Make every obstacle an opportunity

I was extremely frustrated just few hours ago. I had to come back home after my warm up part of the run instead of logging in the planned 6.84 miles (11 km) of today's run. The problem? My right ankle, the outer ligament started to hurt directly as I started my run, I tried to do the warm up, but decided to quit afterwards. And it was a tough decision that looking backwards I am proud of.

Thank God I pushed myself to go according to my own advice on starting / advancing slow. Therefore when feeling the pain in my ankle for most of my warm up, I hesitated for a while and then walked back to my car. Nice picture: all geared up in my compression socks, my running skirt, fuel belt ready for the longish hot run walking back to my car with almost no sweat. Very bad moment, I almost cried and sent like super long text to The Coach about it and what shall I do, called a great friend, explained how unfair that is and got some patting on my back.

Even though I knew the decision to go home and let the ankle rest was a good one, it upset me, knowing that tomorrow I cannot go out as well and I might try on Monday. Yep, I have to see the big picture, I have to heal this tired ankle before putting another big efforts on it. I got some of my favorite comfort food - high quality olive oil with freshly ground salt and pepper and home made bread soaked in it. Don't worry, I followed it by a serious amount of veggies - cucumber and yoghurt tzatziki and lot of tomatoes with some fresh basil and mozzarella. I iced my ankle according to The Coach's advice and downloaded the super motivational book by Lance Armstrong: It's Not About the Bike that I discovered thanks to Janae at her blog - The Hungry Runner Girl.

It doesn't look that great, but I love it and I'm sure lot of you will understand,
what is more - it's TRUFFLE olive oil - Heaven on Earth :)

And more "normal" dinner - zucchini and grilled polenta with melted cheese on the top.

And there in the first pages, the rule that Lance's mother has taught the seven-time Tour de France champion: "Make every obstacle an opportunity." So I switched my attitude, accepted that this is definitely going to be a rest and recovery weekend with the great opportunity to read some inspiring motivational books (see the Amazon links bellow, that's what I have planned) and to clean up some clutter from my computer and my apartment in order to get back on track with the simple living and minimalist approach.
I am somewhere in the first half of the book, but at the first pages when Lance talks about his cancer being diagnosed there is his big lesson about not listening to his body. So I hope this example will help you as well as it helped me to prevent more serious injuries that we tend to get through our love for running and the addiction on endorphines and feelings during and after each run.

I am off to throw some aports for the doggie, so at least he gets the exercise and then quickly back to reading :) Have a great weekend everyone!