Pain-free At Last!

First of all, let me apologize for down-playing my enthusiasm about my first pain-free run in more than a year, in my last entry, The Heel-Strike Returns. For those of you who don't feel like reading that entry, I had alluded to the fact that I finally completed a pain-free run last weekend. It only lasted about 2.5 miles and was very slow, but I feel grateful to have done it nonetheless.

Then following a day of strength-training, I gave running another shot, making it 3.5 miles that time. Since my ankles felt good again(!) after that run, I ran the next two days, approximately the same distance. After three consecutive days of running. I did, unfortunately, feel a little soreness in my left ankle, which carried over to the following day.

Unlike my old self, I resisted my urge to run. Instead I opted to do a medley of fitness activities including a 15-minute cycling warm-up, a bunch of hip abductors and hip extensors strengthening exercises, a few back extensions, five pull-ups and 1200m of freestyle swimming. To relieve some soreness in my back and ankles, I ended the day with ten minutes in my gym's whirlpool. Ahhhh, I love those jets, almost as good as a real massage!

Yesterday, I refrained from running again, but not due to pain. I decided to test my ability at rock-climbing (indoors, at Gravity Vault in Chatham, NJ), which had also been too painful for me to do for the previous 12-months. As you may have guessed, because of the title of this entry, my ankles felt great rock-climbing too!

In fact, I felt so good after climbing that I went for another 3.5-mile run today, followed by lateral walking with a resistance-band around my ankles and some walking lunges.

In summary, my fitness achievements of this week were that I hit two major milestones.These included performing not one, but two of my favorite activities - running and rock-climbing - without pain for the first time in at least 12 months. What made my workouts this weekend particularly enjoyable are that I did them with one of my best friends and fellow runner and fitness-enthusiast, Dr.
Courtney Burgess (pictured in the pink boa next to me, taken at her "bachelorette/bootcamp" in Boulder, Colorado).