My Ankle and the 4th

It's been so long since I posted last that I just had to get a quickie in tonight before I went to bed. I'm trying to be good and go to bed so I can get up early and go to the gym again. It has been so long and I have lost my habit entirely. The last time I went to the gym was June 17th and today was the first time back!! Woo hoo!

So here is the update and the one of the causes of the lost habit of going to the gym: I sprained my ankle .... B...A...D. I went mountain biking with the Mad Dog's "Ride Like a Girl" Clinic for women. It's actually a really neat clinic -- best part: it's free. This was my 3rd time going and this was the first time my roommate (who is on the Mad Dog's Mountain Biking Racing Team with the normal instructor), Jen, led the group. We went up to Big Springs Trail in South Fork Canyon off of Provo Canyon. It was absolutely beautiful!! There were flowers everywhere! The trees were green and lush... the up-hill was brutal. I just kept telling myself, "You're gonna get better at these up-hills. And when we get to the top and start downhill, it will so be worth all the work of coming up." So I kept talking myself into keep going. And I made it - to the top. Then we started downhill and it was every bit as fun as I had been telling myself it would be. We circled around trees and through meadows of tall grass and then ... we hit the spot where Jen told us there was some loose gravel that had caused her to crash earlier that week...

Honestly, I'm not sure exactly how it all happened. But this is my theory: I think I was going too fast and so I tried to brake to slow down, but then my bike began to slip out from underneath me. So I tried to jump off the bike. And it would have worked out so beautifully, because if I had landed right then I would have landed in this soft, lush, grassy spot right next to the trail - well I did still land there. But I didn't land right on my feet. I landed on the side of my left foot instead of the bottom of it like you are suppose to. Oh my gosh! The pain. It was intense for a few minutes. The other girls were just down the trail a bit and started calling to me, but I couldn't call back because I knew my voice would crack and I would lose it (meaning, I would cry). But I started to cry anyway, especially when they all started running back up the trail to me. Ugh. I felt like a weanie. Well, the pain subsided like I knew it would (because I am not new to sprained ankles). I got back on my bike and insisted that I go down the trail and ENJOY it like I needed to since I had biked UP all that up-hill!! And it was still worth it. :o)

Well, the bruising and swelling came and stayed and stayed. By the next Saturday (June 28th), the swelling had finally gone down to where it looked normal - even though I had been able to walk normally on it since the Saturday before. And so guess what I did on the 28th? Aggravated it by tripping on the side-walk and falling into the gutter. Not only did I have my sprained ankle now, but I also had two bruised shins and two bruised tops of my feet, and bruises on my arm and shoulder. Don't ask me how I fell or what I hit on my way down..... I don't really remember. I swear, I think my body blacks out my vision or something as a defense mechanism - I've done it when I've taken a bad fall skiing too. So Lindsey and I watched the swelling in my ankle puff right back up to where it was when I originally sprained it. I cried. Again. Out of frustration! Because that ankle had caused me to miss going to the gym and miss out on some fun bike rides and other cool activities and now to lose all that ground I had gained??!! Oh I cried.

So this last week, I've been good and kept my foot propped up on my desk at work - the same as I did the week before - much to the entertainment of my coworkers. And some coworkers were even impressed that I was flexible enough to put my leg up on my desk... which baffles me - wouldn't they be able to do the same? Maybe not.

To this day - nearly 3 weeks after the fact - I still have some swelling in my foot, but it is manageable. And the best part? My foot fits into my road biking shoe again. Heh. That means I can ride my road bike!! And that is what I have been doing. Part of my therapy has been going to the theater to see two movies last week: Wall-E and Hancock. Wall-E was darling and Hancock was alright.

On the morning of the 4th of July, my other roommate, Jana, and I rode our road bikes out toward Utah Lake. We got a good 20 miles in on that day. Then we came back and toodled around the house some, took a nap, ran a few errands, hosted a BBQ for some of our friends here in the neighborhood, and then we went up to Rock Canyon Park to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire event at Edwards Stadium on campus. That's it. Don't you love it? And then the best part? Waking up to my real Saturday and toodling around the house some more. I love 3-day weekends.