Ankle Update

So, my ankle ....almost 2 months post race.  The doctor removed the tape and I went a week doing nothing without the tape followed by a week of three 3-mile runs.  My ankle felt good if not a little sore after the runs but not the pain that I had been having.  I went back in for my check up and he said everything looked great.  I still needed to ease back into running and not doing any super long distances for a while.  That is fine with me since for the time being I don't really feel like running more that 6 or 7 miles.  I have been slowly ramping up and have now done a couple five mile runs.  It does not hurt during the run but is still sore after my runs (although not in the same shooting pain kind of way) so I ice it after I run and try to baby it on days I'm not running.  I don't run any back to back days so that it has time off in between runs.  The thing that bugs me the most now is how much cardio I lost in not running for a month.  I know part of it is mental but I hate panting after a three mile run when I just ran a marathon at that pace without panting!  Every run gets a little better and running with my friend Margaret keeps me pushing my pace and not letting the challenge to my cardio slow me down.  She has given me a little mental push as well since she ran a 5K with her family over Thanksgiving and came in 20:49...that's a 6:42 pace!  I'm got a new target to train for and a good friend to run with so provided my ankle cooperates and keeps getting better I will continue to run and have fun while I stay fit.