My ankle injury seemed to be doing very well- most of the swelling was gone, and my foot (for the most part) had returned to its normal color rather than the odd shade of martian green it had been for the past few days. I was even walking with no pain in the area. SO, naturally, I attempted an easy, on-pavement jog last night with some friends. Not a good idea- although everything felt fine in the first 5 minutes of relatively flat pavement, once we jogged up & over a couple of small but steep pitches, the pain started creeping back up the side of my foot/leg. Going against my will to continue and not be defeated by injury (again), I walked. Luckily, I had Turbo, my Belgian Malinois, and Temesa, one of the Warthogs (group of friends I frequently run with), to keep me company.
Although it was (mentally) painful to stop running, I can tell that the physical consequences would have been much greater- even with just a few minutes of stress to the area, the space between my anklebone & Achilles tendon filled back in with swelling, and it’s painful enough today that I can’t help but limp a little. Thankfully, it’s not bad enough that I can’t ride my bike, but I’m not happy to have the nagging pain again.

Looks like I need more time & probably some at-home physical therapy before I strike out on foot again!