To recap the weekend, Saturday I did nothing. Not completely ashamed of it, because downtime and decompression is a good way to balance out a routine 9-5 weekday. Sunday (yesterday), I took advantage of the clear weather by hiking up Mission Peak with my boy Blue. 3 Sundays ago, I sprained my left ankle to depths of the Earth’s core and back. I could swear my ankle rolled so far it actually touched the ground. This took nearly 3 weeks to recover, since it ended up being quite a severe sprain. Having to limp to work and then school the very next day was horrendous. And no, I didn’t bother with crutches because I am a boss.
I wouldn’t doubt if I ruptured a ligament, because a week into the sprain, dark bruising started appearing on both sides of my foot. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about an utterly retarded sprain (because it happened literally out of no where)… back to yesterday. In the afternoon, I woke my dog up from his nap and drove over to Mission Peak. This is how awesome a dog is to have… imagine trying to wake up a human companion from a nap and then go hike a 2500ft peak immediately after.
The last time I was at Mission Peak, things didn’t go so smoothly. Holding an unintentional yard sale with my blood and a chunk of my arm being the featured items is not a good business. Suffice to say, I decided to take it easy this time around. My motive for the hike certainly wasn’t to try and break records, but to obtain a much needed dose of cardio after being out of commission for 3 weeks. On the uphill, I maintained a consistent stride with jog breaks at intervals. Total time to the peak from the gate just behind the Ohlone College pond was 1 hour and 5 minutes including 2 breaks.
Blue was a trooper, climbing up the boulders with him near the top was especially fun. Climbing down said boulders was a different experience, however. Here’s Blue at the top of the world…
As I was getting ready to head back, I remember someone asking me a couple of questions about my dog. It was so windy up there I think I completely misinterpreted everything, and proceeded to answer incorrectly as well. Hopefully it was close enough.
The downhill back to the pond gate was accomplished in 40 minutes, including the break at the top. I was able to jog most of its entirety. I will admit to being conscious on how I planted my steps, so as to prevent another rolled ankle. Curiously, as I was casually strolling back to the car in the parking lot, I stepped on a rock and damn near rolled my right ankle. Luckily I was able bounce back from it, but that would’ve been kind of cruel otherwise.
I know more time can be made up on the uphill if I jogged it more. Next time, I will want to push and hope to bring the round trip duration down to 1 hour and 30 minutes.