Finally started running again. Haven't run regularly since October. Most of the winter I was letting heal a stress fracture in my lower left fibula (self-diagnosed) and then, when I was about to start running again at the beginning of March, I got the flu and related complications including pneumonia. Man, this has been a rough five and a half weeks. I have resolved that if I ever suspect flu or pneumonia again, the specific symptom being feeling the slightest bit winded (or more) on taking a deep breath, I will go to the doctor right away. Maybe by writing this down I'll remember it the next time I am unlucky enough to get it.
Anyway, the run was good, considering. A mile and a half in 20 minutes, and that's stopping to walk five or six times. It had been a warm day in the 60s so I took off from work early and did the run before dinner. Barefoot, of course. I've been trying to keep my feet conditioned somewhat with my gravel tray, but it seems there was a lot of tiny bits on the road that pricked my feet. No broken skin, just had to brush the feet off several times. My lungs did okay, too. Didn't have to stop to cough and there were no coughing fits afterwards. In comparison, I did a half hour of light exercise (heart rate between 130 and 140) on the elliptical on Sunday and although I had no coughing during it, there seemed to have been increased phlegm and coughs for several hours after.
Some background on the fibula problem. It started out as a minor ache in the muscle just above the ankle and between the tibia and fibula. This was after I started wearing shoes (Stems) again to run, on account of the cold mornings. So I iced it three to four times a day for two weeks and it felt great. The next run things were going fine until about two miles in when there was a sudden minor pain in about the same area. I kept running, silly me, trying to adjust my form to no avail. So, iced it again for two weeks, then three weeks and still not better. I had stopped running in favor of the low impact elliptical, but now started to notice the pain was a little worse after even the low impact exercise, so I stopped that too. That was about the third week of December. Then, around New Years, we got our first substantial snow and I noticed the ankle felt a little better after a day of wearing my thick, stiff sole, ankle high boots. So I wore those daily and after two weeks the leg felt pretty good. I did a slow, sample run and found the leg was somewhat better--about like it was when the problem first started way back in October. I read up on stress fractures and how long it takes to heal, kept wearing the boots, started on the elliptical again in February and set my running sights on March.
Then the flu hit and now we've come full circle, so it's as good a place as any to end this post.
