Working It

Sunday - 1 hour yoga podcast, plus clamshell planks, calf raises, and PT stretches, and foam rolling. Still no ankle pain. Good sign.

Monday - 33 minutes / 2.4 miles, including .5 mile running. Same running pace as last time but increased the speed a bit on the walking part. Ankle hurt a little bit immediately afterwards but didn't hurt during or later in the day. I'll take it. Shins felt weird, but maybe that is just from not running regularly for, oh, over 4 months.

Tuesday - Upper body strength training, planks, squats at lunch. Also did clamshell planks in the AM.

Wednesday - Rest. And traveling.

Thursday - Upper body strength training with the resistance band, core work, clamshell planks, pushups.

Friday - 1 mile run (ankle still OK), plus walking to Black Friday shopping.

Saturday - Rest. Or maybe some exercise later, but I am not feeling overly ambitious.

Working It

Of course I post that I think I am finally turning a corner and I have another setback. After having minimal to no pain for more that a week, things were not so good again. But I think that was because of a bad foot cramp while I was doing planks last week.  Maybe? Setback aside, I started having days totally pain-free. I couldn't tell you the last time that happened. This is good, I think.

Sunday - Rest. Oops. Wanted to do yoga but ran out of time.

Monday - Day off for a holiday. 40 minutes on the bike, plus clamshell planks and foam rolling. Also walked about a mile total to run some errands. It was almost 70 degrees. In November.

Tuesday - upper body strength training with the resistance band, pushups, squats, clamshell planks, balance exercises, PT stretches, and foam rolling.

Wednesday - Rest.

Thursday - 35 minutes on the bike, clamshell planks, PT stretches, foam rolling.

Friday - Upper body strength training, planks, twisting crunches with a medicine ball, clamshell planks, and foam rolling at lunch. Can I mention one more time that I am super grateful that I work in a place that encourages employees to use their lunch breaks to exercise? 'Cause I love that.

Saturday - 33 minutes/2.3 miles walking (mostly) on the treadmill. That included .5 mile of running. Also did core work, clamshell planks, PT stretches, and foam rolling. Ankle felt fine and then felt OK for the rest of the day. Still felt fine the next day!

Working It

I know I have said this before, but I finally think my ankle is healing. It has not hurt at all in over a week. And it has felt pleasantly itchy. Healing? I think so. I still am not running and am not sure when I will be back out there. But hopefully soon. Slowly and carefully. Very slowly and very carefully. I am optimistic that these are promising signs.

Sunday - PT stretches, foam rolling, clamshell planks, and 20 minutes of yoga.

Monday - 30 minutes on the bike, clamshell planks, foam rolling.

Tuesday - upper body strength training with the resistance band, pushups, squats, clamshell planks, foam rolling, PT stretches.

Wednesday - Rest, unless stretching and foam rolling count as exercise.

Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical. Ankle did not hurt at all during or afterwards. PT stretches, clamshell planks, and foam rolling.

Friday - Upper body lifting, clamshell planks, pushups, regular planks, and balance exercises at lunch. PT stretches, core work, and squats in the evening.

Saturday - 45 minutes on the bike. PT stretches and these lunge-like things. And some time with the good old foam roller.

Turning the Corner?

The good news. I made it through a week with the walking boot, then a half-and-half week.

The upside to being stuck in a walking boot was wearing yoga pants and sneakers (well, one sneaker) to work. I could have worn skirts or regular pants. But I felt pretty self-conscious. By the end, I didn't care, but in the beginning I did. Then I had problems with shoes. The boot has a decent heel to it. Flat shoes were out. I needed a shoe with a little height so that I wasn't walking lopsided. I went to a shopping mall and a grocery store where I got some funny looks. Whatever, people. Most people didn't say anything. Actually, several people didn't even notice for days. Only one person asked me what happened (we decided bar fight sounded better than tendonitis), and only one person offered to open a door. I always found a seat on the Metro.

The bad news. The boot started hurting my foot, and I still wasn't better by the end of 2 weeks. So. very. frustrating. There is a good deal of trial and error with this particular injury, but come on. Really, tendon? Why were you still unhappy? Unhappy tendon made me unhappy. Literally. My mental health took a downward turn over the last several weeks. I was cranky, frustrated, and just not my usual self.

But then there was better news. I started getting through days without pain unassisted by the walking boot or anti-inflammatory meds. You know when you get a cut and it starts to itch when it heals? That's kinda how my ankle felt. Now I gotta start doing my PT exercises again. I kept working on my hips and foam rolling, but I stopped doing anything involving my ankle a few weeks ago. I'm done with actually going to PT. Everything I was doing, I can pretty much do on my own.

So now I wait and see. Again. Very cautiously.

Working It

It was another week with mostly strength training. I think I need to be diligent about foam rolling my calves. Like do it every day diligent.

Maybe ... maybe ... maybe I am back on track and my ankle is finally getting better. Maybe. I've been here before. Things seem to get better and then I have a setback. 

Sunday - Spectating at the Marine Corps Marathon. Walked about 3 miles total. Rang a cow bell for hours. My vocal chords got lots of exercise ;-)

Monday - No work because pretty much everything in DC shut down for Hurricane Sandy. Upper body strength training with a resistance band, pushups, body weight squats, core work, and clamshell planks. And foam rolling.

Tuesday - Another day with no work. Clamshell planks, core work, balance exercises, foam rolling.

Wednesday - Rest.

Thursday - Clamshell planks, pushups, upper body strength training with the resistance band, core work, foam rolling.

Friday - Rest.

Saturday - 30 minutes on the stationary bike. First time doing cardio in I don't remember how long. The good news is that, despite a long time without cardio, it wasn't awful. The even better news is my ankle didn't hurt. Cross your fingers that this keeps up.