Murphy and I will enjoy it regardless of the time it takes as who knows this may be my last time there this year without snow, please tell me it isn't suppose to snow soon.
Back to the ankle, I know I have not done the right rehab or even sought timely medical care and evaluation (I am sure my wife and/or Lisa would scold me on this so I figured I would say it up front) but that is because I still don't think I really injured it to where it should be still bugging me. Would you go to the Doctor if you could walk and the swelling was not severe? As a point to my defense when the calf muscle snapped/ruptured and I couldn't walk I went to the Doctor and followed his advice. Of course what does he tell me? He say it's a comfort injury and it was up to me to when I could resume running as I couldn't do any harm to the muscle, so it was just my ability to deal with the pain (yes he did advise me that I should wait 2 weeks but a comfort injury when I can't bear any weight on the leg). I hate being told something is a comfort injury, to me it means I am a wimp if I don't push through it.
I have had a severely sprained ankle that required me to be on crutches and I think I recovered from it faster (actually I have had multiple ones from playing basketball). Yes I did immobilize it but I couldn't walk on it so I didn't have a choice. This injury I ran through at Superior or attempted to, but kind of like now it wore me down to where I couldn't run after 10 miles or so and yes truth be told, I wanted to stop running on it after 4 or 5 miles. The next day, it was a little sore but only really bugged me when I walked up a slight incline. Even that pain seemed minor and I expected it to go away, it almost seems the same today.
With the ankle, I did go and see a Doctor (yes it was four weeks after the injury), she checked it out, did not do X-rays, we discussed doing them but since she couldn't cause me pain by moving or manipulating it, I didn't see any reason to. She did not give me any exercises, I just left, thinking yet another comfort injury. I have looked up exercises and will start doing them, hopefully they will help. So, my guess is that the ankle will be fine in another week or so but I have thought that before and it is now over 6 weeks. I want to run pain free. Ugh. I hate not being able to run this time of year. Enough said.
So I intend to go and have fun this Saturday and after that I will give it more time if needed and go from there.
1 comment:
Oh my... up there with your wife re: medical advice!
So - I am wonder if there may have not been a stress fracture in one of the bones in your ankle. May not lead to much swelling, but the persistent pain/aching after so much time is a bit suspicious for a deeper injury than a sprain/strain.
Of course most stress fractures show up after the fact (once healed) on x-ray.
Just some random thoughts.
See you out there Saturday! I will be hanging around, maybe helping out at an aid station or just appearing places to cheer. Will bring running stuff with as it would be nice to put a few miles in while down south.
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