The Best Sore Ankle I've Ever Had

Forgive me, blog for I have sinned.  It's been seven weeks since my last entry.  That is unforgivable for a journal, but I must explain.  Things have been very confusing with my therapy.  My goal was to make an entry about once a week, or more if something significant happened.  But I felt like I wasn't making any progress at all, and every day there was some kind of confusing twist.   One day I felt great, the next like I was starting over.  It has been quite frustrating and the last thing I felt like doing was trying to sort it out here.   But there seems to be a breakthrough of sorts.   In PT I have been gradually increasing short distances on the treadmill.   They started with 3 or 4 minute runs and have been slowly getting longer, but they all have had one thing in common... a tight back later that day and the tingling in my face, left hand and left foot.   Today was different.  I've actually increased my run to 18 minutes (albeit at a slow 11-minute mile pace).  While I continue to have the tingling, my back is not bothering me at all.  It's now almost 12 hours since I ran, and by this point in all previous runs I have felt some degree of discomfort in my back.  Is it a fluke?  I can't help but be thrilled about how I feel.  My ankle is sore.  Do I care?  Hardly.  It's a chronic problem that I've had for years, and to avoid it I must stretch it out well before I run.  But since I haven't really called my short visits to the treadmill actual "runs,"  I haven't been doing all my stretching.  Now that I have increased my time, looks like I may have to return to my full stretch routine.  I have no problem with that.


I'm far from being cured.  Tests on the treadmill have determined that if I increase my pace over the 11-minute mile pace I've been running, that the symptoms in my back will occur.  If I increase the length of my run, the same will happen.   My orthopedic surgeon thinks there is a possibility that I have an abdominal hernia.  We'll hopefully rule that out or confirm that next week after I see a different surgeon who specializes in hernias.  


The tingling is another story.  The consensus of the doctors and my physical therapist is that it's about time I see a neurologist to determine the source of this problem.  The strange thing is that while the stenosis in my cervical spine where the bone spur is impinging on the nerve could be causing the tingling in my hand and foot, it does not explain the tingling in my face.  The source of that sensation would be from the cranial nerves which are much higher above C1.  


So there is work to do.  At this point a sore ankle is a welcome issue, since it means I've run long enough at one given time to aggravate that problem.  Long enough being just about 1.5 miles, which is what I did today.   I just received an email promoting the Redondo Beach SuperBowl 10K, which I did last year (picture to right).   I'm hoping that by February 7th, I will be able to run 6.2 miles.  I remember how I used to sign up for races with hopes to improve my times.  Now it's hoping I'll be able to run them at all.