Another Medical Opinion, Another Plan

Went to see the new doctor this week. Unlike previous medical advisors, this guy, Dr. Amol Saxena, is a distance runner (2:40 marathon), and has been the doctor for the US Olypmic team, so I was hoping for some realistic advice on getting through this.

He definitely seemed to know what he was talking about - achilles paratendinosis was the diagnosis. He prescribed physiotherapy (twice a week for a month) and then a review with him.

He recommended to continue what I had been doing: stretching, eccentric calf exercises, icing (although standing in an ice bucket and stretching at the same time is a better way to do this). Running is OK, but not past the point of feeling any discomfort, and nothing fast. soft surfaces will help.

Usually this takes 6-12 months to get over completely. If things are still as bad after 6 months (November) he'll do an MRI and see if something else if wrong in there.

So where does that leave me? Basically, I'm screwed. Any plans of building up the mileage and racing before December are completely gone. The plan now is to try to build up to be able to run completely pain free every day. That means only running 20-30 minutes at an easy pace. I'll start that this week, running every other day. Then I'll add one day/week until I am running 3 miles, every day. After that I'll gradually add in some miles until I can do 5 miles (40 minutes) every day. Then I'll start extending the long run on Sunday. When I am stable at 40 miles/week I'll start gradually introducing some speed.

Assuming physio helps (likely), and I can keep my enthusiasm to run too far/too fast/too soon in check (questionable), I'm hopeful that it'll get better. I'll probably be able to build up to running the Cal International Marathon relay in early December (although nowhere near the 1:30 time that I hoped for). London in April is still up in the air at this point. I will see how the next month goes and make a decision mid October. I expect I can get well enough to run it, but not necessarily well enough to run it fast.