Can I really go that long without running? What will the out come be?
August 6th 2019
I had planned on taking another run at going northbound for SCAR this past summer, I went down to Fontana Dam as soon as school got out to train for a long weekend of climbing. When the chosen weekend arrived a tropical storm decided to dump a bunch of water on the Smokies, since I had already run in the rain for a ½ SCAR last summer I didn’t feel like I needed to repeat that adventure.
Over the past 5 years a bump on the back of my heal had begun to form. Not being sure what or why it was happening, just knowing it was causing some pain. Some days were worse than others, but for the most part it wasn’t anything I couldn’t run through. I went to a couple of different doctors who said basically it was because of my Haglund’s deformity and that if it got really bad to come back to talk to the surgeon. Well the time had come. This past summer the pain was so bad so often that it hurt to walk let alone run. So at the end of July I made an appointment with a doctor with Elite Sports here in town instead of going back to the prior places. A friend had Haglund’s and had great success going to this doctor who specialized in my deformity. I had read that recovery from surgery could be 6 months to a year, I was oaky with that if it meant no more pain.
X-rays were taken, then came the talk. I was asked how much running I did and why did I think I need surgery. After telling him what had been told to me by other doctors about if it really began to impact my daily life I would most likely need surgery and that I ran about 150 + miles a month I was told that the doctor wouldn’t do surgery on me heal. He began to explain why and gave me information that I hadn’t had before. The first thing he said was that because I ran so much going the route of surgery there was no guarantee that I would ever be able to run that much after the surgery. So he didn’t want to go that route. The other fact was that my issue wasn’t being caused by my Haglund’s deformity as I had been lead to believe through 2 other doctors in years past. The reason for all my pain and the swelling in my heal was because the insertion point of the Achilles tendon to the heal bone had become so degraded. When we discussed possible treatments. His recommendation was to do a procedure that insurance companies didn’t cover. An ultrasonic thing, which was designed to simulate the heal area. I wouldn’t be able to run for a while, but he had had some great success with other runners. The downside was the cost, $2000, which I didn’t have and wouldn’t have this year. I was very grateful for the new information and left thinking now what?
So with this new diagnosis of Achilles tendosis or tendonopothy I began to search the internet for information and fixes without the need of surgery. Eventually I found a research article done in Switzerland about 10 years ago in which they took middle aged runners with Achilles issues and put them into 2 groups, surgery and non-surgery. The non-surgery received specific workouts focused on the calf muscles, the results was the workouts tended to be more beneficial than the surgery. The program was 12 weeks long with very directed work on calf stretching. The participants were told no running during this time and that when they got back to running they could only do so if there was no pain.
With that I made the decision to stop for running for 12 weeks. I had already decided that 6 to 12 months off was going to be okay, so 12 weeks off was going to be just fine. So on Tuesday August 6th I told my running group that I wasn’t running for the next 12 weeks in an effort to healing up my heal.
So what got me through those 12 weeks was the basics of ‘I’m tired of being in so much pain every day when I walk.’ As well as my daily stretching routines and spending time with my running groups. For a lot of folks I know, when they get injured they seem to pull away from those friends who help them enjoy trail running. This has been one of the things the leads them to getting inside their head and forgetting what they have done or become discouraged. I like hanging out with my running group and encouraging them in whatever their plans are on or off the dirt, so I make the choice to spend time with them, the by product is that it helps me as well.
About 3 to 4 weeks in I was realizing I needed to do more the just ride my stationary bike at home in order to keep my cardio up, doing all my stretches and light workouts in the morning wasn’t enough. So by the 5th week I started going to my work place gym. The rowing machine, Jacob’s ladder and the stationary bike became my routine to keep my cardio in shape, 30 minutes on each. Now I’m not so stout that I could be on Jacob’s ladder for 30 straight minutes, so I split it into 2 15 minute sessions, one after the rowing machine and the other after the stationary bike.
Also around this time I started walking while my friends were running. In the study I had read walking was allowable so long as there wasn’t any pain. So when I walked I noticed that I did have some pain, but when I slowed my walking pace the pain went away. So I walked, twice a week. Part of this 12 weeks was spent on vacation in which I managed 5 mile beach walks, which ended up being a great confidence booster of being able to walk fast without pain.
So I don’t know about you, but some of my friends and me when we’re in this mode we sign up for races before we are off our injured reserve list. So by the time I was 10 week in I had signed up for not one or two races but 3, all being done by the end of the year; 2 50 milers and 1 100 miler. Yup, just call me crazy.
As the 12 weeks neared its end I knew I was under-trained as far as running goes. I was not in ‘peak’ physical shape either. I try paying attention to what others are doing to see what take-a-ways I might learn from them. One of the things I began to nice was that several folks I keep up with were always in the gym. So I talked with the guys who run the gym for work and discovered that they were both trained personnel trainers, so I enlisted their aid to help me with my running form. According to my wife I’m like a marionette when I run; a string gets pulled up at the base of my neck and my shoulders go up to my ears and heals go up in the air.
12 weeks done! Two weeks until my first race, the Natchez 50 miler. I had to have a serious talk with myself about expectations. I learned I could walk on the trails at a fast clip without pain on my heal. I felt that running at this point wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I did think I could get it done within the cut off. So I was going to walk this race only running the runny bits, which meant the down hills.
The 12 weeks off had served me well. Now I just have to maintain these new habits in regards to heal work.
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