Patience is Rewarded!

After weeks of struggling with right Achilles tendinosis, countless hours on the elliptical trainer (the exercise closest to running that doesn't hurt!), and gallons of ice, I successfully ran 5-miles this morning with no pain!

As I'm not completely healed the challenge will now be to prevent recurrence of this overuse injury by not overdoing things! I'll instead ease into longer distances by continuing use of the elliptical trainer plus introducing more and more running miles.

Boston Marathon, here I come!!

Elliptical, again...

I did 22 miles on the elliptical this weekend. 12 Saturday, and 10 Sunday. Not at all fun, but it's the closest exercise to running that doesn't hurt my Achilles.

Tried a 1/4 mile run - first run since last weekend - and the Achilles was barking and not at all happy, so I laid-off and did a bit more of the elliptical. Grrrr....
While I'm obviously very frustrated with my Achilles slow recovery, I know that my only chance to run - versus walk - the Boston Marathon rests with my not running again until its completely recovery!
Working hard to see the 'glass' as half-full:

1. By having qualified at Houston in January I'm eligible to run Boston both in 2009 and 2010.
2. I'm registered for Madison in May and Chicago in October!

There'll plenty of good runs in the future!

Muscle development vs. CV; Importance of proper breathing for endurance athletes

Two good articles worth review: Discusses how muscle development - versus merely cardiovascular fitness - is essential to improving running speed. http://www.trifuel.com/training/triathlon-training/off-season-intervention-part-1-fitness-is-in-your-muscles-not-the-cardio. This matches my intuition regarding the absolute importance of incorporating tempo runs into your one's weekly workout plans. I found this article through the "Articles" link from Athlinks.com. Describes some important breathing and relaxation techniques which allow a runner to reduce their breathing rate, which has a beneficial effect of a reduced heart rate as well: http://www.trifuel.com/training/triathlon-training/breathing-relaxation-for-endurance-athletes

More Achilles-related Reflections:

After laying off of any running for over a week, and only doing cross-training (elliptical trainer and cross-ramp) I'm now ~85% healed from my right Achilles tendonitis!
With the benefit of hindsight I realize better the importance of a gentle stretch being incorporated into my regular routine - as well as to help recover from this condition. The type of stretch that is working best for me is to place both my feet on a 6" elevated platform, then while standing allowing my heels to drop naturally - thereby stretching the Achilles tendons. I work hard to not overly vigorously push down my heels, and I discontinue on incurring any pain. I've been successful with two repeats of two-minute stretches, done immediately following a non-impact cross-training work-out to warm-up my muscles / tendons and increase my blood flow. I also realize that in the initial day(s) following development of the tendinitis - where my walking gait is affected via a clear 'limp' and I feel the Achilles tendon pain I take an anti-inflammatory (Ibuprofen) and apply ice directly to the Achilles tendon in order to further reduce inflammation.
Bottom line that works for me is to NOT stop exercise - since a case of tendonitis might take two-weeks to fully heal and as cessation of exercise for this duration would severely compromise training and fitness. Instead I attempt to maintain my cardiovascular fitness via the elliptical trainer and/or the Precor 'CrossRamp' machine - or biking or swimming (though I'd worry more about degradation of running-specific fitness since swimming is more of an upper-body activity). Achilles tendonitis as just another challenge which with good treatment, and avoidance of the HUGE temptation to run on before the condition is fully healed - can be easily overcome.

Achilles grrrrrr!!

After two weeks of growing and worsening right Achilles tendinitis, and foolish pushing my body before it was fully healed I finally broke down and committed myself to allowing it to heal!  Duh!!  Fortunately, after anti-inflammatories (Ibuprofen), 4-minutes gentle standing stretch after activity, usage of elliptical trainer (instead of running), and ice the results are VERY encouraging!  At least one more week of elliptical ONLY (despite desire to RUN!) should fix the problem completely... just in time to run the Texas Independence Run!!!!