Achilles Tendonitis and a Trail Run

Ugh…it never fails.  Just when training is going exactly the way it should be, something happens.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some fast stuff in spikes and because of that, I began to have pain on the back of my heel.  It really flared up after I did that 1,500 time trial last Tuesday.  I decided to take a few days off while at the beach, did yoga on Monday and ran on Tuesday evening while my daughter was at her dance class.  Granted, Tuesday’s run ended up being very productive…but the first 1.5 – 2 miles were utter hell!  Wednesday night’s run was awful.  I made it around the block and called it quits.   

I had a sneaky suspicion that I may have a slight case of tendonitis {Jesse did too}.  I had the classic symptoms: pain decreasing as the tendon got warmed up during a run, and pain upon rising out of bed in the morning and then subsiding once I walked around for a little bit.  

All was justified when I saw one of my husband’s athletic trainers on Wednesday night.  Achilles tendonitis is what I have and thank goodness, it’s not the end of the world.  I can still run, but he wants me to slightly decrease my mileage, apply nightly ice massages with water frozen in paper cups, stretch when the Achilles is warmed up {such as after a shower or after running for a bit}, and I need to periodically take some ibuprofen to lessen the inflammation.  I can do that…easy, peasy!  

Thursday night I attempted a flat, trail run with Jesse.  I want to do an upcoming story for Lehigh Valley Magazine on the various running and walking trails that are available here in our area, so we hit the Saucon Valley Rail Trail for 6 miles.

The verdict?  We started out slow {~8:00 pace} and gradually picked up the pace.  My heel hurt slightly in the beginning, but it was nothing compared to Wednesday’s run.  About half way through, we stopped to stretch per the trainer's instructions.  We hit the first three miles in 22:44, but our second half was faster, running 19:39.  Our fifth mile was ~6:25 and the final mile was run in 6:13.  Honestly, I felt pretty darn good with little pain.  

Again, I'm sure glad that Bodi {the trainer} didn’t tell me to stop running.  I’ve had various forms of tendonitis in the past and although it’s not pleasant, it’s curable and workable. 

Have you ever had any form of tendonitis?  If so, where? And what did you do to lessen the pain?

Have a great Saturday!

Tracy