Went out on my own this Sat a.m., in Madison, and did my 11 miles here, out my front door, onto the road, and went all the way to Strawberry Patch Park (5.5 miles), and turned around and came home. I listened to MIS103 on my armband radio, instead of Ipod. Just needed a change of tunes. I went pretty early, around 6a.m. It looked sort of dark out at 5:15, so I just hung around the house doing stuff until I lightened up outside. NEXT time if I go from here, I will go on at 5:15 a.m, because traffic in Madison gets going around 8 a.m., and I still had a ways to go.

My pace this a.m. was sort of slow. I tried jogging some at mile 3, but the ankles were protesting in the 2nd mile of that, so I went back to brisk walking. Pretty difficult to briskly walk when you are hopping off the asphalt to avoid cars, down into the grass, watching for holes, walking on a slanted surface.

I finished the 11 miles, am happy about that, though my feet are feeling pretty tender.

I will go by Fleet Feet shortly and discuss that with them. Perhaps some additional arch supports for my high arch feet, or newer shoes. Injuredrunner.com did not have any specific ankle help that I could see. I will work on doing the calf stretches, as that was the closet thing to do, if you have even a sprained ankle, which I do NOT have, thankgoodness.

Maybe its just 47 year old feet/ankles protesting the abandonment of the couch/sedentary life.

Being 40 lbs overweight does not help the ankles either.

Slow and steady wins the race, and today, that was me. I am just glad to be able to walk 11 miles, as my MM sister Queen cannot even do that with her present knee problem/physical therapy. She called me on my walk this a.m., and made me feel much better about going slower. Thanks Q!