Checkpoint (For the Record)

This post is for my reference really rather than a wider audience.
This all relates to recovery from the Achilles Tendinopathy I suffered 6 months ago.

Yesterday felt really good after the Gym session and pool. I took the precaution of 20 min ice at home and took it easy the rest of the day. Ibuprofen gel applied after evening meal to help with an inflammation as there was an odd feeling of stiffness/pressure/weakness? about my ankles.
At bed time, I was alarmed to note actual pain in right tendon quite low down. Compression sleeve on overnight and this morning no pain in tendon but still this odd tentative feeling of weakness. Both heel bones have slight aches to the sides and I feel faint stinging sensations where the tendon runs into the calf, particularly on left leg.
Feeling gently along the tendons triggers no pain and both seem nicely narrow and smooth so I don't think there is any injury.
I am hoping this is all related to my having upped my exercise frequency, tension and duration and is part of healing and regaining strength.
For the last week or so, I've amended my stretches from 15 at 5 secs quite jerky to 5 at 15 secs slow and controlled. I was doing mostly straight leg but I now always do straight and follow with knee bent. I've also added eccentric work on the edge of a step; 5 x straight leg to toes then on one leg down to heel lower than step followed by the other leg and then the same again with knee bent.
For exercise sessions, I'm concentration on warming up the muscles and tendons beforehand and stretching afterwards. There is differing opinion relating to stretching, particularly before, but reading a lot and trying to assess which sources have credence, this is the direction I have chosen. One source is the BUPA Great Run Training page Stretching section.
All this considered together with it being the 1st week I've done 2 full sessions at the gym and pool means a lot is being asked of them.  I think/hope I'm doing the right thing; I'm pretty sure I should have attended to the exercises more thoroughly earlier on - laziness and lack of will power are not good for recovery.
Next gym session in 5 days.

No Contract - More Gym

At the beginning of last week, an IT contract I'd been working on for some time ground to a halt. A shame for me but very sad for the many people who lost their jobs as 2 companies collapsed in on themselves with mass redundancies. I counted many of these people as friends and regret not getting chance to say good bye. I wish them well.

The other side of this coin is that, just as I was considering trying to increase the frequency of my Treadmill sessions beyond the one day a week I had free, this has released 3 more days so I am getting in 2 sessions a week.  Last week I stuck with 10 minute sessions with just 3 minutes of running interspresed with one and a half minutes walking. Today I upped it to 25 minutes with 7 one minute runs totalling 1.6km (1 mile). Each treadmill session followed with a swim, 20 lengths today.

payasUgym is a fantastic bargain when using Tesco vouchers. I've had about £40 worth of sessions now but only spent two £5 Tesco vouchers as a result of new joiner and other miscellaneous bonuses. A £5 Tesco voucher gives £15 of payasUgym which is 3 sessions so effectively £1.67 a go for a fully equipped gym and a 20m pool.

I'm now totally into the Runkeeper Android app and runkeeper.com website for tracking all my training. The treadmill and pool activities are entered manually whilst such as the 6km road walk this Sunday was recoreded and saved by my smart phone. I also keep a log on the BUPA Great Run website which ties into my ultimate target of 60 mins for the Great Manchester 10km just after my 60th birthday in May 2013, hence twitter hashtag of #60at60.

Be prepared, if the achilles survive, this will shortly become a sponsored event so be ready to dip into your pockets.

1 Mile Forward

After a weekend in Derbyshire with a 7.5 ml walk on Saturday and 2 miles each way to the pub on Sunday, I had a little high calf pulling and slight discomfort in tendons. The trainers I walked to the pub in have a firm high back and I now think that was more responsible for the tendon discomfort than the tensioning. By this morning I was happy that I could return to the gym which is a day early this week due to appointments on Thursday.

I stretched things further today with a 25 min treadmill session which seems to have gone well.
It started with a 5 minute walking warm up at 4 kph, which feels a comfortable walking pace, then 7 x 1 min at 7 kph which I find a casual running pace. These Run intervals were alternated with 1.5 or 1 min walks over 15 mins.
The last 5 mins was a treadmill controlled gradual cool down with the elevation gradually dropped from the 2.3 I had set down to zero. Total distance 1.6 km which is coincidentally 1 mile.

As I hoped in my last post, I did extend on the treadmill last week but I struggled with the mechanics of changing the settings from a 10 min simple 'quick start' session including trying to use the Intervals programme which proved no use at all. The result was a rather fragmented effort with halts and wrong speeds and elevations but was a little beyond previous attempts resulting in about 5 mins of run intervals..

I continue to finish off with 10mins in the pool after each treadmill session and currently feeling rather optimistic.  Seeing the osteopath tomorrow for another check and laser so it will be interesting to hear what he says.

Dangerous Optomism

Over the last 2 weeks, close to normality seems to have returned to my achilles. The tubular bandages which I often felt a need for and the ibuprofen gel next to the bed have not even been considered for use.
My stretching exercises continue everyday and the stairs at work continue to be trod up and down as I get calls to different desktops for support and I feel no suggestion of weakness.

Lynne and I spent last week in the Trossacks including a 5 mile walk with over 1000ft ascent after which I felt very mild tenderness in the left for a short while and then another walk with a very steep 450ft ascent. After these climbs and 600 miles of driving with clutch foot hovering I am not detecting any problems.

Hoping to get on the Treadmill on Thursday and intend to be a LITTLE more adventurous having resisted the temptation for several weeks.

I know that I mustn't be too optimistic but I also mustn't shy away from developing strength and flexibility, I keep reminding myself that I could easily undo the good work and all would be lost.