Last night, what I call my baseline run where I can see progress or otherwise returned another PB time and an average pace of 9min 46 seconds per mile. Also noting a lower peek heart rate too. Loads of margin for error on that but I’ll note it all the same. VO2 max also now at 43 which is entering the ‘good’ category whatever that means.
Checked weight this morning and I’m still at 13 stone 4 lbs. Nothing moving despite some diet changes, the exercise and feeling leaner across my middle. This is just weird, I was expecting some immediate drop but there’s been nothing.
could be achilles tendonopathy, like what I have. 40 years of a multitude of sports is taking its toll. I tore a calf in a game and the scans on my tendons shows tons of micro-tears. I was told to start stretching more and to avoid jumping from heights which are a shock load to the Achilles.
So I now show up 60min before game time to warm up and stretch. my cousin and my sister have both had surgery to rebuild theirs, I guess it’s a genetic thing but we’re all athletes so could just come with the territory.
I have had the habit of pausing a couple of times every day up and down the stairs to get an Achilles tendon stretch for at least a decade now. It has kept the tendonitis at bay, but if I get skip perhaps 3 days, I swear I can feel the damn things shortening - particularly my right leg, relating to an injury further up that leg.
I’ve been trying to do yoga every morning when I get up, simple 10min routine just to get blood flow going as I sit all day. it definitely helps though.
Thanks guys, yeah definitely looks like tendonitis, probably made worse by my tendancy to run on the outside of my feet, right leg is particularly bad.
Tonight’s run was a bit weird. Did my benchmark 2.65 miles. New PB but my legs felt really heavy and just not ready to go. Also had the death tingle in my left calf but I loosened towards the end. Garmin says my effort was mild. I didn’t feel too bad from a breathing perspective, just dead legs. But still a PB time, just.
Turns out they are absolutely terrible for your feet if you do any substantial walking in them. You tend to scrunch up your foot to keep them on, and then that shortens everything all the way up the chain of muscles of the back of your leg. If that state is sustained that shortness and tension tends to remain even after you unscrunch your foot. I started developing some really unexpected calf issues and took me a while to make the connection.
I dream of living a life in flip-flops. that means it’s tropical/warm and someplace close to a beach. Haven’t experienced the scrunching of the foot you’re describing though.
Do/did you ever suffer from shin splints? I’m sure my achilles are very tight, particularly on my right too, maybe due to ankle or calf injuries I’ve suffered in the past? I suffered a badly sprained ankle when stepping onto a curb drunk and tore my calf playing table tennis ffs.
I haven’t been able to run for years without getting shin splints and we’re talking very short distances. My ankle mobility when squatting is terrible as well. I’ll give the stair trick a try, I’ve been recommended that before.
I recall shin splints were a part of the problem, but not the most significant one. My problems actually started with an I-T band that was far too tight, began moving my patella up and out of the knee (!) and caused guarding problems all the way down the rest of the leg. That was compounded by a foot injury that put scar tissue into the top of my ankle joint, preventing it from sliding. Bizarrely, I spent four years walking with a limp, but able to run perfectly well. Achilles tendon, the heel ‘plate’ sort of locked up (cannot remember the proper name for it), and plantar fasciitis all developed at various times. The I-T band problem has been fixed, the stretching keeps the tendonitis at bay, but the heel is still an issue.
My understanding is that shin splints can come from several problems in the working of the leg, but lengthening the Achilles is definitely one of them. It is just a ritual I have a few times a day, 60 seconds on the first step, yet it has made a significant difference.
Current weight as of this morning is 13st 2lbs. A bit down but still stubbornly slow in moving. This is despite me feeling slimmer and actually almost fitting back into my old ski pants, something that was embarrassingly impossible 2 years ago when I last tried them. So things are moving in the right direction it seems but in a confusing manner (to me anyway). Could be our old scales are knackered for example.
Anyway, I had a good run yesterday. 2.75 miles in 27.5 minutes on a slightly bumpy course. I felt quite strong on this one, coping with the uphill sections far better. I even reached a zen moment where I became completely relaxed and unaware of my breathing. Took over 1.5 miles to get there though.
Just the achilles tightness to resolve now. I’m feeling it half way up my lower leg on my left peg, right where the achilles joins the calf muscle and at the base of my heel on the right peg. I’ve got some insoles coming to try out.
Another run tonight on my usual post work route. Felt a bit heavy on it but was met with an surprise upon finishing. Smashed my PB by a country mile. 2,64 miles in sub 26 minutes. That’s a minute less than previous times. No wonder it felt like a struggle.
Vo2 max is now 45 dooda’s which is firmly in the good category apparently.
What really pushed me on (granted a few years ago) was competing with my brother. He’d post a 3 mile time, I’d do the same but we couldn’t till we beat the other’s time. Mapmyrun so was pretty accurate.
We could do that here? Make it a straight 4km? I’m starting from scratch again, happy to? Bit of inspiration TBH.
