So it turns out my ankle wasn’t quite ready for running. Days after my comeback run I felt the pain again, albeit not as terrible as before. I especially felt it in my balance poses in yoga; they became more wobbly and unstable than normal. I decided to stop running again, but this time not with such a heavy heart. I know things will finally get better if I do my end of the bargain (rest my foot and strengthen my arch).
“Walk before you can run,” says the cliché, so that’s what I have been doing to replace my running. It’s the dead of winter here in Basel, so temperatures are low. Just the other day I put on two pairs of pants, leg warmers, wool socks, my Goretex-lined hiking shoes, two pairs of wool tops, a Down jacket on top of a thick jacket, wool-lined gloves, and a beanie—just for half an hour walk outside. “I’m thoroughly impressed that you wore a weekend worth of clothes for a 30-minute walk,” said my good friend and Chi Running expert Lit Onrubia, when I told him about my workout wardrobe.
I realized that it’s not so bad to be walking instead of running—at least I’m still on my feet. I was walking along the river yesterday (we had wonderful weather: the sun came out!), treading carefully through sheets of ice that had formed as a result of snow hardening. My slow, quiet footsteps allowed me to actually hear the ice melt, crack, then break off—something I would never have heard if I was running!