Boo, hiss.

So, the ankle. I thought it was all good after my first two-mile run last week. I did six on Thursday and it was a little rough, but not painful enough to make me stop or anything. On Friday, it was really stiff and sore again so I made an appointment at the student health clinic on campus. I had done some reading before I left (thank you, CADL) and was a little worried that it might be an achilles strain or tendinitis. I was supposed to do eight miles on Sunday, but I was nervous and only did four-ish. (I did, however, do the bike and elliptical to round out the whole 80ish minutes the eight miles should have taken me--I figured I should at least keep building up the cardio endurance.)

Long story longer, I was fine after the four on Sunday and fine after three this morning, but I went to my appointment anyway. The nurse practitioner I saw said that it's tendinitis, but that it was good that I'd taken the week before off and that I backed off after the six last Thursday. She said I don't have to back off from running entirely, but that I should keep it to three miles three times a week (and to try to avoid concrete) for the next two weeks and then to ease back up gradually after that. She also gave me instructions for icing it (which I had been doing anyway) and gave me some stretches to do. It turned out that she was a former runner and she's done the Crim and a few half marathons herself. She said that since I'm already at the point of doing seven miles, I should still be fine for Capital City even with the little break.

So. At least I can still run some, and at least nothing else is off limits. I think I'm going to do what I did on Sunday for the other days I have longer runs scheduled, and do alternative cardio to make up the rest of the time I'm supposed to be running. Everything I've read about long runs says that the point is endurance, and even though it won't be all running, I think it would still be beneficial to be working that whole time.