Sunday, February 07, 2021

My Achilles Heel

In my prime I went for years without injury, quite unusual for a runner, but my Achilles heel has always been my, er, Achilles. It started again a couple of months ago when my right Achilles tendon started to feel a bit stiff, especially in the mornings but I could definitely feel it throughout the day.

This eventually just about settled down when all of a sudden my left Achilles decided to step into the action as well, which is a bit unusual because almost all of my niggled and injuries (and cramps!) happen on my right leg. In fact it stepped into the action with a vengeance because it was worse than the other leg had been.

The first time I had this, many years ago, I was quite worried about it, enough to have it seen to in fact, but by now I have experienced it often enough to have a reasonably chill outlook. The tendon doesn't just snap and it does get better eventually. Still, I am over 50 now and healing is slower, so I spent 1 or 2 days a week cycling instead of running. Strangely enough running on the treadmill seems to worsen it because in general I can feel it when running a hill and level ground should be fine; maybe there's something about the way the treadmill is a bit bouncy that disagrees with me.

It was almost back to normal until last Sunday, when it flared up again in the middle of a long run, painful enough for me to cut it short and hobble off the treadmill. Thankfully it seems to have settled again but I can definitely still feel that something is a bit off, so a few days on the bike will remain to be part of my training for the next couple of weeks at least.

Obviously, with us all in lockdown and no races on the horizon, it doesn't really matter. Just keep ticking over, enjoy it and stay healthy.