Rest

Famous coach Jack Daniels has commented that injuries are the salvation of runnering. The runner's enforced time off rejuvenates his mind and body, all the while he heals and ruminates on missed miles. He comes back to his sport with renewed ambition to achieve personal goals of speed, distance, or consistency. My dream of qualifying for Boston was born during a bout with sciatica in my second year of marathon training. That dream has lured me through many challenging and often beautiful miles providing ample drive to improve as a runner.

My turned ankle occurred at mile 15 of Sunday's 21-miler. I do a little 180-degree turn at that point. On this run, a small hole in the road the size of a my palm was waiting for the ball of my foot at my turn-around. My right leg fell forward as I turned left. The resulting sprain did not exactly hurt, but I could feel the stress in my leg. I finished my long run, but in a concession to a closely missed major injury, I took the next week off from running.

Not running allowed my to up the ante on my leg training for the week. I  have been able to hit them three times with heavy lunges and deadlifts. I am coming off this running layoff not with the feeling that my running has suffered but that I have gained strength in my legs with the increased weight training.

Next week, I begin the running again. My goal is to hit 45 miles for the week.