First run without an ankle brace in 3.5 weeks. I stuck mostly to hilly dirt roads with one unpleasant kilometer along busy Hwy 9. Mostly I was running on smooth, hard dirt with loose stones but sometimes I ran on the soft sand and gravel shoulder, and the ankle held up nicely even then. I'm not ready to run without a brace on trails where I can't see the footing under fallen leaves, but this is good progress.
It was a good idea to run up here today as the main road was closed further south to investigate a stabbing murder that took place, ironically, on The Gore Road. Yikes.
Earlier in the day, I took the dogs on a 40-minute hike on trails, also without an ankle brace. This was brave, given that BazingaDog has become so strong that when he sees a deer, I have to grab the leash handle with both hands and lean back with my full body weight to prevent him from dragging me off into the woods. Or twisting my ankle.
Now, I hate to generalize but I think we can all agree that men are silly. They tend to ignore good advice from their wives. For example:
Me: You may not want to commute home by trail tonight, honey. There are high wind gusts in the forecast.
Honey: Oh, that's not a very high wind. I'll be fine.
Luckily, the wind came up after he got home last night - a little later than predicted - because here are three different trail blockages the dogs and I found today within 800 meters of our place.
Longtime readers may remember the 70-acre forest fire set accidentally by our new-to-the-country neighbours. This is what happens four years later. :(