Roughly 2 ½ years ago, I sustained an Achilles injury. At that point I consulted Jim my physical therapist. For the first 2 to 3 weeks or so, I bicycled in the pool and went to physical therapy. I then started on a treadmill, running on the flat and avoiding the hills. The therapist recommended that ideally I should just rest the Achilles but I couldn’t totally do that. After 6 weeks or so, I discontinued physical therapy even though the issue wasn’t totally resolved. I thought I would “protect” my Achilles by reducing my trail running mileage. In fact I discontinued running 50 mile event’s since I had too much discomfort during and after the events. I was even taking ibuprofen on a regular basis. So my running changed to what I would call a guarded approach. I rationalized thinking that by not running 50 mile events and taking it easy running up the hills, I would somehow not make matters worse.
It was obvious that I was spending a lot of time thinking about my Achilles during training runs and other running events. Taking ibuprofen, stretching, applying ice and using heel lifts became the norm. It became clear that my Achilles wasn’t getting better but I was still competing.
About three or four months ago, I began physical therapy again and continued treatment until the end of the year. My Achilles became less sensitive to the touch and the inflammation seemed to be reduced. During the last month or so, I began thinking less about my Achilles during training runs. In fact, at the Resolution Run on New Year’s Day I didn’t think much about my discomfort at all. Although occasionally I think about my Achilles, the amount of time (consciously thinking) has been significantly reduced. Incidentally, my time for this year’s 10 mile run was one minute and 10 seconds slower. However, the race distance was increased by first running the circumference of the parking lot which suggests that I actually ran faster this year. On a side note, one outstanding female runner named Mo complained and her running time was approximately 2 minutes slower this year.
To be continued:
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