Wow what a great run yesterday!  Well I call it a run but it was more like the Millington Hobble for me, where as Chris was using it as a mere warm up for a later event.   Fresh early start, unlike my mental preparation where I envisioned getting up early, getting a good breakfast in me and heading off to the gym for a gentle warm up and stretch, it was more exactly the opposite ha ha!  Last minute, rushed and zero preparation.  So after numerous attempts at ignoring the forever reoccurring damn alarm ringing out I summoned some reserve energy and sat up weary of my sore ankle from the squash match from the previous evening.  Unfortunately it was much worse than I had originally perceived.  I couldn't even half stand on it, let alone hobble to the bathroom, this wasn't a great start, this wasn't what I wanted after looking forward to my mornings adventures all week! Bugger, was all that came to mind!  After a quick search in the draw with numerous different strapping in I discovered the ankle and foot thermal stretchy sleeve.  Perfect I thought lets see if that helps, well after even just struggling to even put it on I knew it wasn't going to be a good day, this was going to hurt.  Do I run, or do I cancel and let my mate down????

Off we went after a quick detour back to Chris's house, after spending his well deserved restful evening preparing his kit and charging his watch we had to quickly call back and pick it up from its resting place on the kitchen sill ha ha!  It was a cracking morning, crispy white ground with small evidence of remaining snow and ice everywhere.  I climbed out of the van and pretty much collapsed into a crumpled mess on the floor.  My ankle had already given way, Chris just looked at me with raised eyebrows and some words along the lines of 'oh dear!'.   We got kitted up and head off into the wilderness with my knowledge of the inevitable eventually catching up with me at some point, I just hoped to myself I could last as long as possible and not damage it any more than I had obviously already had.

It was a beautiful morning and I battled round with minimal moaning, there was sporadic moments where my ankle turned on the hard bumpy icy ground which was expressed with the odd swear word or screech that bellowed around the valleys.  It was great to be out and like Chris said its miles under the belt, I was still training even if it was a bit slow.  It just kept reiterating the importance of similar training where it mimics or resembles the terrain on which I will be running.

Great day, after crawling back to the van and a pleasant ride back to the car I got home and relaxed in the bath before picking up my daughter from school and limping around like I'd been shot in the leg.  I then spent an hour stretching out my legs while she had her tennis lesson.  Once the initial swelling went done with a little icing that night I felt considerably better and more positive about it.  Although there was the panic text to Helen the miracle physio! Help!!!!