Monkeys and tea

Running, coding and other things

First Run Back

I’ve been pretty much keeping to my recovery plan this week albeit with a few modifications.

I only cycled for the first two days of the week — we had 30 mph winds here on the ride home and I could really feel the strain on my calves whilst battling against them. It didn’t feel too restful.

Making Progress

I’m starting to feel a lot more positive now. Although I still have the tightness in the morning it’s a lot better than it was. The sore patch on the back of my heel is feeling a lot better and I’m no longer getting the sickening feeling there when coming out of Achilles / calf stretches.

Resting Up

I’m now on my fourth day since injuring my Achilles on my Thursday tempo run. My current focus is taking a full week off running whilst doing stretching, icing, massage and as much cross training as I can.

The Run Less Run Faster book says:

Do not be concerned about a missed workout, nor should you try and squeeze it in later. Stay on schedule with the next workout and don’t risk interfering with it. … It becomes more complicated if you missed a workout because of injury. … If you miss a week of training it’s typically not a problem, either. Over 16 weeks you aren’t going to lose your fitness with missing a week. Again, continue with the schedule as if you had completed that missed week’s training.

The Plan

There are a few things I’m going to do this week to try and make sure I both recover quickly and return to running (if I am able) as fit as possible. The main focus is getting blood to the area, The ‘Lore of Running’, a.k.a ‘The Bible’ says that one of the reasons why achilles injuries can take a while to heal is lack of blood flow to the area.

KT Tape

KT Tape, like Rock Tape is a special tape which is meant to have the same stretch as human skin. You can layer it on different areas to give support and promote blood flow (and thus healing) to the affected area. It’s also meant to be waterproof, but that’s not proven to be true so far :p. Saying that I am using the classic and not the pro version.

So far it’s definitely helping in terms of support and pain relief. I’m putting it on after swimming and then wearing it through the night until the following day.

I found a useful video about how to apply it for heel pain:

KT Tape: Heel
Heel Pain The heel is obviously a very important part of our lives. It takes a great deal of repetitive force with every step and can become susceptible to injury and pain as those steps become forceful. The pain can linger for many years and end up causing many other problems if not treated correctly. This KT Tape application can not only relieve the pain you feel, but help you to avoid the compensation injuries that arise from walking around on a painful heel. Overuse in exercise, drastic weight gain, or standing for long periods of time are often the cause of the pain. Heel pain can be caused by a number of condtions including tendonitis, inflamed bursae, arthritis, nerve damage, stress fractures, contusions, or plantar fasciitis and the resulting heel spurs – among many other conditions. Heel Spurs – bony growths that occur at the attachment of the plantar fascia to the heel bone. Degradation of the plantar fascia – this degradation of the collagen fibres is commonly referred to as plantar fasciitis. Once thought to be an inflammatory condition, plantar fasciitis is now thought to be caused by dysfunction near the attachment site. Fat Pad Contusion – caused by intense or repetitive impact. These conditions can cause the fat pad to be pushed away leaving less of a protective layer between the bones in the foot and the ground. Stress Fracture – very common in road runners, a stress fracture of the heel bone can be identified by re-creating the pain by squeezing the back of the heel. Compressed Nerves – there are many important nerves that travel along the bottom of the foot. There are also multiple bones that form the foot. When these nerves get in between these bones and become “pinched” there is a great deal of pain involved. Inflamed Bursae – bursae are small sacs of fluid that provide cushion and reduce friction between bones. When these sacs become inflamed they grow in size and cause pain. KT Tape has been very helpful for general heel pain through its ability to provide support without limiting mobility. By creating surface tension on the skin over the area needing support, KT Tape creates a light and comfortable support structure that relieves pain and facilitates mobility. In short, KT Tape along with ice and rest will help relieve the pain and help promote the healing process. For additional resources, please visit the KT Tape website at www.kttape.com.

Ice

We get a weekly vegetable box, this week they gave us some free chilled stuff and it had a convenient freezable ice block. I’ve misappropriated it for icing my heel. I was doing it twice a day at the weekend, during the week I’ll be doing it every evening for half an hour or so before bed whilst keeping my foot raised above my heart.

I was also confused about heat vs. cold on injuries - I read the other day though that cooling the area brings blood to it in order to try and warm it up so I guess that makes sense now. I also read that you should avoid heat until the swelling goes down.

Massage

The length of my left Achilles was a bit sore so I’ve been massaging that in the morning and before I go to sleep + any other time I get the chance. I also bought some deep heat lotion for sports massage which has been really good. Additionally I’ve been massaging the bone on the back of my heel where the focus of the pain is. Another person on a forum said that if you’re starting to get a heel spur forming there, massage can help break down the calcifying bits. Additionally, like the icing, massage promotes blood flow.

Stretching

I’m doing two stage calf stretches whenever I go near a flight of stairs. So first where you lower the foot, the second where you then bend the knee. I’m trying to do about 20-30 seconds per stretch and repeat them too if I get a chance.

I think one of the contributing factors to getting this injury was insufficient stretching after my runs resulting in a tight calf muscle and Achilles.

Cross training

Last but not least is cross training. When I go back to running I want to lose as little fitness as possible. The program I’m following advocates two cross training sessions a week of about 1hr total, which I have been more than doing. This week I’m going to cycle to and from work each day (1hr total per day) as well as my usual three mid week swims (1.5hrs) I also did two extra swims at the weekend (1hr) so that should give me 7.5hrs cross training. I’m missing about 4hrs of running, so hopefully this will balance out.

Fingers crossed

I’m confident that I can stick to all of that - it’s not like I don’t have enough time with the running gone — and hopefully I might come back stronger from the rest. I’ll assess the injury towards the end of the week with an easy run and see how it feels. My expectation is that I need to introduce some body weight strengthening exercises beyond yoga and I may have to scale back the speed work for a few weeks.

The most important thing is that I stop this from getting any worse and make sure it has a chance to heal properly. No more over achieving in the wind!

January Summary

Well, I managed to complete my training this month, albeit on a slightly bad note. More on that later.

Activity Count Distance Time
Running 14 activities 102.7 miles 15:41:06
Cycling 33 activities 140.99 miles 12:13:00
Swimming 10 activities 5.62 miles 4:07:27

Will I, Won’t I?

Looking at my Garmin totals, I’m currently at 77.67 miles so far this month. My previous highest was February 2011 when I got to 84.99 miles. Given that I have a complete weeks worth of runs left this month it’s looking good for setting a new record (all going well)! I’ll post how this goes early February.

A Typical Week

It’s been a shockingly long time since my last post, probably not helped by the fact that during that time I got injured back in September and couldn’t run for six weeks!

Despite this setback I’ve managed to settle into a training pattern and so far, touch wood, it’s working out well.

Running Calibration 2/3 - DNF

When beginning a running program, the biggest muscle group that needs to be addressed is patience, and a focus on appropriate goals… as opposed to impatience and focusing on ego-based fantasies.

For those of you who don’t know, DNF stands for Did Not Finish.

Garmin ANT Agent and Fitbit on Mac OS X Not Working?

I’ve been using Fitbit for a couple of months now and love it. Planning routes around town and my day to day activities are no longer ‘which way is most efficient’, but ‘how can I sneak the most steps and hills in’.

The only thing which upset me was that the next time I tried to sync my Garmin it wouldn’t connect!