Mon: 5 miles
Tue: 8 miles, including 5X2 min on/off
Wed: 5 miles
Thu: 6.5 miles
Fri: 3.5 miles
Sat: 0 – day off
Sun: 0 – day off
Total: 28 miles
This week started off exactly according to plan. After four days in a row completely off, I did a nice, easier-than-usual run on Monday where I concentrated on keeping my HR in the low 150’s to make sure it was a recovery run and not anything harder. Tuesday I did my first workout in four and a half months, running a 3.5 mile w-up followed by a fartlek of 5X2 min on/off and then around a 2 mile c-down. All considered, it went well enough. I wasn’t fast by any means and at times I felt awkward since it had been forever since I’d run anything other than a few strides at under 7 min pace, but the effort was semi-controlled, the pace faster than expected, and my achilles and hamstring both survived.
On Wednesday I set out to do another easier-than-usual run and it felt ok. I was a little beat-up from the night before, but it probably wasn’t even as bad as expected. Thursday, however, was a completely different story for some reason. My achilles was not happy right from the start and it got worse as the run went on. By the end, I was pretty miserable, and worn out both physically and mentally from fighting it. Friday was a little better, but it was still pretty bad, so I called it a day at 3.5 miles, simply not willing to continue suffering as I had the night before. Based on the previous two days, I then proceeded to take the weekend off.
Achilles pain is nothing new for me. It’s been a chronic problem for years that is always somewhat limiting but at the same time generally manageable. I don’t know if it’s at all related to my hamstring issues or not, but for some reason, it’s just flared up recently. It’s right where the achilles inserts into the heel and is likely either retrocalcaneal bursitis (my top suspicion), a Haglund’s deformity, insertional achilles tendinosis, or some combination of those three. It likely needs surgery and has for a while, but at this point in my life, I can’t justify that. While the procedures to correct these issues are generally successful, there’s always a risk that something gets messed up and you wind up in pain just walking around for the rest of your life (walking is currently completely pain free), and that aside, spending a year or more recovering from this surgery would pretty much terminate my competitive running career and running competitively would be the only motivation for having the surgery in the first place.
All that said, I’m pretty much stuck in more ways than one. I’m trying to treat this with techniques I’ve used in the past that have helped, but so far I haven’t had any success. Hopefully I’ll hit on something soon or it will just get better all of a sudden as it has in times past. Otherwise I’ll be severely limited in how much and how hard I can run. The only good news with all this is I’ve finally moved on from where things like this really frustrate me. I’m at the point where I’m perfectly fine waiting it all out, and even ok with it never really clearing up and me being limited to a few runs a week at a relatively slow pace. That’s not what I want, but if it’s what happens, so be it.
Back this time next week with an update.
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