Slowly Getting Faster

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since I sprained my ankle. It's still a little swollen and, depending on what I'm doing with it, still a little painful. After consulting with family members in the medical field, I decided to go see another doctor. What I learned was not good news.

Turns out I have a chronically torn AFTL. That means that the AFTL didn't heal itself while the rest of the ligaments where healing over the past month and a half. I'm left with a few options: 1) physical therapy which will take months to complete (completely destroying my hopes of racing much this year); 2) a very painful and expensive shot which has only a 70% chance of actually fixing things; or 3) leave it alone, which will either amount to ignoring the problem and always having a weak ankle, developing a scar ball which will mean that any running will eventually cause injury in other places, or it could just heal itself over time.  I'm going with the physical therapy.  At this point, I hope I can get in good enough shape to run the trail half in Moab in November.  Fingers crossed.  

Good News! I went to PT today for the fist time and was told that I can start slowly running tonight. I was also told that I can participate in the St. George Marathon. I won't get the time I wanted, but at least I wont be sidelined. I start tonight with some walk/run sets to test out the ankle. If it doesn't hurt I can proceed to increase slow miles. The therapist said that he thinks I will be able to pick up the pace and put in more miles within a few weeks time. Fingers crossed. 

PM: 3.18 miles; 12:36 per mile avg.

The PT told me that pain should be my guide.  If it hurts stop. Then he gave me program that was supposed to help get me back into running.  He gave it to me with the caveat that I probably wouldn't need to go quite as slow as it recommended.  The plan called for 40 minutes spaced into run/walk intervals.  4 minutes walking followed by 1 minute running. He told me that I should complete this workout as stated, then if I felt alright I could take it up a notch and do 2 minutes running. But he also started this conversation with that caveat.....

I stuck with the plan for the first 20 minutes. At that point I had run 4 times and had no pain.  The terrain was flat and I was antsy so I upped the running time from 1 minute to 2.  That didn't last long either. In fact, I did that only once.  Then I upped it to 3 minutes running and 2 minutes walking. I felt great, even in the afternoon heat. So nice to be out running again. I never had any pain even at 3 minutes.  We'll see if it is stiff at all in the morning.  If not I plan on doing it again tomorrow, starting at 3 minutes running and seeing where that gets me. 

The therapist told me I had to stay off trails and uneven ground until after October 6th so I wont be doing anything crazy for a while. But if my ankle heals well I plan on running as much steep asphalt as I can between now and October.  Preferably at elevation.  If anyone has any suggestions for where I might do that I would greatly appreciate the input.

Did the PT workout again only with less walking time.  I started with 2 minute walk and 3 minute run and worked my way down to no walk.  Felt good the whole time.  It's pretty hot out there right now, which I think is good because I need the heat training. Although I want to go back out tonight I probably should hold off until tomorrow just to make sure everything is ok.  Doubles coming soon though.