A visit to the sports doctor yesterday confirmed my internet based self diagnosis of achilles tendonitis.
As most people know, Achilles was a Greek dude from a long time ago (recently portayed by Brad Pitt in the not very good movie, Troy) who had a dodgy heel. Apparently the rest of his body was invulnerable (although this picture doesn't make him look all that invulnerable to me....). Given my past running history I obviously don't have the invulnerable part but it turns out that I do have the dodgy heel. (I make no claims to any other resemblance to the guy on the right)
I'll leave you to decide on the Brad Pitt part for yourselves.....It's inflammation of the achilles tendon and is caused by extending the tendon too much when exercising, which then gets inflamed and it hurts. Keep doing that and it can rupture and then you need to have surgery, which is bad!
Common causes include....
1) running up lots of hills
2) too much speedwork
3) adding extra miles too quickly
4) wearing high heels in the day and then running in flat running shoes
Looking back over the last 2 months of training, I'm willing to admit that I am very guilty of 3 of these. I have no public comment on #4.
The good news is that I caught it early enough that it probably isn't going to be a long term problem and I don't need any surgery or anything drastic.
The bad news is that my agressive training plan leading up to the Los Gatos half marathon is completely out the window.
Prescription is ibuprofen 3 times/day for a week to reduce the inflammation, ice after any exercise, apply heat in the evening and lots of calf stretching once the pain has gone. I'm completely off running for the next 4 days (my longest break since October, right after my first marathon) and then I need to ease back in with just slow miles: avoid hills, no speedwork, and gradually ramp the miles. Biking is OK, so I'll probably dust off my (t)rusty steed and go a for a ride today.
This week was just 15 miles (vs a planned 52). Next week I'm hoping I can do 3 easy runs and then maybe a long of 10-12 on Sunday to get to around 30. The week after hopefully 4 easy runs and then see how it is doing for a planned 10k race on 6/17.
If that all goes OK it should be cleared up and I'll then have 4 weeks to tune up for the half in July. That means 3 good weeks of training and the taper week. Even if it all goes wonderfully well I don't think I can get enough done to get anywhere near a sub 90 minute time. So I'm replanning that race and I'm going to make the San Jose Rock'N'Roll half in October my goal race for sub 90. That was my first ever race last year (1:51:50 finish). I'll weave that into the training plan for December's full marathon.
So it's a bummer to have a set back like this but something of a much needed sanity check. At some point this type of injury was definitely going to happen so I'm glad it happened now and not 2 months before my December marathon. It's also good that I caught it soon enough that it isn't going to cause any real problems.
1) running up lots of hills
2) too much speedwork
3) adding extra miles too quickly
4) wearing high heels in the day and then running in flat running shoes
Looking back over the last 2 months of training, I'm willing to admit that I am very guilty of 3 of these. I have no public comment on #4.
The good news is that I caught it early enough that it probably isn't going to be a long term problem and I don't need any surgery or anything drastic.
The bad news is that my agressive training plan leading up to the Los Gatos half marathon is completely out the window.
Prescription is ibuprofen 3 times/day for a week to reduce the inflammation, ice after any exercise, apply heat in the evening and lots of calf stretching once the pain has gone. I'm completely off running for the next 4 days (my longest break since October, right after my first marathon) and then I need to ease back in with just slow miles: avoid hills, no speedwork, and gradually ramp the miles. Biking is OK, so I'll probably dust off my (t)rusty steed and go a for a ride today.
This week was just 15 miles (vs a planned 52). Next week I'm hoping I can do 3 easy runs and then maybe a long of 10-12 on Sunday to get to around 30. The week after hopefully 4 easy runs and then see how it is doing for a planned 10k race on 6/17.
If that all goes OK it should be cleared up and I'll then have 4 weeks to tune up for the half in July. That means 3 good weeks of training and the taper week. Even if it all goes wonderfully well I don't think I can get enough done to get anywhere near a sub 90 minute time. So I'm replanning that race and I'm going to make the San Jose Rock'N'Roll half in October my goal race for sub 90. That was my first ever race last year (1:51:50 finish). I'll weave that into the training plan for December's full marathon.
So it's a bummer to have a set back like this but something of a much needed sanity check. At some point this type of injury was definitely going to happen so I'm glad it happened now and not 2 months before my December marathon. It's also good that I caught it soon enough that it isn't going to cause any real problems.
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