First injury of the year

Last January, something had gone terribly wrong with my heel and I was sidelined for a few weeks

Almost like clockwork, this January brought injury again. This one was new - a pain in my ankle that did not feel like a sprain or a strain or overuse. It felt more like the after-effects of blunt trauma. Only I do not remember the trauma.

I do know that my gait is somewhat odd. In addition to being a flat-footed underpronator, I tend to twist my feet after push-off. Sometimes, on the way back toward landing, the heel one foot will crash into the ankle of the other. Rarely are my ankles free of cuts and scrapes from this happening.

Maybe I am so used to this that I did not even notice that I hit my left ankle particularly hard and  in just the right spot, causing the pain I felt by the end of that Saturday.

I am proud to say that during the course of my six years of running, I have learned many lessons on caring for injury and I put them to good use right away.

First - extra rest day. Now that I  have been running six days a week, taking second rest day does not seem so bad.

Next - ice. I kept an icepack wrapped around my ankle all day for almost two days.

Finally - take it easy. I ran four miles that next day as slowly as I could possibly go. It was a jog, really.

By the third day, I could comfortably do my eight-miler, though still at a slow, controlled pace. And by the fourth, I was back on the track doing speed work.

Best of all, throughout that week, I did not panic. The marathon was still several weeks away and I was confident I would get back to peak performance.