I am a Day-Walker

Due to working on some drafting, catching up on bills, doing IVs, etcetera, I haven't seen much of the sun lately. Stepping outside today for a weekend run, I was blinded and felt like the sun was overly bright. Of course, I'd forgotten my sunglasses, but I felt like some vampire stepping forth from his cave. A day-walking vampire, like in that terrible Wesley Snipes movie, Blade.

The similarities didn't end with stunned eyes. No. Snipes' character needed some sort of shot on a regular basis to be immune from the sun, IIRC, and I apparently need IVs of powerful antibiotics to be...well, immune. He may have said something about how sunlight was still uncomfortable - my skin was itching. He looks cool in leather and wrap-around shades, and I look WAY cool in leather and wrap-around shades.



OK, the itching skin is related to the antibiotics, somehow, some mild allergic reaction. I have some Benadryl, but I don't know how much that helps. And since it makes me drowsy I don't like taking it.

Today's run was pretty rough. Walking ratio went way up, mostly because my legs were stiff and sore with shin splints. I tried stopping to stretch them out, but it didn't help. I was in pain the whole way.

And it had to happen, sooner or later in my running career and it finally did today: I twisted my ankle. I was at the half-mile mark (39th st & 3rd ave) when I misstepped. I had my eyes on the traffic lights to make sure I still had clearance to cross and wasn't watching where I put my feet. In the industrial section of Sunset Park, that can be dangerous, as the streets are riddled with embedded tracks, old brick surfacing, broken sidewalks, etc. Things are litter-free there, and relatively little traffic, but the surface practically defines "urban cross-country". So I didn't see the railroad track I came down on funny and I felt my ankle twist pretty good.

It wasn't too bad. I hopped around in pain for a while and it seemed nothing was actually broken or too tender - so I kept going with my run. But between my right ankle throbbing and my shin splints, I had to do a lot of walking. I did turn around earlier than I'd planned - I was shooting for 4 miles today and actually got in 3. The Nike+ is still a little off and I can't calibrate it until I'm doing continuous jogging, so my per-mile time is a little higher than it shows.



I did have some good stretches where my pace was strong, with a good stride length. Best of all, my lungs had no problems keeping up. That's good with me, for now. Continuous, steady running will come. I've got to hit the foam roller and stretching more conscientiously. Deal with this itching. Do they make Benadryl cream? Maybe some of my sunburn lotion will desensitize the itchy areas....