Too Much, Too Soon

Last week's 18 kilometer long run left me with more than just a rash on my inner thighs. I injured my right ankle. Both ankles hurt a bit the day after the long run, nothing unusual about that so I did a 2K run Sunday morning at a 7:30 pace just to keep myself "loose". Monday morning my right ankle hurt even more but I figured that a quick 1K wouldn't do any harm. I only managed a 7:08 pace and it did do me some harm.

I'm now in injury recovery mode--no running or long walks until the swelling and pain goes away.

On Friday I did my usual walk to the market, about 5K, and even though it wasn't terrible, it didn't feel good either.

Saturday I went to the Ein Gedi Spa for a massage and had the masseuse concentrate on my lower legs. She noticed the swelling and also noticed that the upper left part of my back was much tighter than my right side. Did this have anything to do with it? Maybe, it is all connected after all. The massage felt great and I had a good conversation with the masseuse, it turned out we both did the 10K race a few weeks ago at the Dead Sea Half-Marathon, though she walked it.

What's next? It depends how quickly I heal. I've been doing some strength training exercises, especially on the ankles, but I have a feeling that this is going to take a while--at least another week, maybe more.

I'm not going to sign up for the Jerusalem Half-Marathon until I feel fully recovered. Even then, I've got to decide if I'm doing the 21.1K or the 10K distance. Of course I had my hopes set on the longest distance.

In the meantime I've been doing some reading and consoling myself that I'm running for health, not to be competitive. If I can get my cholesterol level down so I won't have to take medication, that's worth more than any half or full marathon to me.

The other part of getting my cholesterol level down is being careful with what I eat. I've been doing a Google search before buying or consuming any food item. Of course I also came across some interesting reading materials about diet. One book that I downloaded and couldn't put down until I finished it was "Improving on Pritikin--You Can Do Better" by Ross Horne (click on the title to download it). Of course I had to find out more about this rather obscure author and a little Googling turned up that his last book was titled "Cancer Proof Your Body" published in 1996 and that he died of prostate cancer in 2005, he was somewhere between 79 and 82 years old--reports varied.

In any case, I learned to take claims on various diets with a grain of salt--or maybe take that without salt!