Im Recovering from an Injury

Well it seems that if your a runner then you will also be recovering from an injury at some point. The last 2 weeks have shown me that im no exception to this rule.

So whats up with me?

I have an inflammed Achilles Tendon... seems my achilles heel is my achilles (sorry couldnt resist).

2 weeks ago i did a barefoot run for the first time partly on non natural surfaces, as a result i had some blistering on my toes, but other than that my feet felt fine, no soreness, no tightness, just the blisters. So that night i decided to skip my normal run and do some drills with My kids, then talk them through some speed workouts. I dont know what did it, but i think perhapes i was sitting my foot down differently because of the blisters, but within an hour and a half of finishing the session with the kids, my heel was feeling a little bit sore.

The next day i woke up to a heel that was so sore that i was forced to limp, and be carefull not to flex my foot at the ankle at all. I realised it was a lot more serious than i had imagined the night before.

I immediately started a recovery program, icing several times each day, I stayed off it as much as possible, and kept the foot elevated as much as a desk job allows. At the time i was hoping a couple of days would see me right and id be able to run again pretty soon.

However 2 days later i was still hobbling along, there was no ache  just pain when i flexed at the ankle... stretching the achilles. So then i started taking Ibuprofen, and kept on icing... Over the next few days things slowly started getting better, my walk improved from a hobble to a limp. But there was still soreness when i flexed too far.

After about 8 days i felt like it was probably good enough to consider running on, but following some excellent advice I decided to give it an extra day or two after i felt it was ok to run on again.  My first run was a slow 6k, 11 days after getting the injury. The run was ok, the heel felt tight, and ached a little after the run. And of course the legs were a bit stiff after almost 2 weeks siting out. I decided to rest a couple more days, then join my runninng buddies for a slow group run. The heel held up good that time, and there was no soreness afterwards.

So this week im easing back into my training. Its quite challenging for me personally not to go out too far or too fast.

the injury has put an end to my goal of attempting a sub 20 min 5k, I havent been able to do any of the tempo work that id been planing for, and rather than risk agravating the injury further ill just keep things easy for the next few weeks, and then start looking at ramping up into my fall Marathon training.