Achilles MRI report

 So, got the report.  Partial tears of the Achilles tendon.  Not surprising.  Need to sleep on a bit the next steps (but almost certainly will not be immediate surgery).

Friday 01JAN2021

I have not blogged in 3 months.  I changed the security of the blog so that it was invite only.  

This was because of a few reasons.  For one, I wasn't really running, and was frustrated with my inability to get that corrected.  I know that has not much with whether I blog or not but this is sort of a running blog and simply stating everyday "didn't run" seemed unnecessary.

I also felt that I had nothing relevant to say on a blog.  I still don't but, for the moment, I recognize that in writing some things down, there is some benefit to me.

There were a handful of other reasons why I stopped blogging and changed the security if I am being honest.  I sort of chalk it up to saying I needed to step away from social media for a bit.  That is partly true, and it is an easy answer for when I am asked, but it is not all of it.  But I am not going to unpack that laundry here.

In any case, my lawn mower foot Achilles is just a wreck.  I can't really run without aggravating it significantly.  I can run through it but it just gets progressively worse to where then walking is painful.  I stopped running on it (again) about a week before Thanksgiving.  I also got it looked at by a podiatrist the first week of December.  Initial x-rays on it didn't show anything conclusive, but there was some speculation I could have been dealing with a stress reaction.  I got on some steriodial anti-inflammatories and stuck to the rest protocol.

I missed running of course.  But I was not neurotic "oh my god I am not running."  In fact, a lot of days, I didn't miss it at all.  And I could see not doing it at all.  It would be pretty easy actually.  

I got in the bike a lot of days.  On warm days I'd get outside.  Sometimes this was with someone, like JZ.  In case it is not obvious, I will state here the obvious:  biking next to someone who is running is hardly significant exercise.  At least for probably most people with some basic level of fitness.  

On cold days, I'd hit the stationary bike.  I sort of hate that but there are advantages in that I can sit there with the ipad and roll through various things (music vids, work webinars, some reading).  The stationary is a bit better I think in that the effort is constant (say v. uphills/downhills outdoors), but I find it fairly dreadful.  But it beats the alternative - which is sitting on my ass and doing nothing.

I have gotten a bit better at the body weight work.  I am probably doing something for 20-30 minutes around 4 days a week.  Pull ups, push ups, core, squats, etc.  Nothing noteworthy, but given I ignore that stuff, I am actually seeing some benefit from it.

Today, I ran 4.  I know, that sounds totally dumb and my ankle is barking now because of it.  It was just around 8:30-9 pace on the ditch.  I have an MRI on Tuesday and figured since there are no bonus points for showing up with a nice looking Achilles, well, why the eff not ... and so I jogged.  No surprise - in addition to pissing my foot off, I also learned I have lost significant aerobic fitness.  So biology still works.   

I think the MRI will likely show some sort of tear or something that could mean a surgical thing.  That would likely mean a down time of 6-12 months in regards to running.  Arguably, if that is the case, the question is if that is the better of the options than not doing something surgical and just resting for that period.  I mean, I am not sure if a surgical option that screws me up for that long is a great idea to come back to run 25 minute 5ks anyway.  I might just go the Ryan Hall route of fitness instead.  

Week ending 13SEP2020

Monday late - ran over to the gym, got in a lift with GW - this felt good to get a bit of that work.  Ran for another bit post.  5 miles.  Achilles feels like garbage.  Smokey - but the temps were dropping from the 90s as the weather was blowing in

Tuesday AM - rain/snow mix.  Yes - a mix of that given it was in the 90s yesterday.  Good news is that it knocked the smoke down.  4 miles with GW along the paved sides of the Ditch.  

Tuesday PM - 5.1 miles during practice.  Lots of snow.

Wednesday PM - 5 miles during practice.  I need to get back to some good habits.

Thursday AM - trying to reboot the brain to get past the concern about the Achilles.  5 miles with GW and a few of the athletes.  Felt nice actually.  The Achilles was crap but it felt good to start the day this way.  

Friday - 10 miles around practice.  

Saturday - 10 miles in the afternoon - post meet.

Sunday AM - 10 miles out of Commons, Braun joined for a little over the first half.

Meh.  

Week ending 24NOV2019

A bit of a crash of a week, with the Achilles really flaring up and the travel.  The running is more for my head than my fitness. 

Really hard for me not to run the Mall though.






v


Monday - 3 miles on the mill in the AM.
Tuesday - 3 miles on the mill in the AM.
Tuesday - 5 and change miles on the Mall in the PM.
Wednesday - 3.3 miles in the AM
Thursday - off
Friday - back to CO - 3.1 miles in the PM

Saturday - 6.4 miles in the afternoon
Sunday - 10.4 miles, most of it with Greg and Gabby.


Saw Mark P on Saturday at his shop, and got some e-stim on the Achilles.  Also putting some various salves and balms on it and using a cork lift in the heel on that side.



Low mileage week but that is what it is.  No Turkey Trot ambitions here this year as I am just trying to keep it all together with duct tape and bailing wire.

Week ending 17NOV2019

Blur of a week.  Came into it from CT and into ATL.  Did a spin back home for a few days but then ended up back in DC on Sunday.

My Achilles is pissed enough that I'll officially budge and call it an injury.  I took Saturday off from running (biked a bunch instead) but I failed on the discipline on Sunday - as I had to run the Mall again.

MON PM - 7.4 miles

TUE PM - 5.1 miles on the hotel treadmill.  It was raining out and I really didn't have the gear or the heart to do that in the dark.
WED PM - back in CO, 3.7 miles right hitting the door getting home.

Went and played a mic up at 300 Suns on Wednesday night.  Even decided to throw down a bit of Post Malone in the jam circle.

THUR AM - 5.2 miles with Greg and Braun.

Another four and a half in the afternoon after watching Lauren sign her letter of intent to UNLV.  Woot woot.


Friday - stupid to run but I did - 8.3 miles around practice.
Saturday - no running but got in 20 plus on the bike.  Dumbly underdressed and had to bike harder to stay warm enough.
Sunday - 6.2 miles on the Mall.




I’ll have to figure this foot thing out.  It might need time off but I don’t know … meh. 

Friday 03JUN2016

AM – 49 minutes.

On whole I am pleased with how this week is going from an exercise-training perspective.  The problems in the right Achilles are still there to some degree but have become manageable.  That might be because it has healed a bit, or that I am masking it with my self built heel lift I have slipped into the Cliftons, or that I have just become used to it.  But in any case, I have been able to manage 45 to 60 minute runs day after day and that is a significant step forward over the last month. 

I am continuing to pick at the 10 minute a day routine of squats, lunges, core, etc.  I am not sure how much it helps move things forward, but I suspect that it helps from moving backwards over the long haul (at least slowing it to some degree).

We booked the ticket to get KZ to DC, which is where, in three weeks, she starts her year long trip to Germany.  As any parent would expect, it is both an exciting time and a “holy crap” time. 

Off to camp with the boy for the weekend.

Afternoon – 32 minutes easy.  It is nice that summer appears to finally be arriving.

Tuesday 24MAY2016

Items of focus lately …

• Getting my new business off the ground.  I have categorized what I am doing there into four buckets.
• Pitch / Sales – with my peers, selling the services of my new company to prospective clients
• Infrastructure – setting up the LLC, email, doc system, calendars, payroll, buy/sell and operating agreements, etc.
• Company culture – while I have worked with my colleagues for several years in a corporate setting and trust their character and skill set without question, this setting has pitched us new challenges and we are determining who is better at what and hence does certain types of work, while also navigating new issues of trust
• Actual performing of work – in other words, executing on the services we actually get paid for.  All of the above are to support this.
• Getting Jack acclimated to run this season, and down here in a new field in Louisville.  Related to this is helping Bill get ramped up with a bunch of prospective runners for burro racers this summer.
  
• finishing school for the kids which includes getting the senior through graduation, prepping the back yard and house for a party for all the people who came in for that, getting the freshman through finals, ramping up on what is next for Germany (while keeping a now finished senior appropriately focused as there are no lack of other fun things to do …)
• Scouts – planning a trip for two weeks of canoeing in Canada this summer.  The canoeing is the easy part.  Getting flights, rental cars, med forms, passports, etc is not.  (and other Scout camping trips)
• XC/Track assistance – while this has wound down, I have clearly used some of my free time in my transition between jobs to help with the track squad.
  
  

… and of course my own running.  Which is sort of non-existent at the time.  I have been wondering if my Achilles issue is its own stand alone issue (that I think comes about from a failure starting with my lawn mower foot, gets exaggerated by my lack of strength in other mobility directions, gets exaggerated by probably 85k miles on this frame, perhaps a change in my form, another year of aging, etc) or if it is something else.  My right elbow has had a connective issue for about the same time (I tweaked it shoveling some really heavy snow) … and so am I dealing with basic inflammation issues?  Whatever …  I am basically at a point now where if I run I am aggravating an injury and not letting it heal, or if I don’t run I am losing fitness.   Duh …

But outside all of this I have been refocusing on my efforts to  find the so called “perfect day.”  I am not wholly sure what the definition of this completely is other than seeking the right choices in all that I do in a day.  That I choose right in my interactions and communications with my family, my co-workers and friends.  That I choose right in what I put in my mouth from a diet perspective.  That I choose to spend my time and efforts on things appropriately.  “Where ever possible, be kind.  It is always possible.”  In any day I fail.  I eat poorly, have an outburst or snarky comment towards someone, or waste time on useless unnecessary activities. 

===============================================================
As a part of graduation activities, I learned Boulder Valley School District does not award a valedictorian or similar honor.  Apparently some students got so GPA focused on this that you’d end up with a half dozen kids or more that all took the highest weight classes and aced them all and so you’d have that many valedictorians.  Because of that and in the spirit of having kids pursue classes that were more appropriate for them, rather than for GPA, BVSD dropped it.  BHS did recognize the various cum laude designations and NHS students.  Within the the summa cum lauds there were two designated student speakers and I wondered if they were indeed the two top students.  I can see and understand why BVSD took this approach but I wonder if we have lost something by not recognizing the “winner.”
===============================================================

Evening – 3 slow miles.

Sunday 032909 5 miles, 3 miles

• Local  Buzz Burrell gets some pub on Runner's World
• Our house sump pit actually pumps water out.  We use it to pump water up and out into the yard.  It started pushing water out nearly every 15 minutes today ... (first time this year).
• AM - easy five miles, 39 minutes.  So the good news is that the Achilles was not pissed off this AM.  I think the best way for me to describe how it feels is this:  there is a small range of motion when it is most stretched where it complains a bit.  Of course, on a run, this occurs at the push off point with every stride - so I feel it.  It is not nearly as bad as it was say two weeks ago but it is not 100% healed.  I feel that I am in a bit of a situation like I was last year.  I got to a point last year with the sports hernia where I concluded additional rest would not really be helpful and I just started training again.  (side note, that injury has slowly gotten better ... I'd say 85% better ... I can still feel that weakness in certain positions, mostly squatting).   So I am going to lean on this bugger a bit and build back on it ... carefully.  Again I was tempted to do more today ... but I need to be careful. 
• Some stats ... waking HR was 44.  Weight at wake up was 139.5.
• A bit sore in the lower back from yesterday's shoveling (there were large chunks of ice that had melted under the snow).  Got in core again today (like 40 minutes .... solid stuff).
• 20 weeks until Pikes as of today.  I want to build back into the program I had originally outlined, but I expect it to shift a bit as I work on getting back into the groove.  I will look to compliment the program / return with a good amount of bike work (probably stat bike).
• Snow bathed the legs for 15 minutes.  This definitely garners crazy looks as people go by.
• PM - picked up a new pair of shoes and figured I give them a spin.  The legs were feeling good so I was curious to test the Achilles a bit.  About the same ... easy three miles, 23 minutes
• Month / year so far (with 12 miles / 91 minutes this week) ... , ... Month 182 miles, month 1370 minutes; Year 779 miles, 5777 minutes