Ankle-versary

So, we've reached the one year anniversary of my ankle surgery.  I would consider my "ankle-versary" to be May 8th, since that's when I actually tore it, but since I didn't have the surgery until the 17th, which would be the real date of when the healing started, that's the day.

I can't promise that this will be my last post that mentions the Achilles tear, but I will promise that it will be the last one solely dedicated to it.  It's time to put things in perspective, put things in their place, and put things in the rear-view mirror.  I'm about 90% recovered, and I'm getting better every day.  I still notice the fact of the injury every time I have to make a quick movement, but I can walk without pain and have been able to run and do plyometric workouts without too much trouble.

There is, of course, the psychological effects to deal with.  My ankle is strong enough to do pretty much everything I'd want to do with it.  Since last fall, I've run six laps at three different regular Tough Mudder events, and another six laps at WTM.  I've finished various rounds of Insanity, Asylum and T25, and I've been able to run a long run while averaging sub-10 minute miles, so, I would assume that this means that the physical part of the recovery is pretty close to done, but learning to trust the ankle again isn't coming as quickly.  I still find myself being overly careful when getting down off of obstacles - most notably, Berlin Walls.  The drop is a bit scary because I'm not sure how my ankle will react to a sudden jolt. This might not be a bad thing, obviously.  Being cautious around obstacles is good practice.  I don't want to be careless and put myself in physical danger if it can be avoided.

I guess this is the big lesson that I would take away from this.  Although it's appropriate to be cautious, we have to make sure that caution doesn't control us to the detriment of being adventurous as well.  We should always be open to the possibility that the next step could hurt, but isn't it more important that we think about the journey that step can lead to as well?  If we paralyze ourselves thinking about all of the bad things that can happen, then we needlessly close ourselves off from a lot of possibilities to do amazing things.