The Journey: Lurching Forward

Dates: June 28 to July 4

Weight Change (Period): -0.8 lbs

Weight Change (Total): -6.4 lbs

First off, the good news. Despite there being a holiday in this week, I actually lost weight. Considering I attended a party on Saturday and a cookout on the actual Independence Day, replete with the usual grilled meats, sweet treats, and cold beers, this counts as a minor miracle. I must say I am proud of my restraint yesterday, limiting my celebrations to one beer and one plate of food. Let us hope this is a trend.

Now the bad news. On Monday my daily walking came to a temporary halt. As we were turning towards home, my foot must have hit a irregularity in the road and my ankle did a little roll. I lurched forward, appearing to catch my balance. Unfortunately, my ankle disagreed with me on this, deciding to roll a second time. Unlike the first time, I had no hope of catching my balance again, this time falling over. The result was a sore ankle, a sore knee, and an ugly series of scrapes up half my leg. All of this happening on the leg that was just getting over my hellatious looking (yet not that damaging) fall on the AT at Grayson Highlands.

Fortunately, it doesn't appear that I did any permanent damage. I'm already moving much better, and I suppose I could get back to walking by next week. At least I can, assuming I can get myself to do it. It seems rather pathetic that I have to overcome a significant amount of trepidation just to walk a little more than one mile. Perhaps I just need an ankle support, or wear shoes with higher tops that can support the ankle.

Oddly, I'm not too worried about this affecting me while hiking. I've never had the issues with ankle rolling out on the trail as I do walking in the morning. Perhaps it is the shoes I wear (which aren't really ankle supporting), or even the socks. Perhaps I'm just more careful with my foot falls, or maybe my trekking poles help. Whatever it is, this isn't something I'm that worried about when I try to hike a long distance, such as the AT. Nonetheless I have to be able to walk on roads if I want to get some aerobic exercise in there. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Andrew