So, about five miles in, it happened. I stepped onto/into something and turned my foot pretty badly. Back in my high school basketball days, I had sprained both of my ankles countless times, so all my tendons are elongated, which makes it hard for me to sprain my ankle (knock on wood). However, I must have hit some sort of rock or something, because the outside and top of my foot hurt quite a bit. I tried to run it off (that usually works for me with potential ankle sprains), but it wasn't getting better. I tied my shoe even tighter. That again didn't help. Though the pain wasn't excruciating, I had a bad feeling and ran back that the two miles to my car (for a total of 7 instead of the scheduled 12).
During my drive home, the pain kept increasing. I immediately took some advil (3) and started elevating and icing my foot, which I've been doing for over two hours now. Nevertheless, it has swollen up quite a bit. And just standing up hurts now. Not good news.
(Number 4 - around the fifth or most anterior metatarsal bone - that's where it hurts. Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
Is my streak in danger? Only time will tell (or tomorrow for that matter). Are the marathons or even Santa Barbara in danger? I really, really hope not.
So, does an aspiring ultra runner do when injured?
- Rest - rest and sleep as much as possible
- Spend Time with Loved Ones - I should have some extra time on my hands for a few days now
- Ice/Elevate/Anti-inflammatory - i.e., take care of the injury
- Stay in Shape I - Do other (non-running) exercises that are beneficial. For example, do some abs to "strengthen the core"
- Stay in Shape II - I take in a ton of calories every day, so I need to cut back a little to adjust for the lesser need my body has for energy. (i.e. don't get fat)
3 comments:
Man, I don't know, but that sounds like a stress fracture, if you don't think it's your ankle. I had one in that same area a couple of years ago. The podiatrist said the only way that we could tell for sure was a bone scan though. And I didn't do that, I just laid off for about 6-8weeks. Sucked, but worked. But, when I got mine, I didn't have any pain until the next day, so who knows.
A little update:
Thankfully, the injury turned out to be a scare (i.e. bruise). I took three days off from running (i.e. ran less than two but more than one mile to keep the streak alive) and iced, elevated my foot, iced, iced, iced, iced. It helped.
I'm back into my normal routine again. Six easy miles yesterday, 7 miles of hills today. This weekend will be the litmus test in the form of a 28-30 miler.
Dave, good to hear that it was a false alarm. I think you handled it correctly though with the ice and all. It really is the miracle cure for almost any running injury :-). Good luck with the training.
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