Running / ankle update. Achilles tendinitis…

Just wanted to put out a quick update on my running since the WFPS Half Marathon.

I have done a few runs since the race but I am way off schedule at this point. About a day after the WFPS Half my right ankle started to ache pretty bad when I tried to move it and it essentially locked up for a day or so. For a few days after that, if I sat at my desk for any length of time it would lock up again resulting in a fair bit of limping.

I’ve done a few runs since that went fairly well with the ankle feeling ok but with same issues popping up the next day and for a few days after.

And then a couple days ago the ankle was aching a bit more than it had been and I noticed some swelling just above my ankle. It was a pretty decent lump that was visible through my sock!

Looks like it is achilles tendinitis. Yay.

I have been pretty consistent with stretching it since it started aching and doing some strengthening exercises but now I have also started regular icing of the area and have doubled up the stretching at work to make sure it doesn’t stiffen up.

There isn’t much more I can do about it at this point besides take it a bit easy…but of course the Goofy Challenge is coming up so I can’t back off completely. And then on the other hand I want to make sure I don’t cause a permanent issue by taking it too lightly.

With that in mind I have come up with a bit of a plan:

1. Keep stretching and icing regularly (doing it right now)
2. Keep doing ankle and calve strengthening exercises
3. Any run will be proceeded by a warm up – I am getting older and maybe I shouldn’t be starting out at speed. On the treadmill nights that means high incline walks to stretch and warm up. On outdoor days I am going to have to start slow and build up speed.
4. Ankle will be iced immediately after any run
5. Monitor, monitor, monitor – if things go south or don’t improve I will need to make other changes quickly to avoid injury

I will follow that over the next couple weeks and see how things go – clock is ticking though as in 10 weeks I will be Orlando for the Goofy Challenge and I need to make some improvements before then.

So what caused the issue though?

For the Fort Garry Rotary half in mid September I ran in an older pair of shoes that I thought were still ok but apparently they weren’t as I had some ankle pain after that race. I didn’t think much about it at the time though.

Then a couple weeks later the Lemming Loop took place and about 6 hours into that race I switched to the same shoes that I had worn during Fort Garry Rotary Half. And I had ankle issues again that definitely ate into the number of miles I could have done. Combine that with not being really ready for the Lemming Loop and that would put extra stress on things.

WFPS was good and I used a completely different pair of shoes but I did push the speed more than I have lately so I put extra stress on the ankle there too.

Long story short – I ran in a bad set of shoes and then compounded it with a very long run and some time in the same set of shoes. And then I pushed fairly hard on the stressed joint.

So now I need to rebuild…again. But if I do it smart I can still do well at the Goofy Challenge!