Wet, soggy but so enjoyable run :)

Well after a week of not running and doing lots of balancing, cycling and spinning, I decided to test out my precarious ankle.  I was super cautious, putting heel supports in my trainers, wearing a compression support and compression socks, I seriously did not want to be limping home halfway through.  I had to post a Birthday card during my run, so ran slowly up for 2 miles up to my friend's house at the top of a hill.  Within 5 minutes, the sky had gone really dark and it started to rain, now I've ran through plenty of rain in my time but this was seriously heavy, the sort that soaks you within 10 minutes and creates puddles everywhere that just have to be ran through.  1 1/2 miles into my run, I fell over adding a grazed knee to my dodgy ankle, but I carried on, ignoring my bloody knee.  Once I'd posted my rather soggy Birthday card, I decided to pick up the pace a bit, which felt good, my ankle didn't seem to be suffering.  I decided to keep at the new pace for about 20 minutes and then pick up the pace to Threshold for another 20 minutes. Without even realising it and probably because I was in a hurry to get the run done due to the rain getting worse, I had increased the pace to near Threshold pace early, so I upped it again and then proceeded to keep it at that pace until I got to 6 miles.  After about 4 1/2 the pace did start to feel pretty uncomfortable but I had to stick with it for another mile and half and then I promised myself that I would run the rest of the way home at recovery pace.  This bargaining with myself and has got me through many a race, training session and tough run, the mental side of running really is so important.  Without it, many people would never be able to run a marathon and it really helped me today, as I would've been annoyed with myself if I hadn't kept the pace up like I'd planned to.  When I got home after it felt so good to be running again and to manage a pretty pacy progression run after a week of not running and dodgy ankle.  Sometimes it takes an injury to make us realise how much we love and miss running when we're not able to, so we should treasure the times when we're running well.