Achilles Is Back?

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, 67.5 laps, five miles in 43:34, average pace 8:43. I’ve been trying to build mileage carefully to get past a problem with an Achilles tendon. Unfortunately, though, I did feel the tendon today a few laps from the end of the run. I started out shooting for a pace of 9:00, but my legs wanted to go a bit faster today, so I gave up and let my legs set the pace. In the last mile I pushed just a little harder, and probably shouldn’t have.

It’s not bad though - the pain is entirely gone already. I’ll try five miles again on Saturday, and be ready to quit early if necessary. I had dreams of 20 miles next week, but maybe not, we’ll see. Meanwhile I’m using cold and heat as I write this, and don’t exactly know what to do about the Strassburg sock “night splint.” In theory, that should stretch the Achilles and hopefully avoid injury caused by tension in the Achilles. But I’ve been using the Strassburg Sock almost every day for months now, to avoid another round of plantar fasciitis in that same foot, and I’m not sure that the Achilles is failing in tension. It might be failing in compression, because when it hurts, I notice more pain going DOWN stairs than up. Furthermore, it might be easier for the tendon to heal WITHOUT tension applied. Perhaps I’ll skip the Strassburg for a few weeks and see if it seems to make a difference one way or another.

Only 12 miles this week and only 101 for the month. Splits: 8:58, 8:44, 8:40, 8:42, 8:29.



Post-run breakfast: Organic oatmeal, organic fat-free milk, kiwi, organic medjool dates, organic walnuts,m organic blueberries, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, banana, Hershey extra-dark chocolate. Yummm.


Salad: Organic romaine, organic medjool dates, stuffed olives, organic pecans, organic blue-corn chips, Sunshine's homemade guacamole, dried organic strawberries, raspberry vinegar.

Comfort Zone Heater Warning

Occasionally this blog deviates from the subject of running.

We recently did a calculation which showed that the cost of resistive electric heat was LESS than the cost of oil heat, the tipping point being about $2.50 per gallon of oil. So we bought an electric space heater for the TV room.

It's the Comfort Zone Model CZ40 two-speed 1500-watt fan heater with thermostat, made by Howard Berger Co., Inc., date code 0707CX, bought at a local Menards. We ran it on the porch for a while to burn off the "new" smell, and then put it to work, turned up high, for two or three hours last night.

This morning when we turned it on the "new" smell appeared once more. On closer examination, the heater was MELTING! The fan was running. The arrows in the picture show where the plastic is distorted from the heat. Click to enlarge.



When I touched the plastic at a distorted spot, it felt very soft but not very hot. I'm not a plastics engineer, but it's my opinion that the plastic has a melting point far too low for a 1500-watt heater. We had the heater on the floor, a foot in front of the TV furniture and four feet from any other obstructions; there was NO interference with air flow; we know better.

It's made in China, of course. It makes me wonder if the Chinese substituted a different plastic after Howard Berger's representatives left their plant. In any case, I sure won't be buying any more Howard Berger products.

Our unit is dangerous - DO NOT BUY THE COMFORT ZONE MODEL CZ40! If you have one, please check right away for softness in the plastic when turned up high.

Four Pain-Free Miles

North St Paul Community Center indoor track. I forgot my watch, which makes it difficult to count laps, so I ran 36 minutes at a pace that surely moved me at least four miles, probably about 4.2. Most important: No pain at all in the Achilles. On track for a five-mile run Thursday. That’s only a 12-mile week, but easy does it, next week will be better.



Monday's breakfast: Organic oatmeal, organic fat-free milk, banana, organic giant blueberries, organic walnuts, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, Hershey's extra dark chocolate. As good as it looks!


Saturday's salad: Organic salad greens, cucumber, avocado, organic braeburn apple, roasted organic cashews, organic medjool dates, blue cheese, raspberry vinegar.


Saturday's dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon, seasoned, organic pickle relish, organic lemon, organic green peas. Not shown: One gluten-free beer. There are actually at least three good brands available here now.

Hamstring fix?

First the good news:

Three easy miles in 27:01 at the North St Paul Community Center this noon. Trying to get past a sore Achilles, which has been acting up at about the three-mile mark, there was no pain at all so I stopped there. Splits 9:02, 8:59, 9:00. I’ll wait two days and then run four miles, then two more days and run five, you get the picture. I’m hoping that will get me past the problem. Meantime lots of easy stretching and some alternating ice and heat. But it’s so HARD to be good - I just want to go out and RUN! Sunshine says I’m hard to live with in times like these.

Second, more good news:

I may have figured out a way to stop a recurring hamstring problem. One source calls it the “Standing Leg Curl.” After completing a run, I stand with my hands holding onto something for balance, lift one foot up and back keeping the thigh pointing toward the floor, bending the knee back as far as I can, then back down again. I do this fifty times for each foot.

If I do this regularly, after every run, my hamstring problems seem to go away. If I forget for a while, then I start to feel pain in the hamstring again. I believe that a physical trainer would say that the foot should be weighted (there are ankle weights for this) and that the curls should be slow with a pause at the top, but I do them quickly without weights and do seem to get a considerable benefit anyway. I incorporate these curls right into the post-run stretches. For me and my particular injury, it works.

For what it’s worth.

Achilles Tendon Still Hurts

Wednesday, Jan 23:

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, three miles in 26:19. As on Monday, I intended to run long and was prepared with water and gels, but the Achilles heel started to hurt again so I stopped at three miles. Nuts. I’ll try some stretches, exercises, cold and heat to try to heal it, and will wait more than two days again before running. Splits 8:52, 8:37, 8:51.

Yesterday we went to the Community Center too. I did the elliptical for a while, then upper-body resistance training. But no running.

Monday, Jan 21:

Stillwater Bubble today, I hoped to run 12 miles but didn’t want to reinjure the Achilles tendon, which I may have annoyed a bit yesterday with those short, intense races, even if it didn’t hurt. I started to feel it after three miles, so I just quit. Next try will be Wednesday, with 16 miles on the schedule. Again, I’ll stop as soon as it hurts or at 16 miles, whichever comes first.

After the run today I tried my naturopath’s suggestion of alternating cold and heat on the Achilles tendon. I believe in the heat more than the cold, because we all know that extremeties need warmth to heal. Nevertheless, virtually all sources suggest alternate cold and heat, and this naturopath is the first person to convince me to get serious and try it. We’ll see. I’ll try it again tonight.



Recent salad: Organic salad greens, avocado, Maytag blue cheese, organic blue corn chips, roasted pistachios, raspberry vinegar. Oh yeah!

Whooee - Life Is Good

Today we three went to Bethel University again for another set of indoor-track races. I had not run since Wednesday, because of the Achilles tendon problem, and was not at all sure that I could race today. But after a mile and a half of warmup the Achilles tendon was still silent, so I registered for the 200, 400, and 800 meter races again.

Times are up now:

Race	Dec 16	Jan 01	Today
200m	35.3	34.6	34.5
400m	1:19.2	1:19.4	1:16.4
800m	3:01.3	2:56.4	2:50.6
Walk		12:27.0

So I improved my best 400m by about three seconds and my best 800 by about six seconds. Cool! Today is already a masterpiece.

Gosh I love that kind of racing. The pain is over so quickly! :-) And, in fact, for the 200m and 400m there just isn't enough time for deep muscle exhaustion to really set in. The 200m is best of all, because it's basically flat out for the whole distance. Conserve NOTHING, leave it ALL on the track! And I know that I can do better at that distance, because the 200m race was my first today and I was pretty careful at the start.

Next: Build up carefully to the long runs again, build mileage judiciously, stopping at the first hint of that Achilles pain.

Ouch: Achilles

New problem: Achilles tendon. Wednesday, Jan 16, I ran for three hours in the Stillwater Bubble, occasionally checking my pace for a lap to be sure that it was still at 9:00 or faster. So I’m sure that I ran at least 20 miles, the first of many scheduled long runs in preparing for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. In the last couple of miles, however, I felt a cramp in my left calf, or thought I did. Then in the very last two laps I could tell that it was not the calf but the Achilles tendon just below the calf muscle. I finished carefully, but perhaps should have skipped those last two laps.

It seems to me that the Achilles tendon needs to be treated with a great deal of respect. A person with a high tolerance for pain can go ahead and run on a foot with plantar fasciitis without much fear of making it a lot worse, and some people even run with knee pain without fear of an immediate end to their running. However, the Achilles tendon can actually rupture, causing a very serious problem which will make running impossible and even interfere with normal life. I don’t want to mess with it. I tried to run again today (Friday) and it still hurt a little. Not good. If it still hurts next Monday I’ll try to get into see my internist about it. Meanwhile I have a race this weekend, but may decide to sit it out because it’s a short, intense race that would put maximum pressure on the Achilles.


Recent breakfast: Organic oatmeal, organic fat-free milk, banana, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic medjool dates, blueberries, organic walnuts.