I’m so tired of being injured. You’re getting a Runkeeper view of the last 30 days because (a) I only ran once this week (well, I only count one as a run), so the Nike+ graph is pretty boring, (b) I keep track off all my cross-training on Runkeeper, and (c) I can’t make Runkeeper only show me the past week. The green signifies running; orange is walking; pink is cycling (stationary bike); and blue is the elliptical.

On Tuesday, I went to the gym to crosstrain. I did 10 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the stationary bike, and 20 minutes doing a very slow walk on the treadmill (I didn’t even go a mile…I mean, very slow). My ankle didn’t bother me at all on the elliptical or bike, but I could sure feel it when walking. Sigh!

I went back for more crosstraining on Thursday. This time I just stuck to the bike. I had lost the earpieces to my earbuds, so I went in thinking this was going to be a sucky workout with no music or TV to listen to. I chose one of the bikes with the virtual scenery. This was nice, but as I soon found out, these bikes (at least that I could tell) don’t tell you how far you go. So I did 25 minutes on a virtual scenery bike, which I can only guess was about 4.5 miles based on the fact that Tuesday I did 2 miles in 10 minutes. Also, I hate the stationary bike. I’m sure I have the seat adjusted improperly or something, but it is torture for my quads.

Saturday morning I got up and decided to test out my ankle very gently. I did a mile of intervals: 30 seconds jogging, 1 minute walking. I could still feel my ankle, but it wasn’t death. After that, I headed out to the grand opening of Fleet Feet’s new store in Green Hills. The first 100 people in line got a free gift card worth a random amount from $10-$200. I got one, but it was only worth $10. (Still, a free $10 is better than nothing! Thanks, Fleet Feet!) Some people in front of me had brought their whole family, including several children under age 5, all of which got a gift card. Another reason to have kids, I guess. I wonder how much they totaled in free gift cards. Anyway, I thought about getting some new socks, but they didn’t have any Injinji’s, so I opted for some Yurbuds instead, since, as I mentioned, my other workout earbuds are broken.

Then Sunday, I got to start day one of my new modified half training plan. I did two miles of intervals; this time I did 1 minute running, 1 minute walking. I didn’t do too bad! Check out some of those run times near the end; not bad for someone with a gimpy ankle!

Anyway, my plan is basically to slowly build my running intervals, increasing maybe 30 seconds each week. That would be put me around intervals of 4.5 minutes running, 1 minute walking by the half. I probably won’t run it with defined intervals, but I like having the option. I suspect my intervals will be something like: run until I see Mickey…take a photo and walk a bit…now run through Cinderella’s Castle!

It was 30 degrees with a wind chill of 23, and this was the first time I had ever run in below freezing temperatures. As I layered on all my running clothes, I giggled to myself about how non-brand loyal I am when it comes to running.

Does anyone have any tips on keeping my nose warm though? I mean, short of running around in a balaclava.