Hard decisions

I need to face some hard facts.  My ankle still bothers me.  It's not as often as it was, it's not even every day, but days like today, it bothers me.  I still have a spot that is a little swollen.  I need to quit denying it.  It is probably not ready to run on. 

This weekend my mom was here and we had a yard sale. It was a terrible yard sale.  It rained all day on Saturday.  We packed up about 2pm, and I did a lot of walking, lifting, and just was on my ankle a lot.  On Sunday I decided to go for a 4 mile run, and it didn't bother me much.  Yesterday (Monday) I rested it, and again, it wasn't too bad.  I woke up this morning (Tuesday) and decided to try to wear heels.  If you know me, you know I love shoes, and I wear primarily heels to work, I haven't worn any for 4 weeks.  Today I thought it felt good enough to try.  By the time I got to work my ankle hurt enough that I put on my tennis shoes that I brought "just in case."  And it is still bothering me.  I even took an ibuprofen.

This time last year I was starting my marathon training, I was already a week into it.  I added 2 weeks to the plan because I wanted a run longer than 20 miles before the marathon, and this year it's a week later.  So that gives me a little bit of room.  But most plans are 18 weeks long, and that means that I would have to start training the last week of June.  That's only 2 weeks away. 

My problem is the fact that I feel better when I run. I feel better about myself in all ways.  So to quit again is a really hard thing for me.  But is letting an injury linger longer (and possibly making it worse) worth it?  Probably not. 

A friend recommended that I do some rehab exercises so I looked up some.  I found this site and the exercises appear to be fairly easy so I'll try it. 

Not running again brings up my goal of a race a month. I am registered for the Seattle Rock n Roll half that is this Saturday, but I'm (obviously) not doing it.  There is a 5k next Saturday that I could register for and do.  I could run a 5k to keep up with my streak. 

I started writing this yesterday, and my ankle really bothered me, so I was thinking I would stop running.  Today my ankle feels really good, so I think I could run . . . but maybe I should stick to what I was thinking yesterday and stop running so that I can start marathon training in 2 weeks and not worry that I'm doing more damage. 

I think I'll wait on the running . . .

From my run on Sunday.