INJURY UPDATE.

You may recall on my vacation last week while running, I turned my ankle and had a fall. Initially, I thought the ankle was broken, but fortunately that wasn't the case. At first, my ankle was severely swollen, but not so bad I couldn't put weight on it or walk, so that too was a relief. And I didn't think there was any bruising, but by Saturday it was evident: bruising on the outside of the foot from my toes to my heel, wrapping around the heel to the inside of the foot, and more bruising around the ankle. Ugly purple, blue, and black. And still some swelling, with most of the pain in an area under the ankle bone and nearer the outside of the heel, in a ligament area. I have been icing, resting, and taking anti-inflammatories, and it isn't horrible, but I'm not sure how far to take this.

I have a triathlon Saturday: 1/2 mile swim, 16 mile bike, 4.8 mile run. Nothing I can't do--normally. But I am concerned about messing up this foot/ankle for Steelhead, and naturally am taking some unplanned R&R to avoid future problems. But I can't sit around for the next 3 weeks and not know what is going to happen if I run on it anyway. I know when I sprained my ankle and pulled ligaments in the past that it took 3 YEARS to get rid of that problem. I don't want to go there again. On the other hand, I am so used to having some pain or problem with running these past 5 years that I almost don't know what to do when things are normal, as they have been for about 2 months now.

Any advice on whether I should at least test the reaction with a short run tomorrow? It will be 6 days by then and 3 days before the race, in the event I either mess it up or need to cancel out.

It is very frustrating to be dealing with this unexpected event, but shouldn't be a total surprise when I do what we do, knowing--but not expecting--that inevitably there will be some injury to deal with along the way. But still...It seems the rug is always being pulled out from under me!