October in Review

October started and ended with a race (on the 1st and 28th), and I sort of "limped" through (not literally) some training in the middle as I was trying to keep my ankle in check:

(Purple is "sport" minutes, which is either aqua jogging or trainer time.)

• SWIM: 1600 yards. Yep. That's it. My ankle wasn't in good shape after the TC 10 Mile, so I figured it wasn't worth trying to push it. I hope to hop in the pool in a few days.

• BIKE: 97.38 miles. And 3 hours and 42 mins on the trainer/spin bike for an (estimated) 70 more miles (19 mph) for 167.38 total "miles." Nothing was too hard here. Lots of simple endurance work or easier spinning to loosen up the legs and stretch out.

• RUN: 78.26 miles. And 1 hour 47 mins aqua jogging for an extra 14 "miles" for 92.26 total "miles." I took a week off between the TC 10 Mile and my long training run for the Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon, and I aqua jogged in there. That was a good call because my ankle felt fine for the race, and the aqua jogging kept my endurance up.

Overall, this is one of my lowest Octobers for swimming (yes, I've had at least 2 or 3 Octobers with LESS swimming than these 1600 yards). And this has been my best October for biking. This whole YEAR has been good for biking! (For me. Comparatively.)

Since the race on the 28th, I haven't swam, biked, or run. I've only done some weights / strength / core work. My ankle NEVER hurt after this past weekend's race, and any slight daily "ache" is getting better each day. I'd like to try aqua jogging this weekend (that puts NO pressure on it), and then I might try swimming a day or 2 after that (that puts pressure on the top of my foot as I'm kicking, and that's what made it hurt last month, but I'm in a much difference place with it, so I'm hopeful swimming will be OK). The chriopractor (Dr. Backus) who I was seeing for ultrasound on it a few times these last few weeks says swimming and aqua jogging should both be totally fine. But he'd like to see me take 1-2 weeks off from running.