Xero Shoes lightweight sport sandal - hiking running backpacking

Thursday, July 14, 2011

My Aching Achilles

I've managed to get in three real runs now and they felt pretty good. On each of them I started getting a hot spot on the outside edge of the ball of my left foot but no other issues at all. On Monday I ran one mile BF then later that evening played a two hour long softball game that pushed me to my limit. The great news is that by not using my orthotics in my cleats I didn't experience any of the "normal" pain that I used to while playing! The bad news is that I strained my Achilles tendon in my right leg. I didn't know it at the time but I woke on Tuesday morning STIFF. I took the last two days off, trying to stretch things back out and I think I'm going to be ready to get back to a little run tomorrow.


The one benefit to this is that it's caused me read more about form and to try to figure out whether mine is OK. I seem to be having a hard time staying relaxed in my feet while not letting my heel hit the ground too hard as mentioned in my post, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.... I posed a question about "The Fine Line Between Relaxed Feet & Heel Bruises"on the Runners World forums and the consensus seems to be that I must be landing with my foot too far in front of my body because my heel shouldn't be able to hit the ground hard enough to bruise. I'm anxious to get out and go for another run to modify my form. It was also recommended that I take a look at doing some Pose Running Drills such as these:

It's so tough to want to do drills like this instead of run. Maybe I'll try to do these every other day between my running days. I'll keep you updated.

------------------Update-----------------
These drills also look pretty good, thought I'd share them...

1 comment:

  1. Nice! I've been looking for good form drills, but have been too lazy to dig deep enough. I think the alternate day plan is a good one, and it's the approach I'll take.

    ReplyDelete