Writing about my ankle for 84 days may be difficult.
Today I offer an ankle haiku:
Oh ankle down there
Why did you injure yourself?
You stupid ankle
Difficult indeed.
National Novel Writing Month 2011
In less than two hours National Novel Writing Month 2011 begins. My profile can be found here.
I have a vague idea for my novel this year and expect panic/hysteria to follow as I desperately try to wing it. Stay tuned for more!
Day 7 of 84
It was sunny for Halloween today. Not that people actually Trick or Treat when it’s sunny but at least The Rains did not ruin the evening for the wee ones.
Nothing new to report on the fitness front today but more possibly soon™.
Day 6 of 84
No crunches today and a torrential downpour put the kibosh (it’s been far too long since I’ve used that word) on the initial bike ride, as my cycling jacket and pants are not handy and riding an unfamiliar bike (with hydraulic brakes, which sound industrial and scary) on streets slicked with rain seems like a good way to maybe screw up my other ankle.
But I’ll be working on something exercise-wise this week, even if it’s just rigorous gnashing of my teeth.
Day 5 of 84
Doing some extended walking tonight I have to admit I could feel my ankle. Not hurting but there, like an itch in the part of your back you can’t quite reach.
Bummer. But not unexpected.
Stupid ankle.
I think I’ll try a few crunches tomorrow, just to get something started. I’m referring to the exercise, not the delicious mouth-shredding breakfast cereal of the Cap’n variety.
Day 4 of 84
It’s raining today. Boo!
I am actually getting mildly excited over the prospect of cycling. It’s been a long while since I rode my bike to work and it’s been longer still since I just plain rode for recreational. I look forward to making all those seldom-used leg muscles cry out for a day or two.
Walking at a brisk clip continues to present no discomfort at all. I am glad. 80 days to go.
Day 3 of 84
It’s sunny today. Hooray!
I can now walk briskly and my ankle does not hurt anymore. Hooray again! I am fairly positive now that the bone is not fractured but bruised. My plan is to feel it up on Day 28 and see if there is any pain when applying pressure. I suspect it won’t pass the test but I remain hopeful.
Book review: Salem’s Lot
After stating my disinterest in all things vampire I found myself reading my third vampire novel this year. Clearly I have gone mad. After The Passage and the classic Dracula I got a hankering for vintage Stephen King so I took down the 30+ (!) year old copy of Salem’s Lot I bought but had never read and tore through it like Barlow on a bloody bender.
Unlike some of King’s later books, Salem’s Lot is fairly lean and the ending, though predictable, is satisfying and doesn’t leave you scratching your head or perhaps turning the book upside down to see if it makes more sense that way.
The vampires in this tale of a small Maine town gone horribly wrong are classic King supporting characters — by turns vulgar, dimwitted, fat, abusive. But there are also innocent kids and girlfriends mixed in, all shepherded over by a drunken priest and a sheriff who calmly skips town when things get weird.
My favorite aspect of the story is the way King slowly then with rapidly increasing speed unravels Jerusalem’s Lot and how it’s undoing goes largely unnoticed by the world around it. The townfolk start out fairly rattled by the disappearance of the boy Ralph Glick and end up either feasting on each other or hiding away at night as out-of-towners drive through and wonder why the place is so…dead.
It’s dated in ways you’d expect a 1975 novel to be — everyone’s using party lines and people phone doctors instead of 911, the specter of Vietnam hangs over several characters and the populace generally doesn’t cotton to them ‘faggots’ and ‘queers’ (like Barlow and Straker — two men working together, they must be queer. Turns out they’re just monsters). But the dated bits don’t detract from the story.
Although I found the main characters were handled well, the transition of Mark Petrie from kid-who-has-his-stuff-together to someone more simpering felt a bit off. Sure, he goes through the wringer but he ultimately comes off as kind of a wimp, undercutting his earlier scenes of strength.
The writing is fairly tight, though King indulges in a few poetic passages that don’t quite mesh with the overall tone of the story. Perhaps these were epistolary experiments that got watered down to better fit the overall narrative. There’s only a few and they don’t go on so their presence isn’t off-putting. They do act to leaven the crudity and gore that is otherwise throughout the book.
Bottom line: Salem’s Lot holds up nicely 36 years later. It’s a far grimmer tale than Dracula and the bodies pile up like cord wood but if you like a good vampire story I think you’d enjoy this.
Day 2 of 84
Here on Day 2 I find that I no longer feel any pain or discomfort when walking at a more leisurely pace. It still feels a bit tweaked when I pick up to my usual stride.
The weather is drizzly and cool — 6ºC when I checked a thermometer. For the first time this fall I wore my winter jacket and it felt good — which is bad, because it means winter and The Rains are not far off. The sun is also setting at like 3 p.m., too.
I have three trajectories planned for my non-running exercise:
- Cycling. Jeff’s friend has left his swanky bike here and has given his blessing for me to ride it. It just needs the brake grips moved up and the tires checked. I’m hoping to take it out this weekend on a nice granny-style trail.
- Free weights. I did this before and abandoned it for more running. I just need to get the bench back and I’ll be set. Bonus: I will no longer have to worry about hitting my hands on the ceiling here at the condo.
- Swimming. First I need to overcome my fear of drowning or water or whatever it is, then I’ll be set.
Stupid Ankle: The Sequel -or- How to Not Run for 12 weeks (Day 1 of 84)
Twelve weeks is 84 days.
The 84th day from today is January 16th, 2012. January 17th is when the doctor at the clinic officially cleared me for running again. I have vowed to blog for at least the next 84 consecutive days as a result. That will show my ankle who’s boss! Or something.
He didn’t want to send me for an x-ray because he said his treatment would be the same and why irradiate your body if you don’t need to? On the plus side I didn’t have to pee in a cup.
Since the ankle has been improving noticeably each day since my last run I don’t believe any bone is fractured because this kind of healing simply doesn’t jibe with that. Even my laughably bad Internet self-diagnostic skills have me feeling confident about that.
On the other hand it might be a bone bruise and clearly four weeks off was not sufficient for it to heal up fully. I can very clearly feel the discomfort/pain by applying pressure to the affected area so I’ll be checking periodically on the ankle to see if I can perhaps shave a few weeks off because 12 weeks is a freaking long time.
Meanwhile, I may have to learn how to swim to get some exercise and that went really well last time.
The fear of running run
Nine days ago I ran for the first time in over a month after my right ankle was left tender ‘n sore. This has been sufficient time for injuries to heal in the past. The ankle began to mildly hurt during the run and I could feel it for a few days after and thus I developed FORI — Fear of Re-Injury. It took until today, with the ankle feeling normal again, for me to attempt another 5K.
Good news: the weather was near-perfect, a crisp sunny day with no wind and temperatures round 11ºC. I finished with a much-improved overall pace of 5:05/km, a full eight seconds better than my previous outing.
The not-so-good news: my ankle feels just as it did after the last run. It took a few km before I could feel it and the pain was more discomfort and not sufficient to slow me down. Nor does it especially hurt to walk on it afterward, though I can still feel soreness in what I believe is the tibia. I’m going in to have it checked out by a doctor tomorrow. I may also be asked to pee in a cup, because that’s something they seem to like.
Times:
| km | time |
|---|---|
| 1 km | 4:49 |
| 2 km | 4:53 |
| 3 km | 4:59 |
| 4 km | 5:03 |
| 5 km | 5:05 |
The evil that ankles do -or- The first run of the fall
Back on September 12th I didn’t realize my run that day would turn out to be the last for the summer but I was aching by the time I finished and my right ankle was quite sore. I opted to stay off it and give it time to get better.
Fast forward to today, October 14th, one month and two days later. I finally summoned the wherewithal to do a 5K run and see how things go.
The Good: The weather was great, 15ºC, sunny with a light breeze. I felt no discomfort while running apart from some mild cramping as my lungs were forced to actually work.
The Bad: After a spry first km time of 4:47 my times fell off the cliff. Not surprising at all, so I’m not disappointed. My average pace was 5:13/km, 1:28 slower than my fastest 5K. Number of seconds added each km: 11 (!), 8, 5, 2.
The Ugly: Although my ankle did not hurt during the run and does not hurt to walk on now, I can feel it and this concerns me. Four weeks off should have healed it up properly, so my worry is that there may be some kind of hairline fracture in one of the stupid bones down there. I may get it x-rayed. I’m tentatively prepared to do a follow-up run on Sunday but the ankle shall be the judge of that. Please be nice, Mr. Ankle!
Times:
| km | time |
|---|---|
| 1 km | 4:47 |
| 2 km | 4:58 |
| 3 km | 5:06 |
| 4 km | 5:11 |
| 5 km | 5:13 |