Sprained Ankle - Day 63

My ankle is pretty much healed at this point. There are still some mornings especially after a rain or high humidity, I feel a slight tightness in my ankle. I have been playing volleyball for the last 4-5 weeks without much problem. At first, it was a little sore but as I warmed up the soreness went away. The last couple games have had no problems.

Sometime around the second to third week, my mom had me put on some hot/cold patches. I could not tell if it helped or not. It didn't seem to make it any worse at least. Since I had only a handful of sprained ankles, I cannot recall a lot of details. I think the last sprain was about 20 years ago. I only remember it lasting a couple weeks. So this time took much longer but I think it was also much worse.

Sprained ankle - Day 13

Sprained my ankle almost 2 weeks ago while playing volleyball. I was in enough pain to not be able to move my foot, but eventually dragged myself to the side. Our team had a double-header so fortunately I had some time to rest. After 30 minutes of icing and lying on the ground with my foot on a medicine ball, I was able to stand up but could barely put any weight on the foot. Another 30 minutes and I was able to drive. I was able to waddle the next day, using the wall to climb up or down the stairs. A week later and I was able to hide my limp with slight pain. I broke in my new bike yesterday with a discomfort in my foot only when climbing the stairs. I didn't feel any discomfort while biking for a couple hours (with several breaks). The next day, my foot was sore even when walking so maybe biking may not have been wise.

Workout-wise, I have been pretty bad with my regular workouts for the last month. I did at least one a week. My diet was slightly better than usual. Overall, I've lost about 1-2 pounds over two weeks but probably my muscle weight as I have not done any workouts the last couple weeks.

Morning Calf Cramp

When waking, I typically stretch out my legs and this morning I pulled my calf muscle while doing so and it was quite painful. Needless to say, that woke me up this morning. I tried to massage the muscle but it is quite painful to the touch. I can walk around with some strain but unable to put any more pressure than that.

After taking a hot shower, I was able to get a little more flexibility and probably could jog on it. It does not feel like I can jump on it although I may test that out later today.

I then went out for a walk for about an hour to an hour and a half. My calf now feels much better and feel a dull pain only when I pull my foot all the way up.

Life: Exercise 20150207

After a week, I have returned back to the same weight as last week. I gained quite a bit of weight eating all the food from Superbowl weekend... too much pizza, wings, chips, and so many other not so healthy foods. I gained about 4-5 pounds within 2-3 days. Took another 2-3 days to lose that.

I still exercised everyday except Sunday. This week was kind of sluggish. I did mostly walking on Monday and Thursday. It was harder to run long distance. I found doing amateur-level intervals (2 minute walking and 2 minute jog/run) helpful in getting me out of the sluggish feeling.

Weeks ago, I was only able to do 5mph jogs, now I am able to reach 7mph. Not only that, my heart rate does not reach as high as before. My ankle issue seems to have gone away but I have been avoiding extended jogs. I've tried a couple times and now it seems that my right calf gets tight or tired. Running does not seem to bother me at all even at longer distance and longer periods of time.

It has been about a month since I joined the gym. I have been going almost every day. I think I have missed a total of 5-6 days. I do mostly walk/jog for 1 hour. I do mix up my running exercises between extending my long distance running, just plain walking, and intervals (trying to increase my run pace). When the gym is quieter, I will do some weights after an hour on the treadmill. Overall, I've lost about 7 pounds.

Life: Exercising 20150121

It has been two weeks since the last exercise update. I have been having ankle issues when running on the treadmill so yesterday I took the day off. It was kind of sad to not meet my calorie goal after completing 15 days in a row with the Wii U.

Fortunately, today was the first day where I made some headway into losing weight. I also went back to the gym after a day rest. I did not want to stress my ankle too much so I started with 5mph after my warmup. I didn't not feel the usual strain that I felt last week. After 5-6 minutes, I started to feel some pressure in my ankle (right). I kept running through it then took a break after another 5 minutes (totally 10 minute jog). The pressure did not get worse. As usual, it goes away after walking for a bit.

After a small walking break, I started another 10 minute jog and this time the pressure did not return. Actually, it felt pretty good. I didn't want to push my luck so I went back to walking speed for 5 minutes.

On my third attempt, I felt a little more pressure than the first time after 7-8 minutes. The fourth time, the pressure didn't return but I did get pretty exhausted. Ended with 4.4 miles in an hour. I took a short break then did a slow pace on an elliptical.

Overall, I think this is a good sign for my ankle. I think I need to replace my shoes.

Life: Leg cramp

I tried to do some programming while on the train. There is very little space, so I was sitting somewhat slanted on the seat so that I can open my laptop enough for me to view the screen. Eventually, this became uncomfortable so I tried to change position by sitting forward and prop my leg on top the other so I can rest the laptop on my leg.

During the process, my leg suddenly cramped really bad. This has never happened to me before where I could not move or twist my calf for like a minute. On the rare occasion my leg cramps (usually from over-stretching my leg), I usually can manage to push my feet up towards my shin which would relieve most of the pain and relieve my calf.

I also could not move my foot with my hands after I managed to put away my laptop which was a task in itself as I am trying to ignore the pain. I was worried that maybe I had torn a tendon, but eventually the cramp just went away. Fortunately, there were no one nearby to witness my odd behavior. It could have been unfortunate if the problem was more serious.

This was probably because the weather was colder than usual and I was outside for most of the day. I had also spent the morning running in the park. Later walking for about an hour to get to the train station. Ending on a happy note, I did manage 20k steps that day (still enjoying my Wii U Fit meter).