Oops!

I'm currently on an exercise hiatus, which is making me stir-crazy.  Let's back up just a bit...

Last weekend, on Sunday, April 27th, our friend Jake held a special, invitation-only sprint distance triathlon based at his house.  Six elite athletes registered for the triathlon, including Jake, Tim, Peter, Matt (all of them work with Chris), Chris, and I.  We figured that with such a small field, most of us would be certain to take first place in our age/division group.  For example, as the only woman, I had the female division all wrapped up...but I had to finish the thing before I could claim my prize...*

We moved over to Jake's community pool to set up T1:**

Peter, Tim, and Matt getting ready

The Olsen transition station

After debating whether we were going to make the inaugural Keeler tri the inaugural Keeler du, we finally decided to brave the chilly waters of the unheated pool on this 55 degree morning***, and hopped in to start our 750 meter swim.

Look at that form!

Look at Chris' thumb!

Other than being cold, the swim went well, and we all changed and headed out on the bike course.  We did a 16 mile out and back ride, mainly on Dove Mountain Parkway, which is a great road for biking.  Chris was kind enough to hang back with me, allowing me to draft off him, and the rest of the pack waited for us at the turnaround point.  

We finished our bike ride at Jake's house, where T2 was set up.  We all changed into our bike clothes, greeted Keeli, Jake's wife who, even at this early hour, was already engaged in one of her final assignments to earn her Nursing degree, and then headed out on the run.

And here's where things went pear shaped.

We were running along in a pack, about 1/3 of a mile into the run, on a normal sidewalk, having a lovely time, when I stepped too close to the edge of the sidewalk.  Now, this wasn't the edge of the sidewalk that leads into the street.  Oh no - I stepped off the one inch gap (if that) from the sidewalk to the dirt on the residential side of the path.  I rolled my right ankle over and went straight down onto my knees.  Truly, Mom should have picked Grace as my middle name instead of Louise.

I got up under my own power, brushed off, and Chris walked me back to Jake and Keeli's house while the rest of the group finished their 3.1 mile run.  I mentioned Keeli's a nurse, right?  

Boo!

Keeli did a great job patching me up, and then Chris and I loaded our things in the car while we waited for the rest of the group to finish the run.  After they did, we all headed to have second breakfast at Hot Bagels, a local carb-based eatery.

Jake and Keeli

Smiles all around

Although my knees hurt, and I had a small piece of some sort of landscape embedded in my hand, overall, I was doing okay.  I limped around the house that day (what - we had brewing to do), but took time to ice the ankle I rolled, since it was starting to feel less than ideal.

The athlete at rest.

Imposed rest, but still.

Around 4pm, I realized I couldn't put any weight on the ankle at all, and I was starting to fear the worst.  I stayed off it for the rest of the evening, and figured if I couldn't put weight on it the next morning, I'd stay home from work and make an appointment with the doctor.

Waiting for x-rays

Thankfully, the x-rays came back negative for any fractures, but I still had a pretty gnarly sprain and would need to let things heal properly.  I ended up with what they call an Air Cast, which stabilizes things but doesn't impair movement too much.  Although I was able to get back on my feet a few days after the injury, I still found a good way to get around the house without walking too much; I took to rolling around downstairs in our office chair, which worked but really worried the dogs.

"What in God's name are you doing, Mom?"

The doc didn't give me any specific instructions on how long I have to be in the cast, or how long I need to rest before I start running again, but I'm being cautious with it - I certainly don't want to make it worse.  I've already had to miss one previously scheduled race (a night trail run), but I don't have any other major events until fall, so I should have plenty of time to heal.  I took a walk around the block today, and that was about half a mile, so I'll keep an eye on how things go from here.

Meanwhile, there will be an awful lot of this:

The dogs say they're fine with it.

Later!

Amy

*  There's an awful lot of foreshadowing in this blog so far, don't you think?

** T1 is Transition 1, where triathletes go from the swim to the bike.  T2 is where you change from your bike to your run stuff.

*** Living in Phoenix makes you a wuss when it comes to cold.  Growing up in Florida and then moving here, I never even had a chance.