This could nearly be the headline of some British newspapers ;)

A week and a half after the big day, my ankle feels much better. For two days it was actually pretty bad (and even getting somehow worse). I let you imagine (and particularly those who know me...) how I could feel frustrated when I couldn't even walk more than 10 minutes ! It started to heal relatively fast the following days. I then realised my knees were not very happy with me either, in particular the right one that had to absorb all the extra load I couldn't put on my left ankle during the descent. Now I can walk more, I can even run a bit when I need to catch the bus, but I think long walks and awkward feet positions are still to be avoided. I may try to go swimming this week-end. Gentle runs and climbing sessions later on, depending on how it goes. It may not be healing so fast after all.

On the longer scale now. I think it'll be hard to remain on what I still consider as a half a failure. So I've pretty much made my mind: I'll try the UTMB again next year (if I can register), although I realise it'll never be again like the 2005 edition, my first ultra and a finish. Anyway, I hope I'll be able to train more, particularly for the 'quality' sessions at specific speed. I think I'll need at least 3 to 5 proprer long distance runs (over 42km) in the hills (North Wales and Lake District) to strengthen my ankles. In fact, I started to come to the conclusion that the very rasing stride developped by running on flat surface probably shortened the ligament at front of the lower leg down to the ankle, or at least made it weaker. I may register for a marathon in early spring and a trail (most likely in the UK) a bit later. A 100km would be nice to test myself on a long but relatively fast race - any idea welcome.

I was also thinking of building a team for the UTMB 2007. It's much better to share advices and not to be stressed on your own the days before the race. Also if we register the team, we can be ranked as such, which is symbolically pretty cool.

Ultra recovery.