The worst part of an injury and/or pain is the unknown. Is it a problem, is it not? If you run a lot, something always hurts. The issue becomes deciding what can be ignored and what needs to be listened to.
I've had on again off again pain in both my ankles since the end of my 20 mile run on Feb. 20th. I vividly remember feeling it then and thinking "this is new." I retired my trainers a few days later and went into my slightly cutback week hoping the issue would not get worse.
For most of the week, it did not. My right ankle stopped hurting and my left would only hurt for a moment or two when first starting to run. I owned the RRCA 10 mile club challenge with no pain during the race and ran another easy 8 later that afternoon with essentially no pain.
The pain came and went the following week. The most vexing part had to be during the day. After my morning run, I would frequently have pain in my left and occasionally my right ankle for most of the day at work (I frequently stand most of the day), though it would eventually subside.
Things took a downturn on Friday during my evening speedwork. Every time I started up another rep, I would limp for a few strides before the pain subsided. Even if the pain was not so bad, I would still anticipate it and compensate anyway.
On Saturday, I forged ahead with a 21 mile run and came down with a tight arch probably from all that compensation. The left ankle only would continue to hurt upon start up from rest and then fade. I sat around for most of Saturday and by the evening, it felt good again. Sunday morning, when I woke up for my half marathon, it felt decent. During the warmup, it felt better than it had felt in a while and I never even felt a twinge during the race. I went on to kill my half marathon PR and negative split the race on a big mileage week.
Then this week happened. Monday, I did an easy 5 and had so much other soreness from the race, that the ankle "hid" itself. I had also taken a day off from work and stayed off my feet most of the day. Yesterday morning, I was still experiencing the "first few strides limp" but got through both my morning and afternoon runs decently well with manageable ankle pain. However, the left and even right ankle hurt most of the day.
Today, it only got worse. I could actually feel it during my morning run (instead of just at the beginning) and started dreading every stride, wondering if I would feel another twinge of pain. I was hesitant to do a short pick up in the middle for fear of more pain.
During work today, though it didn't hurt all that much walking around, I was struggling to walk up and down stairs. After finally dragging myself outside for an afternoon run today, I ran only a few blocks and the pain would not clear up in my left ankle. The only other time in 2010 that I felt true dread before starting a run and hesitant to hit my stride is when I had an ingrown toe nail that caused my right big toe excessive pain, swelling, and blistering. I missed a couple of days for having that fixed.
I'm going to listen to my body and take the remainder of today off, as well as Thursday. Streaks and weekly mileage be damned, it's the race results that matter. I'm going to reevaluate Friday. At this point, my #1 goal is to be healthy for Boston, everything else is secondary. I can only hope that I've listened soon enough, and that I can kick this pain for good.
I still would change nothing, and have no regrets from the past 2 weeks or for trying to push through this ankle pain. I have two new awesome PRs to my credit. I know the risks of pushing ever higher, and accepted them when I told myself back in November 2009, "man, if I really trained hard, I could make myself into a decent runner." I take the good with the bad, and it's times like these that let me check myself and make sure I'm out there running and pushing myself for the right reasons. It's not for some kind of obsession with exercise, but with a deep seeded motivation to get faster. Running hurt does not make one faster, therefore, I will back off.
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