Good news

The sprained ankle has finally regained full mobility. Oh it has been fine to walk on and what have you... it just wouldn't flex fully when turned inwards. It took seven months to get it to that stage and another few months to where it is now... fully functional and strong. Sprained ankles are funny things and (although one was walking on it virtually the next day) it was a very bad sprain. Chatting to an acquaintance who was involved in a horrific accident, which resulted in years of corrective surgery, he said that the thing that took the longest to recover from was the sprained ankle he received.

The complete recovery has happened just in time for the hot weather. This is an unfortunate bit of timing and one that is going to hamper the work on a personal fitness goal... to be able to run around the block without needing a stretcher and oxygen. Fitness is a strange thing. All types of exercise need different types of fitness. So while one is fitter than most... running is damned hard... on everything. It is particularly tough on lungs that have scar tissue from the little bout of pleurisy, pneumonia and a partial collapse, affectionately known round here as the Christmas special.

While the block is not huge it might as well be a half marathon as far as some body parts are concerned. Not that one is planning on a marathon at any stage... far too much respect for the aging joints. A block however, is a reasonable goal. Well it is for someone who used to be a damned good long distance runner. So for now one has to content oneself with running on treadmills until it is cool enough to run outside. A situation that one is the first to admit is much easier on those aging joints J

How do we get to be like this? You watch children running around... everywhere. Something happens to us as adults. We stop running around and become respectable and sedentary. We no longer run and shriek (both excellent for the lungs) and start plodding along, weighed down by the responsibility of being an adult.

So yeah... the block... running...

Maybe no shrieking though...

Well not after the first few weeks at any rate...

The pain has to stop some time...

Right?