Iced Ankles, Blueberries, Chocolate and Maslow

I'm sitting here icing my ankle. I don't even know if that is what should be done, but I don't know what else to do. I'm taking ibuprofen too . . . and soon, I'm going to try heating my ankle! I also wanted to buy some special topical herb that heals tendons the minute it is applied (I mean it probably does) but I couldn't remember what I'd googled to find it and I couldn't find it again. Also, I bought new shoes. I may or may not have been influenced by how cool they looked. Clearly that should be low low on my priority list, but, I have been wearing shoes all about stopping pronation for so long and they have been booooring to look at. So when this particular shoe claimed to be pretty much the best running shoe in the world . . . AND happened to be blue and yellow . . . well, I bought it. I'll let you know if it is the best shoe in the world later . . . when they aren't being shipped back because I accidentally bought the wrong size. Boooo. (That is boo like I'm booing at myself -- like two thumbs down . . . not boo like a ghost trying to scare you).

So, tendons. Tendons connect muscle to bone -- as opposed to ligaments that connect bone to bone. But tendons and ligaments don't have a super great blood supply coming to them, so they aren't speedy healers. It is very frustrating to me because I know the real cure is a lengthy rest period followed by sloooowly easing back into exercise. But that would mean not having my endurance built up to do awesome on this marathon . . . but I already don't run awesome because I literally run with a weird hoppingish gait because of my ankle. The real reason this is sad is that this has been thee most perfect training opportunity I have ever had all thanks to my AMAZING niece Ashley who, of her own free accord, comes over like ten mornings a week (is that even possible) to let me run. I seriously pray thanks for Ashley every day (between my prayers for my ankle to get better). It would never occur to me to do something so nice and so time consuming. So, with such a perfect opportunity, I am extra grumpy at my ankle for acting all wounded.

Anyway, I finally decided to take a week -- ONE WEEK -- off. I will lose one of the twenty milers I had hoped to get in and a week probably isn't enough time to heal much anyway, but like I said . . . there is the ice! Go ankle go!

And, on an unrelated note, I like how you always see studies in health magazines, etc. that say something like, "Good News!! Chocolate is actually good for you!!" and then proceed to say, "one ounce of DARK chocolate is super great to have each day -- but just one ounce -- and the more bitter the chocolate the better. So indulge! Enjoy yourself guilt free!" They should end those articles with, "HA! Suckers!" because they day an ounce of dark chocolate is indulging will be a sad sad day.

Oh, and here is something for my WA friends. Look how sad! I bought this today for $4.00 -- on sale! They aren't even fresh! All of you go pick your huge bowls of blueberries and shed a tear for me.

Another something: The other day my sister and I found a skirt in a catalog that said, "Meets all of your physical needs." That made us chuckle. Maybe you could eat it, but then how could you use it for shelter? Perhaps it meets your needs consecutively -- like wear it for a walk, use it for shelter from a storm for a night (when you get lost on your walk), and then eat it the next morning for breakfast. That doesn't leave you in a great situation in the end though, does it.

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But thinking of all the possible physical needs one might have (and whether or not this skirt might meet them) caused me to think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (are you all familiar with this?). It is a pyramid and the idea is that you can't fill the higher needs until the lower needs like food and shelter are met. Wouldn't it be amazing if this skirt could actually help you to reach the top of the pyramid, which, as we all know from our studies of Maslow, is "self actualization."

I think these new blue and yellow running shoes are totally going to help me achieve self actualization! Not that a new skirt couldn't help.

Alright, my twenty minutes of ankle icing are up. Think what might have come out of this post had I had to ice for forty!