So its been six days since the ankle sprain and im recovering pretty well so far.  Im at the point now that when i walk slowly i can walk without a limp, going up stairs isnt a problem but coming down is a bit slow, and most importantly i can drive my car (a stick shift) again with no issues.  My ankle actually didnt bruise up until Friday night which i found strange.  It could’ve been walking to and from the Carolina Hurricanes game plus up and down the stairs to my seats that stressed the ankle.  Its now several shades of yellow, blue, and purple but even thats fading.  I guess the fact that i never really get sick is also helping me to heal up faster than i should expect with the ankle.

Im still going to keep myself out of the triathlon in two weeks even though i expect to be walking normally any day now.  I figure with the loss of a week of training in addition to the residual tenderness and instability thats bound to be in my ankle doing something of that challenge level wouldnt be smart.  Im also going to keep myself out of my last two soccer games this season which are this monday and next monday.  Since its so close to the break between seasons Ill just sit these two weeks out and have the advantage of the week off between seasons as well before really working the ankle again.

On another note i have been doing rehab exercises all this week and will continue to do so the next few weeks.  I have been reading up a lot on severe ankle sprains and from what i can tell 25% of those who get sprains like this have permanent instability and are prone to reinjure the ankle again.  As a workaround they recommend several exercises to do to help strengthen your ankle and keep the scar tissue from building up.  Its the scar tissue that leads to instability because it prevents the muscle and ligaments from growing back correctly and the scar tissue is much weaker.  There are a few exercises that are recommended to help break up the scar tissue and strenghthen the new muscle.  The first is to trace the alphabet in the air or with your leg outstretched with your ankle.  The second is to put a towel around the toes of your ankle and pull the ankle towards you and push back away.  The final is to set a towel on the floor and, using your toes, pull the towel end towards you.  These exercises should be done 3-5 times a day but be careful to not overdo it and stop if there is any pain.  The pain means you’re trying too hard and doing too much and could potentially reinjure yourself and extend your healing time.

Well, as if my workout regimen needed to be setback any further now im out of doing any kind of training for at least three weeks with a severe ankle strain. Last night at my soccer game i was going for a loose ball and planted my foot for to cut back to the inside and when my ankle planted and i pushed off i heard a loud pop and next thing i felt was being on the ground. Imagine the sound you hear when you pop your knuckle and multiply that by 10 and thats about how loud the sound was, at least for me. The goalie about a dozen feet away said he thought he heard it too. The rest of the team said they heard me yell which i only hope wasnt like a little girl but i laid on the ground for at least 5 minutes or so. Every time i tried to get up i couldnt put any weght on the ankle which initially made me think i had broken it. After a while though i was able to move around on it and found that i could bend it and move but couldnt bear much weight on it at all.

I ended up spending the rest of the night with my foot up and iced then overnight with one of those icy hot patches on it. I was able to make it to an urgent care center this morning. The x-ray showed bone fragments but no breaks, which is good overall. The fragments shows that i either teared the ligament of popped it off the bone. Hence the doctor told me not to try any kind of sporting activities for at least three weeks. If i still cant put much weight on the ankle by two weeks he instructed me to talk to a sports medicine orthopedist to get things taken care of. So here’s hoping for the best and a quick recovery from this.

Just read that Lance Armstrong will be driving the pace car for this years Indianapolis 500.  The race takes place on May 28th.  Thought that was interesting and would share.  Its strange to think that he’ll probably be going the same speed in that pace car, as he has gone on his bike on some of the descents in the Tour de France.  I bet it feels somewhat better to be inside and on four wheels than on two wheels an inch wide on a bike.

Last night I was feeling pretty ambitious and pumped up after the Carolina Hurricanes finally beat the Washington Capitals, even if it did get to an overtime it shouldnt have, so I headed off to the gym and decided to try the distances for the Riverside Golf & Athletic Sprint Triathlon that I’m signed up for at the end of April.  My gym doesnt have a pool, a problem im still trying to sort out for my swim training, so i skipped that portion.

I did the 20K, 12.8 miles, on the bike in just over 30 minutes and did the 5k run, 3.2 miles, in just over 31 minutes.  So the total time for both was about 62 minutes total.  The time was slower than when i do both seperately but I expected that.  I think thats a pretty good showing for my first attempt at doing both back to back.  Im sure swimming will put a dent into both when added in as the third component but it shoudnt push me to far off finishing in a time i can be proud of.  I figure that the swim will wind me some but the fact that i did the 20K on the stationary bike which is one constant tempo and cadence makes up for it somewhat.  A stationary bike is a constant level of riding whereas outdoors I’ll have the benefit of going up and down hills which will allow some recovery on the downslope, the same with the run.

So all in all im happy with where I am now and I have a base to compare against when I do my last trial run the week before the race.

Its not a big stretch to realize that losing weight is advantageous in your training and preparation for the Livestrong Challenge. The bigger problem is whats the best and healthiest way to go about it. Ive been reading up on this lately and found a pretty good article on a triathalon website I was reading. The article is, Lose Weight to Optomize Performance for Endurance Atheletes. I thought id share the end tips the author shares here and if you like you should head over to read the whole article by clicking the title above.

• Before putting the food in your mouth ask yourself: “Am I really hungry, or just eating out of habit, boredom, or for fun?”
• More than once I’ve heard from athletes who ‘pig-out’ at certain times of day. Raiding the refrigerator late at night is a common scenario. Make an agreement with yourself to keep this tendency under control. Find a distraction!
• Eat breakfast. After all, [break]-[fast] serves to refuel and recover energy levels after your longest daily period of no food (sleep). Without breakfast hunger grows exponentially later in the day and most of us will over-compensate by eating too much.
• This same principle applies to hunger during the day. ‘Grazing’ is a term that applies to cattle, but it can work for some of us as well. Eating small amounts more often than traditional mealtimes can keep hunger under control so that big meals where you overdo it can be avoided.
• Don’t deprive yourself of calories immediately after workouts. This is when your body can learn to store more glycogen (the stored form of carbohydrate). Efficiency in storing glycogen means we will have more energy reserves when we need them. A couple hundred grams of carbohydrate is usually enough post workout.
• Avoid certain foods including everything deep fried - French fries, chicken, fish etc.
• Make food substitutions. Find a product the fills the same need, but has fewer calories like flavored carbonated water for soda, or low-fat baked chips instead of traditional deep fried.
• Look at food labels and know what the values mean. Avoid foods with a high percentage of fat, especially high percentages of saturated fat. Eat foods from animal sources (all saturated fats) in moderation.
• The longer the shelf-life of a food, the worse it is for you. To create a food that stays ‘fresh’ on the shelf for a long time, the fat has to be more stable. This is where hydrogenated fats come in. Hydrogenation changes the structure of an otherwise healthy fat from ‘cis to trans;’ the fat becomes less liquid, more solid.
• The same rule applies to processed foods. The less processed a food is, the better it is for you. Processing food nearly always involves addition of stabilizing fats and chemical preservatives. The same processing can destroy some of the nutritional entities we need to function efficiently like vitamins, minerals and their constituents.