Last week’s goals
1. 7/7 healthy coping- done! Now 19 days in a row!
2. Continue to make smart choices easing back to sport - done!
3. Journal daily - done!
4. PT exercises as directed - done!
5. Practice 2 min pauses daily - did some days

Sports: the following plus some walks
M- 2000 yd swim
T - 3.2 mi run
W - 2000 yd swim
Th - 2600 yd swim + 3.3 mi run
F - 3.4 mi run
S - 3.11 mi run + 1200 yd swim
S - 4.6 mi run

Totals 7600 yds and 17.6 mi

Goals for this week are the same as last, w additional goal of no run today to give legs a break (also, hamstring has been a little sore and while I am confident it is just the return to run soreness and from running fast on Th and F, it is smart to give it time to recover. That is this is normal, not injury, but I still need to be good to it)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur (not necessarily in a bad way). Recommitting to some goals and accountability.

This week:
1) Do workouts as planned (so far, check!)
2) Do PT/prehab work everyday
3) Healthy nutrition
4) Look at goals list in am, midday and pm

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

(1) 10k steps every day without aggravating the left Achilles or the bottom of the left foot (too much). (I've been able to do this the last 3 weeks, but it's like watching paint dry.)
(2) Plan out each day the night before.
(3) Control time online.

Maybe to be amended later when I have time.

(Only succeeded on #1 last week.)

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

do you have an achilles rehab program? Is it insertional achilles or the more standard one?

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

A really good training week last week (best I’ve felt whilst doing a decent load for quite a while): 11k swim, 8(ish) hrs bike, 3.5hrs run; got my intensity sessions done well; got my strength session done; did 2 of 4 prehab sessions. Not sure what to say about my nutrition … I’m kinda in ‘heightened awareness mode’ … which is potentially helpful, even if I haven’t really changed anything yet!

Recce of new duathlon race venue went well - the runs will be in the grounds of a stately home and the bike on nice country roads. And lots of space for transition and race village etc.

Now 3 weeks until first race (2 training weeks + a taper/travel week). For the week ahead my goal is simply to back-up last weeks effort with another good week. And practice race nutrition.

I believe it's insertional based on where the pain has been. (I saw a doctor and he said it was the achilles, although at the time I had a lot more pain in my foot after a false (rotation) movement in the garden. I don't see how the foot pain was related to it, as I haven't been able to find info about a foot tendon connecting there.)

Since I wasn't wild about the original diagnosis (no explanation about the foot) I've just been going old-school: Take it really easy and observe what seems to bother it. I stayed off of it for a long time (starting in October); when I started back up I found that I had to limit cadence, step length, and walking duration at any given time. (For a while I greatly shortened my stride with my right leg, as a regular stride seemed to aggravate the left achilles a lot.) I found the usual stretches that I used when I had (the usual) achilles problems from before seemed to aggravate it. (These were the exercises the doctor recommended.)

So now I've been taking the attitude of the 100/100 and just trying to put in (fairly) constant volume to start strengthening the achilles as well as whatever's going on in the foot. One day I did 20k steps total, which didn't feel too bad, but the next day, when getting up after studying in bed, my left leg didn't feel asleep but the muscles didn't respond at all for about 20 seconds, to the point where I had to hold onto the bed to avoid falling down, so I'm trying to be more careful.

Anyway, your question caused me to look up treatment for the insertional form, and I will try what I found, which involves eccentric exercise without ankle dorsiflexion. (I'm going off the info on the page
https://runningwritings.com/2011/09/injury-series-flat-eccentric-heel-drops.html.)


This morning I walked 4 miles (8k steps) outside (in the 80s, so not too cold) using a metronome to keep my cadence down (to 125) (67-year-old body over type A mind instead of the usual vice versa), and was doing about 15 minute miles, so I wasn't too bad.


Hope this wasn't too long; I just really needed to unburden, and thanks for asking.

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

I'm glad you had a good week. I'm a fan of heightened awareness. It's a good step toward change.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

yes - the link you copied is correct. Insertional achilles tendonitis -> don't stretch and don't do the calf eccentric thing lower than flat. I had insertional AT last summer and eccentric heel raises to, but not past, flat helped it go away.

Your response wasn't too long. Support and a space to talk are really what this thread is for.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Good luck with your rehab - achilles can be tricky but can be conquered with the right diagnosis and a bit of dedication! Keep us updated on your progress.

You guys are great support. Thanks so much.

Now I have a question: When I do the heel raises, the pain in my foot is what I'm feeling the most. (It's about 1-2 inches behind the little toe and 1 inch in from the outside edge.) Is this also what you found when you had the tendonitis, or is it possible I'm dealing with something else as well?

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

I don’t have any experience of the sensations you’re describing. But I know enough to know there are quite a few different things that could be going on around the foot/achilles, requiring different rehab approaches - and doing the ‘wrong’ thing potential not benign (i.e. you could make it worse by taking the wrong approach). If you’ve not done so already maybe a trip to a trusted / qualified physiotherapist would be worth it?

My Achilles pain was totally at the point of insertion. I didn’t have anything in the foot like you are talking about.

I would add some big toe strength - push big toe into ground, lift other four toes, then push four toes down and lift big toe; repeat. Do like 30 of those. Then, put a towel between calves - push big toes into ground. You should feel your femurs rotate out a tiny tiny bit (put your hands on your quads). Release toe pressure; repeat. Do this a bit and squeeze flutes when pushing big toe down. Helps w big toe to glute max connection. More glute engagement will lower stress on everything else

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

1/1 for the week on healthy coping skills and 20 days in a row!

Goal of not running yesterday was met. The hamstring soreness went away but came back this AM when I ran fast. Adding a goal of only easy miles for rest of week. I realized I am adding speed and miles at the same time and that is a no no (at least for my body)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

You are the coping queen! Saw your post on the Fish thread. You’re doing a great job of progressing within the limits of what your body is allowing (and it makes sense to test those limits from time to time and then back off if you need to). You are surely on the path to a more robust future!

21 days in a row of healthy coping!!!

I feel anxious and depressed today but I can handle these feelings. They are not forever. Moving forward I know some specific things I can do to decrease these feelings .

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Fantastic for the healthy coping. On the other, just remember you're inspiring a lot of us to improve.

I've been doing 10k steps successfully each day. 2 or 3 for pre-planning (and completing most of) each day. Reasonable about not surfing the internet until 9-11pm (but I stay up until 2-3 a.m., so not so good.) (Disclaimer: Not too much time was spent writing this message! ;-)

Looks like I'll need to go back to the orthopedist (and have gone back to my old orthotics to see if they're better). Achilles exercises are painful to do due to the pain in the foot. Finally found a webpage (https://www.footankle.com/...s/pain-outside-foot/) that talks about locations of foot pain and typical causes. Mine seems to be related the 5th metatarsal (X-ray negative) or my flat feet.

(As a side note, I'm back down to "only" 30 lbs overweight. Inactivity (and many birthday parties) sure haven't helped.) (I should be around 135.)

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

 

Thanks. And I'm touched. It sometimes helps me to think "I will use the healthy skills bc I don't want to disappoint ST". And this is both I know everyone here believes I can in fact succeed (except maybe a couple people. And I look forward to proving them wrong) and that helps - and because I very much dislike on Monday morning saying "I only got 6/7, guys" and because I feel a little shame if I have to say that. Should I? Probably not. But I do and it helps, so please don't tell me "you don't need to feel shame" because shame helps me use the healthy coping skills and the priority here is using the healthy coping skills.

IDK if that made sense. But anyway, I'm 3/3 for the week and 22 days in a row.

Rest day today because my hip stabilizers are a little tight, L hamstring is still a little sore, I have a cold, and because I promise myself I wasn't going to be an idiot getting back to running. The sore/tight is from running fast on Monday, while I was kind of an idiot getting back to running. I keep my promises to myself.

Keep us updated how the ortho appt goes. If you can see a foot specialist, do that. If you're near Maine, go to Portland Foot and Ankle, they're great.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

4/4 for the week!

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

5/5 for the week and 24 days in a row :D

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Awesome!

So far I am

5/5 on workouts as written,
0/5 on Prehab/strength - ughhh
B+ on nutrition
And have checked in in my goals at least once a day, but definitely not three.

Checking in today to inspire myself to bring the numbers up today and tomorrow.

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

Do your prehab so you don't get hurt :-)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Way to go, Tigerchik.

I'm going about as well as Omelette.

(1) 5/5 for 10k steps. Now using a metronome for my measured walks to make sure I keep the right balance between my type A and the slowness of only walking (although I'm now up to 127 bpm and 14:40/mile yesterday.) Foot nagging rather than painful and achilles not complaining right now. (Knock on wood.)
(2) Planning for following day is about 50%.
(3) Control of my (non-constructive) internet usage is also about 50%, averaging about 2.5 hrs/day.

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Tri or tri not; this is no du. (--- with apologies to Yoda.) Slow triathlete who survived Huntsville, Lelystadt, Colmar, Fontanil, and
Szekesfehervar/Lake Velence. Arbor hydration specialist in a kid's park in Monterrey 4 times in the 1990s (and in the pits in 1994).

Dr. Tigerchick, you are right! I am only hurting myself (pun intended!)

madMike100, at least we have two days to do better

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

6/6 for the week and 25 days in a row!!! Very pleased w myself :-)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD