What's next?

That I’m not sure of, because after doing some trail marking for a 5 Peaks race at Rattlesnake Point in early June, I rolled my ankle pretty bad and needed to take a few weeks off for recovery.

The hardest part now is getting started again, and passing that fear of re-injury.  I am fearful that I am going to misstep and roll the ankle again, and then set myself back even further. I don’t have a goal race set yet, but still have at least 2 more 5 Peaks Ontario races (I will miss Albion Hills due to travel plans) but am looking for something in the fall to redeem this year plagued by injury.

The first step for recovery was taking 2 weeks off doing no running and forcing myself to take longer than I may have needed before lacing them up.

The second step was to slowly return to running, and right now that is where I’m at… This morning I went out and did a trail run at a moderate pace (around 5:40/km) and the ankle felt great – if anything I could tell I hadn’t run in a few weeks because the issues were more around my overall stamina, than anything with my ankle.

The last step will be to keep easing back into a routine, and gradually building back to where I was with 4-5 runs per week, and then setting some long-term goals.

I think I will register for the Oasis Canada Zoo Run in Toronto for late Sept, as this has become an annual run with my son, and now 2 more of my kids have expressed interest to run as well. The summer will be spent getting them ready to complete the 10k distance, and that should also keep me motivated to run and hold me back enough to ensure proper recovery.

I’ll let you know how it goes…