My ankle’s been doing a lot better and I’ve started to incorporate strengthening exercises again. I’d been too focused on recovery between ultras this year, but am glad it wasn’t a ATFL tear after all. But just to be cautious, picked this course for a number of reasons. This stretch of Stevens Canyon Road doesn’t have much camber, not a lot of potholes (or traffic), I’ll only be 3ish miles away from the car and there’s plenty of shade, especially with the heat wave this week. My Strava activity:

Beatz the Heatz 50K

There are four ankle strengthening that are in my repertoire, all done with Theraband: Dorsiflexion (lift foot up/down), Plantarflexion (push foot up/down) and Inversion/Eversion (side to side motion). The other ones that I try to hit on a daily basis are heel walks, heel drops (on stairs) and calf raises. Hopefully, I’ll be able to rehab this back so I can hop on the trails again!

This run was a bit of a “functional” run in progressing towards the 50 ultras goal, not an epic one like the Grand Ventana Traverse! So four simple out and backs. Got an early start at 6am when it was still nice and cool.

I left my phone in the car after the first lap. Plenty of deer that were crossing the street or hanging out by the creek. Tried to stay along the creek as especially as it zig zagged to either side of the road. The gurgling sound was super meditative!

Was very mindful of any hotspots developing in my ankle and thankfully just the usual soreness. I walked parts of the last lap and finished the run in 4:45ish. 24 down, 26 to go!