As I sit here enjoying my last few hours of vacation, I must admit that I needed that!!! Almost 2 years is too long to go without some extended time off, even if it was a STAY-cation. So, what did I accomplish? Not as much as I wanted. What I did do was see what a full week (actually 9 days) of consistent, good nutrition and consistent exercise gets me. I lost 4.3 pounds this week and ran 5 days out of 9. My food logs look GREAT!!! 47% Carbs, 27% Protein, 26% Fat. I was right at about 10,000 calories for the week. No junk food and no sweets to speak of, not even once. And I was rewarded by Mr. Scale.
I had sort of a breakthrough on my ankle problem as well. I've been tasked by Jim to do these exercises to strengthen my peroneals on the LEFT leg. Let me just tell you. This is no easy task. These muscles are very hard to isolate. And part of my problem is that other muscles in my foot and ankle compensate so when I try to do the exercise, my brain just hasn't been able to tell all the muscles except the peroneus longus and peroneus brevis to CHILL!!! So, I've bee "squeezing" those muscles on the side, trying to get my toes to not help and my anterior foot muscles to not help and it's been very frustrating. Anyway, I got to moving my foot around today and all of a sudden, something in my brain just registered. I can finally RELAX all the muscles except the ones I'm targeting. Don't ask me how. It's really just like a light bulb went off in my head and in a split second, I knew how to do it. It was weird. The brain is amazing!!!
I've also been processing all the information about my ankle problem and have come to some decisions. I was looking at my mileage leading up to the Rodeo Run and realized (I guess I already knew this) that my weekly mileage had in no way prepared me for a 10K. The distance was the farthest I had run since starting back and my total mileage that week was 17 miles. This following weeks of 2, 6, 8, 6, 8 miles. Looking back, yes, I had this problem with weakness in the peroneals but it was the sudden jump in mileage plus hard racing without being prepared that really made that weakness manifest itself in an injury. What sucks is I would think I would be the LAST person to make such a mistake. I'm usually very disciplined and patient and know what I should and should not be doing with my running. I just wanted to get out there and do a race and enjoy it and get back into the scene. I should have picked a 5K. :) Lesson learned.
So, I really don't think that I need to stop running completely. However, I MUST watch my weekly mileage, continue to do those exercised for my peroneals, and NO HARD RACING!!! When I did get to do a race again, I won't be going all out. I need to feel my way back and be patient. Right now, my #1 goal that overrides EVERYTHING else is to get loose 100 pounds. Secondary to that is getting to the start of marathon training healthy and fit. EVERYTHING I do must be with these two goals in mind and I sure ain't gonna let a 5K or 10K ruin my chances of attaining them. Besides, I don't see any PR's at that distance in my very near future, even WITH a healthy ankle. Patience Padawan!!! That's the name of the game right now.
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