This morning's run

Was scheduled to be 4 miles on a hilly course, run hard on the uphills and easy on the down.  It was also very dark on that lovely back-road.  I may need to get a clip-on light for my hat in addition to the hand held flashlights.  One worked flawlessly, the other not so much.  I will be writing the manufacturer and seeing if there is a repair kit or new batteries for it.  It just did not want to run both bulbs at full brightness, so I ran with just the "glow-stick" portion on.  That reminds me, the new flashlights are cool.  They look like over-long glow-sticks.  At the front they have a bright white LED for forward light, and the back is a colored LED to illuminate the glow-stick.  I have green and red.  I ended up with the red one tucked into my reflective harness (vest is the wrong word for it as it is just a few straps).  The green one worked great and cast way more light than I would have thought.  I think I would still like to have a little more forward light than these produced, but I was able to point the light where I wanted as I was running.  I may not need the extra lights if I can get the red stick to work correctly.

I do not know how effective they were at signaling to drivers that I was there, as I only saw three cars between the time I left the lighted, sidewalked sections of my run and my return to those same sections.  And they were all in front of my by 1/4 mile or so and going the same direction as I was.  However, that doesn't mean that as I approached an intersection that my lights did not alert the driver approaching that intersection from my left that I was there and moving into that intersection in front of him.  And on mornings that I go out when it is still dark, I will carry them with me.

My ankles tightened up a little on the last long downhill, but by the time I got done running hard on the last uphill they had loosened up again and as I type this are not feeling too bad.  The pain this morning is a more expected inside the ankle and not outside the ankle pain, so I am certain that it will go away by tonight with a little random stretching throughout the day.  I also scared the hell out of some unseen animal that was in some tall grass near a stream.  It moved, I hissed very loudly and there was lots of splashing in the water.  Nothing like a quick shot of adrenalin at just about 2 miles to make the rest of the run seem pretty easy.

All in all, I would say it was a good run, and I will try very hard tomorrow to get up and go to the Y.  I feel I need to start working with some weights in the hopes that they will help with the ankle issues.  I am trying to find some quality information on that, but all I have found so far is how to treat the issues, not how to train away from them.  I will spend more time on that as well.