After the Warrior Dash, I took an entire week to rest my gimpy ankle. And by rest, I mean I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary except not run. I didn’t ice it. I didn’t elevate it. I didn’t wear compression gear. I walked a lot.

It still felt about the same a week later. I still took it for a run on Sunday.

The 6.2 miles I ran weren’t bad (especially considered the gluttony I had exhibited earlier in the day on some Domino’s stuffed cheese bread and pizza). I did 3:1 intervals, hoping to keep it easy and not put any undue stress on the ankle. Except you know I’m not good at keeping things easy. I managed to negative split every mile: 12:33, 12:05, 11:38, 11:37, 10:46, 10:37, and 10:23 pace for the last 0.25. It’s pretty safe to say that, while I could definitely feel my ankle every time I landed on my right foot, it wasn’t bothering me too much to run on it.

I practiced some bad running form and stared at my feet a lot on the run to make sure I wasn’t landing weird or doing something else to compensate for the ankle. My feet seemed to land just fine.

It definitely felt worse the next morning though. I remember with my last ankle injury, it was always more sore in the mornings, and this one was no exception. It gradually improved as the day went on, so by the end of the day, it was no worse and no better than it had been the previous week. Therefore, I still have no clue if it’s a good idea to run on it.

I decided that I’d start my running streak as planned, but any indication that my ankle was getting worse, and I would immediately pull the plug on it. Starting half marathon training injury-free is more important than a silly running streak!