I’m going to be starting to run again since my ankle is pretty much fully functional again from last May’s pothole of death ankle-spraining incident. Just to make sure I don’t overdo it, I’ll be starting Cool Running’ Couch-to-5K program from the beginning again. I’m a little paranoid when it comes to running and cardiovascular activity in general because I have a heart murmur. So I figure it’s just safer to start slow and work my way up at a gradual pace. I did the Couch-to-5K thing when I started running last March and it worked well for me. By starting it this week, I should be good to run a full 5K around mid-April. By then hopefully I’ll be able to run outside – which is what I really enjoy.

The gym also has various other instruments of torture such as a rowing machine, elliptical trainers and all sorts of scary weight machines. I might venture off the treadmill and try some of them eventually. Have any of you ever used any good training programs for any of those machines? I’d like to try them, especially the weight machines, but I really don’t know where to start.

The gym doesn’t seem to be that busy at all. Chris and I will mostly be going at night and on weekends and I think most of the other members go during the day or immediately after work. There’s a big user-controlled sound system in the gym which we have full control over when we’re there alone. I want to start burning CDs of non-sucking workout music. The only really good non-sucking workout song I know is The New Workout Plan by Kanye West (how à propos) and the only band I can think of right now that might be a possible candidate is MGMT. I really need suggestions on good workout music. Please fire them away! The only condition I have is no Ace of Base-type stuff.

See you at the gym!

Anyways, onto running. I’ve been running for a few months now. You know, jogging, panting, sweating, shin splints, weak ankles, smelly socks, the works. To get started, I did Cool Running’s Couch-to-5K Running Plan. I strongly recommend this plan to anyone who wants to ease into running on their own and doesn’t want to join the cult of the Running Room (it’s a cult, right?). Cardiovascular activity is always of particular concern to me because I have a heart murmur, and physicians usually suggest avoiding strenuous cardio activities for people with my condition. But I always felt fine with this exercise plan, it was hard at times but overall really well designed. Starting off, I kept looking at the weeks ahead thinking “How in the name of Jeebus am I ever going to do that?”, but as Chris kept on reminding me, no pain, no gain, and I would take it a week at a time, always succeeding. Hooray!

After thinking about it for many weeks, I decided to sign up for the Ottawa Race Weekend MDS Nordion 5K race last week. It was kind of nice because race day coincided with my last week of training – which consisted of running 5K. Chris decided to do it with me too, since he’s also been running on his own trying to get in better shape.

Fast forward to race day: I’m getting super excited to run my first “real” race, you know, bib and all. Chris, in all his laziness, is not too excited. We get there a bit earlier and start stretching. We hear an announcement that there are 7200 people running the 5K to which we immediately think “Oh wow, we better not get too close to the starting line – there must be a lot of really fast runners here”. Right? WRONG. We lined up about halfway through the crowd, thinking that most of the people in front of us would be fast runners, or at least joggers. Turns out tons of, for lack of a better word, assholes, got to the front of the line but had every intention to walk the whole 5K. It also turns out the the organizers also didn’t really give a crap about the logistics of the 5K and didn’t bother to tell people that were walking to go to the back of the crowd at the starting line.

So we get started, and immediately it’s stop and go, stop and go, stop and go… And all of a sudden we’re running on Wellington to turn onto Colonel By Drive and I’m stepping in a pothole and falling flat on my face, twisting my right ankle. Chris and I scoot off to the side, where I decide that my ankle is fine and that we can continue. But of course by that time we probably have a few hundred more walkers ahead of us, making the rest of the 5K run a nightmare. I finish and feel fine, thinking that I must have just twisted my ankle a bit. No biggie.

I wake up Sunday morning with an ankle the side of Texas and finding myself unable to walk properly on my right foot. Good times. Turns out I sprained my ankle. Well to be honest my fall probably didn’t cause the sprain, the cause of the sprain was more than likely the subsequent 5K run. I am an idiot.

After two days of horrible swelling, my ankle now seems to be in the bruising stage, which to be honest is gross as hell, but feels a hell of a lot better than swelling. I’m super sad that I can’t run for a few weeks (I can’t believe I just wrote that), that I can’t walk to work this week and that I’ll have to miss dance class for a few weeks.

Ah well, I really want to make sure this heals well in the next few weeks. I’m leaving on some pretty major holidays in less than two weeks, so I want to be feeling 100% by then. Details of said travels will be available in an upcoming post.

For the curious, you can see my race results here and Chris’ here. They’re not that great but please remember that we stopped after I fell, and had to “run” behind walkers for over a kilometer. A big shout out to Chris for helping me after my fall and for running this with me. Sprain and crappy logistics aside, it was fun!