One Step Forward Two Steps Back - My Poor Foot!

After months of trials and tribulations with my left foot I saw a glimmer of hope in the last couple of weeks. I had a successful sprint triathlon a couple weeks back followed by a five mile run on the trail that went well. I had went in to my physical therapist the Monday after and he approved my adding in a second weekly run in addition to increasing the distance of one of my runs. This was serious progress and I was seriously stoked. Two weeks ago I had run six miles on my favorite trail followed by five miles that Sunday. Woohoo 11 miles that week - back to double digits. But the best part was the lack of pain!

When you're used to feeling at least some level of pain and discomfort for 12 weeks, suddenly becoming pain free is strange...in a good way of course. Whoa, my foot feels okay I thought. Awesome!

I was excited to get in my midweek run and decided to head out Tuesday night to the trail for a shorter three-loop run. The loop at Girdled Rd is 1.3 miles so I would get in 3.9 miles and then head home to start dinner. Pretty simple. And not so simple. The first loop went FAST! I looked at my Ironman watch and thought whoa I did that loop in 9 minutes maybe I should slow down a little. So I did for a few and hit the second loop at 19. I contemplated calling it a day but I decided to finish the 3rd loop as planned.


And then as in a bad movie scene a twist of fate quickly changed my situation. About half way through that 3rd loop I was coming around a right side turn as there are many turns on the loop and I twisted my left ankle inward HARD. Ouch! The pain was severe so much so that I had one of those blackout moments for maybe 15 or 20 seconds where I thought holy crap what just happened?! And then I thought ouch this really hurts and I don't know if I can run. I hobbled/walked for maybe 2 or 3 minutes and decided to run the rest of the loop back slowly. It actually wasn't horrible running on it. I finished the third loop in around 33 minutes  with the walking. 


I made it back to the car and called my husband to tell him what happened. It was achy but okay it seemed as is usually the case with a twisted ankle. When I got home I took some ibuprofen right away and soaked the foot in a bucket of ice water. 


Waking up and walking on it the next morning was not so fun. Again icing, taking ibuprofen Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I had a previously scheduled appointment with Dr. Joy at the Cleveland Clinic Ortho department to follow up on my stress reaction and have some things checked out. Dr. Joy was great and very thorough. As I described the pain she had me get a second set of X-rays on the foot to be sure I didn't sustain any additional trauma as in a fracture from the ankle injury. Luckily I hadn't. 

I was treated for an ankle sprain. They gave me an Aircast ankle splint. It's very stylish as you can see from the picture here! I am supposed to wear it for a couple of weeks as it heals. I am in fact allowed to run but have not as of yet as I wanted to play it safe with a race approaching this weekend. I am planning to test it out on the trail tomorrow with the hubby close by in case I need any assistance. Assuming that goes well I will race Fairport Harbor Tri on Sunday. It is a sprint so should hopefully not add too much stress to the ankle and foot. Aside from that, I will see my PT next week for rehab and move ahead. Dr. Joy says I should be able to get back to my normal 30 miles a week of running. Looking forward to it since I have my Rev3 races to train for!