My Love Affair With My Treadputer

I turned my ankle on a trail run Sunday. It was the last leg of a “triple long weekend”, where I did the same run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with increasing effort and speed each day. About two miles into the 6.5 mile run on Sunday, I stumbled on the snow / dirt / ice / rock mix and went over on my right ankle. This is a normal trail running experience – I had my Icebugs on so plenty of support and I didn’t think much of it.

When I ran Monday, I had a little soreness in my right ankle. There was no swelling so I didn’t think much about it. I also couldn’t figure out why it was sore. I took Tuesday off and noticed it was still sore. Then I remembered that I’d turned it on the Sunday run and realized that I must have a mild ankle strain. I figured it’d be better by Wednesday. When I woke up Wednesday, it was still sore – not worse, but not better. I learned a long time ago that there’s no value in running when something like this is going on as it doesn’t really matter to skip a few days of training as all that running on an ankle strain will do it make things worse.

However, I’m super restless if I don’t 10,000+ steps in a day. I’ve been Fitbit obsessed for a while (I’m an investor in the company) and my running always gives me enough of a base so I’ll get 10,000 no matter what else I do that day (and I’ll often see 15,000 – 20,000 steps on a day I run.)

I’ve had a treadmill desk for a number of years. My first run was homemade before anyone was talking about them and I referred to it as my treadputer. My current one is a standard model called the FitWork Walkstation from Steelcase.

While I don’t feel like running, I definitely feel like walking. And that’s what I’ve been doing the last three days when I’m at my desk. I just crossed 16,000 steps for the day and expect I’ll get plenty more. I feel mellow and happy, my ankle isn’t sore at all at this point (meaning I think I’ll be ready to run again tomorrow morning), and I’m happily working away.

All I need now is a portable treadputer. Or maybe I’ll just make sure I run every day on the road and walk to as many meetings as possible. Oh – and bonus points if you can name the artist who did the painting to the left of my treadputer.