Toward the end of the race my right ankle was bugging me a little. I was only mildly concerned though, until the pain persisted when I tried to run later that week. After that I started a pattern of taking a few weeks off, trying to run again, and feeling pain after a mile or two. And missing races. First, the Texas Half early in February. Then, last Sunday, the Cowtown Marathon. For those of you keeping score at home that's 3 races this winter I've signed up for and not gotten to do (Dallas Marathon was the other). Just not my year I guess. To make things worse I had a chronic headache for about 3 weeks that was strongest first thing in the morning so even going to the gym to exercise on the Stairmaster was out.
Last week I decided to give acupuncture a try and after a first treatment, I ran a pain-free 3 miles pushing Rebecca in the stroller last weekend. This weekend I'm going to try for 5-6 miles and see how it feels. I've still got a sliver of hope for the Rock and Roll Half in a month so the spring's not a total loss. We'll see...pretty disappointing to lose my 1st major marathon to weather then lose a few more months to injury, all in my first fall/winter back post-baby. Regardless of how spring plays out I plan to shift to strength training for a few months in late spring/summer to come into marathon training in August in better shape.
