A "MESSI" SITUATION

I'm BACK! ... And I did it even faster than Barcelona's Messi ... but then again, if you look at that photo, he's dealing with something a little more "heavy duty" than I am ...

I cranked out some KM's last night (I know, you're asking now, "why does he keep running at night??!! ... you'd think that a little scare like that would set him on a better path" ...) Well, there are several reasons.  Here's a couple I can think of right off the top of my head:
 
  1. My days are filled with work, kids, "real life", etc ...
  2. The daytime streets are filled with scary cars, clueless pedestrians (and tourists) and lots of automobile exhaust .... (cough cough)
  3.  I save money on sunscreen.
  4.  .... because Ray says so ... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4rG4GRTVB4&feature=related)

So I did some slow, some fast and some quality KM's ... and today my ankle's a little sore, but I'm in no way in pain.  Today's (or should I say tonight's) workout is INTERVALS ... we'll see how that goes ... I'll let y'all know ...

A royal pain the the asphalt! ... (aka: ankle twist)

Thursday night's Tempo Run was cut short with a Close Encounter of an Urban Kind ...

We all know that putting one foot in front of the other should be easy
... we've been doing it since we began to walk. But when you start to
mix in factors like an increased pace and typical urban obstacles
(traffic lights, vehicles, people, etc) and then you throw in other
variables like darkness, mild training fatigue and a nasty pothole ...
well, bad things can happen ... and they did.

I took a big "digger" last night. About 30mins into my run I was
beginning the 8'@4:15/km leg and wanted to stick to the pace ... but a
pothole swallowed my right foot and spit me out right into the line of
traffic! ... It was amazing how many thoughts can run through your
head in the split seconds of flight (or freefall) .... they say you're
supposed to see your whole life flash before your eyes, but I mainly
saw myself on crutches watching the NYC Marathon from the sidelines
... damn!

When my foot went into the pothole, I think I had some reflex reaction
to pull it up and take all my weight off of it ... It sent me through
the air and onto the palms of my hands, followed by my shoulder, my
right knee and then onto my back ... traffic screeched to a halt
(luckily) and I got up and brushed myself off ... the taxi that almost
helped me to complete my "final lap" even offered to take me home ...

I preferred to walk it off a bit, wash my scrapes out and even try to
keep on running ... I finished my 8' TP interval followed by my 2' LR
interval and began my next 8' MP interval and decided it would be
better to listen to my body and take it easy ... I hobbled home and
hit the shower ... followed by 30mins of ice packs ... all topped off
with a Naxopren and some topical Piketoprofen gel (Calmatel) and off
to bed to sleep it off ...

This morning I'm surprised (and very pleased) by the minimal swelling,
even though I've got some nice purple and red bruising on the top and
sides of my foot (all within the area that would be inside my running
shoes ...I guess it's more like from the ankle down) ... and the
absence of general pain that I was expecting. I'll deal with the
scraped hands and knee. Here's what I've got though, serious pain
when I roll my foot/ankle to the inside or outside ... forward and
backward motion is fine ... I can lift my toes up toward my knee and
it feels normal ... I can point my toes down and things are perfect

... So, what to do?

My intuition tells me to take it a little easy, keep icing for a day
or two and stick with the anti-inflamatory pills/gel ... the pain
doesn't seem to warrant a visit to the doc's (even though my wife is
insisting) ... what do y'all think? .... Should I attempt to stick with my training plan and see how it feels tonight or should I take a day off? ...


In the meantime, run carefully ... run safe!

Ryan