2-19-10 and 2-22: Running, Injury

By last fall, after running several times every week for six months, I was able to run 3.18 miles without stopping. This is my great lifelong pinnacle of running achievement. Then the weather got really cold in Chicago, and we moved, and I've only gone running a few times in the last several months. Though my 3.18 miles is piddly, I'll be damned if I'm going to lose it. To that end, I've started running again. After about 2 miles I'm maxed out, but at least I haven't been plopped back to the very beginning, where I can't run a quarter mile without sidesplitting pain.

So I work my way east, and the houses become more modest, although the neighborhoods are still neat and trim.






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And then last Tuesday, I was doing laundry in the basement. For some reason, I was taking two laundry baskets down at once. I stepped into my Privo "comfort" flats, which are not that comfortable and fit rather floppily. As I descend the steep wooden stairs, I think, "I should be careful. It would suck to fall down these stairs." And then, of course, I do fall down the last several stairs. I don't know what happened, except that I'm holding a huge bulky load, and the light is terrible, and my right foot twists and folds under me. Fortunately, there's now a large pile of laundry on the basement floor, and I crawl over to it and lie there a few minutes. As always with bad pains, I can't remember the exact sensation but it hurt like hell.

So I ice the foot, and keep it elevated, and a big bump forms, as if I have two ankles. For a couple days I mostly stay off it, and then start walking around again, feeling encouraged. It hurts less. Then I discover that it hurts sharply if I swivel my foot in a certain way, and now I just don't know. My left foot is bony and tendony as usual, and my right foot is not grossly swollen, but plump and bruised yellow and weirdly thick in a few places.

I research what to do about a sprained ankle. In the New York Times, Jane Brody freaks me out with her insistence on "immobilization." But then this article says the opposite, that stretching and strengthening the ankle speeds healing. Almost all the internet articles I read suggest tracing the alphabet with your big toe as a mobility exercise. It might be more fun to spell words. While doing this, I'm drawn to what hurts. "C" is quite painful, so I write Cindy Cindy Cindy.

My running days are over for the time being. Walking feels pretty okay, so I'm going out for a walk, although maybe not a long enough one to cover fresh ground.

Here is my current cumulative map:


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