*(Includes last Sunday's run)
I know where to start, I'm just not sure I want to start as to why this week's mileage has been absent. I hate injuries, especially when I can't pin-point the cause. So, as a professor once told me, "always start in the middle."
Wednesday night left me feeling unbelievably strong -in terms of my rock climbing ability- and worried about my running. I haven't run since Sunday, and not because I'm tired; in fact, muscularly and mentally I feel at the top, but because I've bruised my left Achilles tendon so sufficiently I can't wear shoes to walk around-in. I've gone the majority of two days without putting on shoes that have a back. I'm not jumping off the deep-end in the latest installment of "barefoot is better," I literally cannot wear a shoe on my left heel. I have no pain, or loss of motion as far as the tendon's functionality is concerned. I can run, jump, dance, do calf raises, rock climb -barefoot- and feel absolutely nothing. But the moment something touches my heel -even a sock- I'm belittled to nothing more than a complaint.
Monday, I took to the pool for a great 30 minute swim, my heel didn't really hurt, I even wore shoes to work. Then I headed to Adrenaline Climbing for some more upper body cross-training, put my climbing shoes on, noticed a slight discomfort, ignored, and climbed well.
Tuesday, I put a shoe on in the morning and took it off. Went to work shoe-less, put a shoe on and ran 1 mile with the Tuesday Night Run group, noticed the heel the entire time. Went home, went to sleep. Should have iced.
Wednesday, I went to work barefoot. Climbed, that evening, sparingly. Did some great boulder routes and felt super strong. Guess not running 30 miles before rock climbing will tend to lend me some more energy.
Thursday, no shoes all day. Took a level one Krav Maga class, barefoot. And even went to the bar barefoot for St. Patty's Day imbibing.
Friday, no shoes. But I did make some neat sandals out of old shoe liners and old shoe laces. Went out around some, unfortunately, frat-tastic dive bars, in my homemade sandals. No pain the entire night. Things seem to be looking up. I'll try to run tomorrow, shod (shoe+d, drop the "e" add a "d" and you're left with the correct spelling for someone with shoes on, and a word that looks like an ebonic spelling of shorty, or dude, or something of that nature.)
Saturday, I plan on running 20 miles of Sunday's Publix Georgia Marathon (they really need a better name) so, I lace up some shoes run up my drive way and head right back inside. The pain is at it's worse. I cut the back of the shoe off, literally, ran about a 1/4 mile and had to make the decision to bail. It's too risky and I need to heal.
Sunday, I took my altered shoes to the track, ran 2 miles, decided the backless shoe (now a running clog) isn't for me. Took my shoes off and ran 2 more miles on the in-field of the track barefoot, and with no noticeable tendon pain.
Plan of action: I'm at a loss for how this injury even happened, and more so, what the hell I'm going to do to fix it. The 50k is four weeks away...and any plans on a fast 50k have gone out the window. The goal is to just run and finish well, now. Ice, no shoes, run this upcoming week's mileage either barefoot on a track, or in the deep end of a pool. Anybody got any more suggestions?
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