Treading "lightly"
On Wednesday, I had just posted about how I felt the need for patience, when I decided to go for a jog on the dreadmill treadmill.
“5 Minutes should be enough to satisfy the addiction,” I told myself.
So I jump on the treadmill, proudly wearing my Grape Run shirt, just to prove to the others that I can run for longer than 5 minutes. I was wearing my ankle brace as well.
I dialed up the speed to 10 km/h ( 6 min / km in runner’s speak) and started jogging. In my previous jogs since the op, I’ve always had a slight amount of discomfort, which is to be expected. After 4 minutes of running at this “blistering” pace, I had virtually no discomfort. I decided to run for another 3 minutes.
8 minutes just wasn’t enough, so I pushed to 10 minutes. Still no pain or discomfort.
When I run alone, I talk to myself. Just little words of encouragement etc. I was enjoying this run so much, that I started talking to myself, in the gym. I think people refer to me as the “Crazy Ankle Brace Man.”
So after running for 10 minutes, I thought it would be great to increase the speed. 10km/h became, 11, which then became 12.5 km/h. Now I had slight discomfort, so I stopped talking, and listened to my ankle. All good, it seemed.
I get to 18 minutes, and decide to try and finish 4 km in 20 minutes. I ended up at 16 km/h (3:45 min/km) for the last 2 minutes, 4 km down. Wow, did that feel great.
The best part was that I had no unusual pain after the run. The ankle held up perfectly. Looking back though, it was stupid, and I let my ego get ahead of me, but it’s a great sign for the future.
Viva the dreadmill treadmill.
