3/9/10

Tuesday's Training: Am: 82.30 easy to steady Pm: 38 mins easy

Mileage: 20 miles

Today was a hard day for me. It was more of a mental issue than anything as my achilles was aching and I was thinking about it quite a lot. I woke up with my left achilles being really tight and the snow coming down heavily outside. This was a worry for me as I didn’t want to slip and do any damage to my leg but there was a route I had in mind that would maybe be clear so I headed over to the gym so I could start from there and get some stretching in before hand. I got there and did a half mile jog on the treadmill so that I could stretch and roll my calves out on the foam roller before I started. I quickly decided to stay indoors and hit the treadmill as when I look outside again, the snow was coming down thicker and I just didn’t to risk anything. I hopped onto the treadmill and started out pretty easily with some minor pain in my achilles but after a few miles the pain decreased and I was able to get into my running. I knew this was going to be a boring run as I was to 75 to 85 mins so I loaded my Ipod with the last few chapters of Iain Bank's new book "The Transition" and also 2 episodes of the News Quiz Podcast. This actually made the time fly by and by the end of the run I was moving along well. I finished at 14 miles and went down stairs to get into some dry clothes before I started my weights. Once I had gone downstairs and into the locker room, my achilles really ached and I debated whether it was a good idea to do any lifting or bounding and decided against it. I wrapped into some warm clothes and headed home to ice my achilles and get a bit of rest. I napped for an hour and woke up to find a text message from Julie saying to come over to her work if I wanted some treatment. I quickly got changed and headed over (its less than a mile from where we live). She treated me with some iontophoresis which I have had some success with before so I went back home and let the medicine do its magic (it takes 3-4 hours).

Our training group has been very lucky to be given a trial of an Alter G treadmill. Greg managed to get the company to loan us one with the hopes of doing some fundraising around town to see if we could permanently keep it town. Greg and Tracy will shortly be hosting a dinner night to attract some of the doctors and PTs from the local medical facilities to see if they would be interested in using the Alter G also and help with the funding of the machine. I still hadn't used it so this was the perfect opportunity to do so as I could still run and take some of the pressure off of my achilles. Julie was really interested in seeing it in action also so I picked her up after work and we headed out to Greg's house to use it.

The machine is awesome and so helpful if you are injured. It takes a little getting used to but it did take the pressure off my achilles and I was able to run almost pain free. I started at 80% body weight and worked my way up to 100% for the last mile as my achilles warmed up. It looks like I may be out at Greg's quite a lot to run on the treadmill while my achilles heals.