Honolulu Week 4: Old.

Distance: 4.00
Time: 49:32
Route: Out to the Hickam Marina and back home.

This was supposed to be an 8-miler this week.  I was actually really excited to be doing 8.  After the craptasticness that was my 7 mile run, I had a good run week and felt confident.  I felt like I was back in the game mentally and ready for training.  Bring. It. On.  Then Friday happened.

I went for a 4 mile run on Friday morning.  Just an out and back.  It was a great run...no issues and it was a beautiful early morning run.  I came up with some cool ideas for the OSC on this run, so it was awesome.  I went through the day and cleaned up the house and then went to pick up the kiddos from school.  On the walk home, I had some pretty gnarly shooting pains go through my right ankle.  It felt like I had rolled my ankle a bunch of times.  I thought maybe I just needed to pop the joint and it would feel better.  I did some range of motion exercises with it to see how it felt.  It smarted pretty good, so I decided that I'd rest it up and see how Saturday went. 

Saturday the ankle was still sore and now my left knee decided to join in on the action.  Walking up and down the stairs in the house was actually proving to be somewhat challenging.  I rested up for most of the day and made sure to take some ibuprofen before I fell asleep.  I got all of my gear ready and decided that I'd change up my planned route...just in case I had a problem, it would be easier for me to get home without having to call anyone to come and get me.

Sunday morning, I got up and headed out toward the marina.  My plan was to run out there and back and then hit the trail and run 2 miles down and back on the trail over into Pearl Harbor.  My ankle was pretty sore.  I warmed up a bit and the pain started to diffuse a little.  As soon as that pain died down, the knee would flare up.  I made it out to the marina and took a quick stretching break.  I thought that maybe if I stretched my calves and my ankles, then I'd be all right.  Maybe they just needed a good stretching.

As I ran back toward the house, the pain in my knee intensified and the pain in my ankle was still fairly noticeable.  I stopped to walk it out by the flight line.  When I started to run again, I knew that I needed to get home and put some ice on those bad boys.  I felt defeated.  I had so looked forward to putting the previous week's run to shame, only to feel deflated and defeated.

I don't know what it means.  I don't know if it's just a pulled tendon or maybe early arthritis in my knee.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and I'm hoping that he'll recommend a referral to radiology so I can get a scan or xray.  I've rolled my right ankle (and subsequently fallen as a result) so many times, that it's truly a miracle that I have not broken it yet.  I know that there is damage in there, but I don't know to what extent it's damaged.  I'm hoping that this doesn't turn into another battle; I'm not holding my breath though.  In the meantime, I'm not giving up.  I can try and see how the elliptical goes as a stand-in for the running.  I can try and strengthen and condition my legs in the pool.  We'll see how the appointment goes and then figure it out from there. 

It sucks getting old.