2.08.2007

Subtle Pain

I went to the gym tonight with a mindset that I was going to try 3 easy miles and not push myself hard. It was planned to be just 3 very very easy, slow miles and nothing more, unless there was no pain what-so-ever.

My ankle hasn't bothered me since tuesday night, so I had a positive feeling about this run. I grabbed a towel, hopped on the treadmill, turned the tv channel to watch PTI on ESPN, turned on my tunes, and started a decent walk to warm-up a little bit.

Once I reached a tenth of a mile, I started a very slow jog. 5mph to be exact. There was a bit of a slight pain that wrapped around my ankle each time my heal came into contact with the belt of the thrillmill. It wasn't an excruciating pain, but it was more like an achy pain that was noticiable with each stride. Once I reached 1/3 of a mile, my breathing and strides were insynch and I didn't notice the pain as much anymore. Overall, I was able to fork over 3.3 miles and everything was perfect, except for my leg.

What I have noticed in the past week or so, is that when I start to run, there is a weird pain that a part of me tells me that I should stop. But, as stubborn as I can be, and as hard as I can be on myself, I run through it and it pretty much disappears. It is later, when I am not running anymore, possibly the next day even, when a pain that is worse than it was when I was running, shows up.

I don't know what to do. Many things run through my mind as to what the case is. So, from here, I will just plan to take my ibuprofen and then ice as much as I can over the next couple days. I will continue to stretch, as I have been really good about this over the past couple of weeks. Any ideas, thoughts, or comments would be greatly appreciated and helpful. Tonight I will refer to my Women's Running book to figure this out and decide what I need to do. This is a little frustrating and I don't want to make it worse.

Tomorrow will be a rest day.


On a light note, here is my new favorite snack. I like to call it Stacy's Trail Mix! Roasted peanuts, raisins, some m&m's, the rainbow goldfishes, and the pretzel goldfishes. Mmm.
Happy running, y'all.

22 comments:

Wes said...

Tempt me not oh wicked woman! Grrrrr :-) Just be careful not to aggrevate it. Its probably hurting the morning after because the muscles are stiffening up. You should of seen my ankle when I started running. RICE sounds real good. It will get better!!

Aleks said...

I WANT THAT SNACK! I don't want to preach but listen to your body or you'll end up like Jess and I. You don't want to be forced into an extended period without running!

I know exactly what you mean about "the stubborn me"... don't want to quit once you start!

MNFirefly said...

The snack looks SO yummy!

Neese said...

your plan seems spot on in regards to icing and ibuprofen, and having the mindset of a "easy" run, while you continue to figure out what's going on.
the mix looks GREAT but i will have to say DARK chocolate M&M's would be the sell with me! Happy Friday! :o) P.S. LOL!!! @ your comment on my blog

Anne said...

I may have missed something from your earlier posts, but it's your ankle and not your achilles tendon in the back that hurts - right? the achilles is a different animal, which is why I'm asking. That one you shouldn't try to "run through." The ankle's different.

Anyway, I like to watch PTI at the gym when I'm on the Lifecycles. Glad I'm not alone.

Jess said...

It sounds like you're doing the right thing with the icing and the ibuprofen and taking it easy. If the pain gets to be really bad, you may want to get it looked at, but for now keep doing what you're doing!

P.S. That trail mix looks YUMMMY!

P.P.S. Duke lost to UNC on Wed. WHOOO HOOO. They play us on Sunday. I won't lie. My team's been weak lately and that makes me nervous.

Joe said...

Some suggestions:

1) Don't run through pain. Muscle soreness is okay but not joint pain. I'm my personal experience and from reading several blogs with the same story, running through pain usually leads to trouble down the road.

2) Do go see a physiotherapist. In my experience, physio works most of the time. For example, I had a prolonged shoulder problem from swimming last year. Just a couple of weeks after starting to do a regular rotator cuff exercise series given to me by my PT, the pain went away...and has not returned. It has been about 14 pain free months and counting.

3) Try to cross train with swimming or cycling until the pain has gone away for several days. You think you're not a good swimmer? Don't worry about it. If you get a good workout, however slowly you might be swimming, that's all that matters. Try kicking with a kick board. Try water running. It's all good. Believe me, it is hard to injure yourself in swimming.

3) Ice, ice Baby! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun!

miss petite america said...

i love the fishes cause they're so delicious!

and re changing font colors: in the dashboard go to manage layout, then under the template tab go to fonts and colors up at the top.

Jess said...

It's hard to gauge an injury and I think all of us are reluctant to pull back on our running, but don't ignore something that could potentially be serious.

Donald said...

Obviously in your condition, you shouldn't try this, but to answer your question, here's the deal with 1-mile repeats: each of them are run at a pace just slower than your 10K race pace, with rest periods of walking or slow jogging in between. Your rest time should be about half of your interval time - at the track, we typically jog for 400m between intervals of 1600m. During marathon training, we start with 3 or 4 intervals, and build up to 8-10 over a series of weeks and months.

Good luck with your recovery. And yes, that snack looks great!

J~Mom said...

I agree to keep icing and resting it until the pain is gone. You don't want to make it worse. I hope it's better super fast though!! Your snack looks yummy!! Great combo there!

JeffM said...

Maybe the ankle is slightly out of place and a chiro or foot doctor could set it?
Hope it gets better.

Unknown said...

There is good pain (soreness) and bad pain (where something is wrong) and from my limited experience, running through good pain is okay, but bad pain is telling you something is wrong and running through it just makes it worse.

Steve Stenzel said...

I'm about to go and try running through some pain (knee), so I (literally) feel your pain.

And that snack just looks nasty. It looks like a lunchroom floor of an elementary school. Gross.

Anonymous said...

What a pretty trailmix! :)

Listen to your body. If the pain persists, go see someone about it. Don't make it worse. (Advice from the queen of making things worse.) :)

Joe said...

If it goes away after running through it, keep running through it.

If not, then don't.

ice, stretch. Think long-term.

My 2c!!

Deb said...

Bummer....take care of that and be careful not to medicate and run on it too much. The last thing you want to do is mask the pain and injure it more!

Taunya said...

You gotta think long term. I'm thinking that pain the next day might be the result of running the day before. Rest up and cross train.

Ooh...that snack looks yummy even at 10:00AM in the morning!

Unknown said...

No advice for the pain, but that trail mix looks pretty good. I might have to try that. I hope the pain goes away.

Joe said...

That snack looks nasty!

Anonymous said...

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johnecother

http://johnecother.com/blog.html

Mmem said...

Can't help you re: the pain, gl gl gl with it. That snack looks great!

Feel better!