After all that back and forth last Sunday, I ended up taking last week off after all. My achilles hurt quite a bit Sunday evening (as did my tummy from all the Superbowl goodies I ate!) into Monday and I decided it was just not worth it to run. Better to lose a week now than several weeks down the road, right? I massaged, iced, and anti-imflammatory'ed all week which appears to have worked; today my achilles is pain-free. It's actually been that way since about Wednesday, with the exception of Friday when it flared up a bit as a result of a little experiment I did.
I can't remember if I blogged about this back in January but last month I learned that my right leg (the one with all the problems) was a centimeter and a half shorter than the left. While that seems like nothing, it's supposedly clinically significant. The orthopedic said that this difference likely causes excessive pronation on my right side which was likely why I had the post-tibial tendinitis. This issue was easily remedied with the addition of a 0.75cm life to my right orthotic. Hurray! Hizzah! A cure! A fix! Let the injury-free running begin! And began it did for a short while, including through the 1/2 marathon. The lift was an instant fix to the post-tibial tendinitis which was super encouraging. However, the euphoria was short-lived; a week after the lift's debut, I was having this achilles problem.
Things only got worse when I got my new running shoes. Last month I upgraded from the Asics GT-2150's to the GT-2160's; not a major change in shoes by any means but a change none the less. However, something must be different because my achilles issues amplified once I started running in the 2160's with the lift. I did notice my heel sliding in and out of the shoe more in the 2160's than in the 2150's but comparing the two shoes side-by-side, the back of the 2160's aren't any shorter than the 2150's. Perhaps there's more cushioning in the 2160's? Who knows. All I know is that when I wore the 2160's with the lift just walking around on Friday, my achilles was irritated versus when I wore the 2160's sans lift.
Anyway, I've decided to nix the lift all together in the new shoes for a bit to see what happens. While this'll likely mean a return of the post-tibial tendonitis, I want to see if it also means a disappearance of the achilles pain. Besides, the post-tibial tendonitis was going away without the lift (albeit slowly) so hopefully it's absence wouldn't mean I'm doomed to have shin pain for the rest of my life. I should probably run this all by my doctor and my orthotics guy, and I will, I just want to test this hypothesis out on my own first. I'm a scientist; it's just what I do.
With that all said, here's what next week'll look like. I've cut way back on miles from my original plan due to last week psuedo-unanticipated hiatus and have even replaced a run day with a day of cross-training.
Monday -- 02/14 -- Run Easy 20 minutes, Stretch
Tuesday -- 02/15 -- Pilates or Strength Class
Wednesday -- 02/16 -- Cross-train/Pool 30 minutes, Stretch
Thursday -- 02/17 -- OFF
Friday -- 02/18 -- Run Easy 20 minutes, Stretch, Strength
Saturday -- 02/19 -- OFF
Sunday -- 02/20 -- Run Easy 3 miles, Stretch
Total: 7 miles
Hopefully I'll be reporting on happy, achilles-pain-free runs next week!
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