my weakness

I skipped a marathon last weekend, decided to try a trail run instead. Last week the chiro found my ankle to be locked up again, in the past when this has happened I felt the strain on the top of my foot. He worked it out and I thought I would benefit from trail running, let the uneven ground move my ankles around and build some more strength through them. So I set off with a group to run at Bridle Trails, the plan was two 5 mile loops. The weather had warmed a bit, but we saw the occasional snowflake and all the ground was frozen (Bridle Trails has a tendency to be very muddy). I felt pretty good for the first few miles, around mile 3 I could feel my knee but it wasn't anything serious. As we started on our second lap I felt fine and decided to keep on. A mile into it my knee, foot and ankle took a turn for the worse (not literally). I tried to keep up the pace, then I tried slowing. It was clear that I needed to stop, but I really didn't want to. I talked with one of my running buddies and he made the very good point, If I didn't stop now I might not be able to run for a long time. So I turned back.
I was in a good deal of pain on Monday, So I waited until today to try any running. I managed two miles and felt good. I don't think I have felt good on a run in over three weeks. I think the lesson is: self control (this is the weakness that I am referring to in the title of this blog). It seems that I may just need to stick to shorter distances (very shorter) for a while.
Bout a month till my next marathon. Redding California. The weekend of my birthday (I am getting dangerously close to thirty...although someone pointed out that it is really nice to be done with your twenties...we shall see).