Well, this will be an easy post to write, at least to record what I ran. I ran one five-miler. That's it. And we all know there's only one reason why I'd only run one run during the very middle of my training cycle. I'm injured.
BOO!
I'm not exactly sure when it happened, as I have been running a lot. But I could take a good guess, especially considering my symptoms. On Monday I hit the treadmill for my usual beginning of the week run, and right away I noticed that both my Achilles tendons felt pretty tight. In hindsight I should have stopped then. But sometimes when you start running, a lot of things feel tight and it takes a minute or two to loosen up. I wasn't in any pain per se, but I wasn't comfortable either. When I got home I was sitting at the table when I bumped my foot, the part right below that bone on the outside your ankle, on my chair leg. That's when I realized something was wrong. When I pressed on that same area it was very painful. Great, just great.
The next morning it was still pretty sore, and I decided to do what anyone would do: I googled my symptoms. The pain and soreness was pretty exclusive to that one area, and while walking around didn't hurt, running did. What I found was this:
Basically, I over trained and one of the tendons in my foot/ankle is seriously pissed off about it. Also, this may be a contributing factor, but last week when I ran with my dad the sidewalk was tilted and it was super weird to run on. Running on a cambered surface was listed as one of the causes. Another cause, running in improper footwear. While I don't run in improper footwear, I was running in my backup shoes, which I hate! So it could have been any number of things.
For now I'm resting, icing and doing all the things I'm supposed to do, and definitely not running. Heck, I'm not even planning a run. Mostly because I'm scared that I'll feel fine, take three steps and get hit again by pain. From what I've read, tendonitis can be a slow recovery since tendons take a long time to heal. *big sigh*
Right now I've already taken almost a week off, and I know I'm looking at at least one more. And yeah, my half marathon is in five weeks so to say I'm majorly freaking out about it is an understatement. At this point, even if I'm not fully recovered until race week, I may still go ahead and run it. I was running up to eleven miles at time before my injury so I know I can. If I'm still feeling pain by race week, I'll definitely skip it because I can't risk a more serious injury.
The good news is, walking and acting normal doesn't cause me any pain or discomfort, as long as I'm not standing too long. So life goes on as normal, for the most part. There are a few minor issues though, we're going to see the Nutcracker this weekend and I just realized heels are definitely out for me! Ugh.
Anyway, hopefully I'll be back at it soon. In the meantime, I'm just hoping to stay sane!
