And then there are “compression sock days”

I have this VERY annoying thing which one would not really expect from a person who runs some 50 km a week: my ankles and feet swell up. Not a lot, but enough to make my legs feel stiff and heavy. I guess that it’s a combination of being a woman, having a desk job (if you thought that being an astrophysicist is all stargazing I have to disappoint you: we spend most of the time in front of the computer), and, counterintuitively, running (see for example this very interesting post). The last particularly seems to be the case after long runs in hot conditions, so exactly what we have here in West Texas.

 

Although the 15 km I ran yesterday is not really a lot, it’s enough to team up with the heat and me working at my computer all morning and lead to those heavy legs. So today is a “compression socks day”. I only have one pair of compression socks, they are long and I typically use them when I go ski touring, but they are incredibly comfortable and give almost immediate relief. My husband makes fun of me when I wear them in the house, he says I look like a Manga character :D

 

One thing that also helps is the core/HIIT workout I do on rest days, like today. I hope that I will see a lot less of these swollen ankles when we move to the colder temperatures of the UK in a few weeks!