January 2008 Archives

Every fall when the temperature drops below 50°, I try to convince myself that in six months, 50° will be warm. As a zip up my lightweight fleece, I never can quite convince myself. Until you hit a day like today.

Today's forecast is for a high near 20°F. I'm psyched. At first blush, that's not even close to freezing, but a day after closing schools the high was +4° (low was -8°) with wind chill factors in the -30 range, the sixteen degree difference is huge. It's like going from 70° to 86° in the summer. BIG difference. So imagine how I must feel when this weekend's forecasts are in the 30s. It's a regular heat wave, I tell you. This is how the weather messes with your mind and convinces you that 50 degrees is a good thing.

And let it be known that I very much enjoy where I live. Because if it weren't for the winters, the summers wouldn't be summers. And summer in Madison is just about the best it gets.

Rather than buy one, I decided to make my own slantboard. I made it harder than it had to be with a bunch of mistakes, but in the end it worked out. Best yet, it actually works!

Swimming tonight was a bit of a chore. It was only my second time since Christmas, and I felt it. There was nothing in my arms and kicking with one leg didn't help. Yup, my ankle wasn't cooperating. So maybe I'm not as recovered as I hoped. I could push off the wall lightly, but any motion on the down beat of the kick stretched my sprained tendon beyond the point of comfort. So I improvised. I cut my workout back by 1000 yards and pulled every other swim. I ultimately trudged my way through 2000 yards and vowed to be back on a more regular basis.

As Arnold says, "I'll be back."

I've been walking on my ankle to work the whole week. I supported the ankle with a small brace and my hiking boots. Everything held up well.

Tonight I finally had some time to get back on the bike. With no pain whatsoever, I pedaled my way through 75 minutes of easy spinning while watching Lance and company suffer up the mountains of France in 2005.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can't get into the pool to test off pushing from the wall. Running will have to wait until next week.

The ankle is healing and also revealing. You can see in the image that I've managed to squeeze some blood out of the ankle and into my foot and leg. That's a result of the C part of RICE: Compression. I've managed to keep up on the other letters, too.

R: Rest. I played over five hours of Super Mario Galaxy yesterday. I think that counts.

I: Ice. I've kept ice on it 20 minutes a time every four hours or so. I'm tempted to just stick it outside in the sub-zero temps, but the rest of my body doesn't need to be frozen, so I don't.

C: Compression. I had Kris pick me up an ankle support strap. It's basically two big elastic straps sewn together. It works nicely, as evidenced in the picture above.

E: Elevation. Notice that both pictures my foot is on a pillow on the couch. Keeping it up in the air has helped the swelling recede quickly.

My mobility has increased rapidly every day. After Thursday night's game, Friday morning, I couldn't put any weight on it, and even stayed home from work to nurse it. Saturday, I could climb stairs without help. This morning, my normal walking motion is back, and stairs aren't even an issue. I plan to take a full two weeks off of running, and figure out some exercises to strengthen it as I return. Everything I've read so far says that once you sprain an ankle, it's more susceptible to sprain again.

So I've been developing this "kick-off" post to say how well the new year has been going. To say that I had a great run Tuesday, maintaining a great pace at a superb heart rate. I wanted to tell you that I got in the pool for the first time on Monday, and started working on tweaking my form a bit to gain some effieciency. I wanted to tell you about my rides on the trainer, watching Lance win his 7th Tour de France, pretending that I'm climbing the mountains with him. I wanted to tell you all that. I did. But the good vibes ended tonight.

Ten minutes into our basketball game, I reach to go after a pass, and my left foot gets stomped on and I hear (inside my head) and feel my ankle go pfffft, much like the sound a proper card deck shuffle. I'm on the floor pretty quick, get up, stumble a bit, try to walk if off, realize it's not gonna take too much weight, finally hobble to the bench. The ref got me an ice pack and I was done for the night.

Now home, I have it elevated and iced. And boy does it hurt now! Check the pictures to see the egg that's formed. I'll put a tight sock on it tonight for the compression, and sleep with it elevated to complete the RICE equation.