achilles tendonitis

so sometime last week my left ankle started to feel a little weird post run.  when i would get up in the morning my ankle would feel stiff and sort of odd, but since it only lasted a very short period of time upon waking i gave it very little thought.

that all changed on yesterday's run.  in the first 4 miles of the run my left calf felt really really tight.  uncomfortably so.  by the time dave and i got to the 4mi turn around i really needed to stretch that sucker out.  i stretched both my calves out against a sign post and that seemed to help, but it felt wonky and strained in the back of my left heel.  again... i didn't think much of it and we were on our way.

by miles 8 or 9 every down stride where i landed on my left heel was painful.  it got more and more painful as the run continued.  by the end of the 11 miles it was pretty painful.  i was glad to be done.  it was so painful that i was really concerned that i might have hurt something.

it was at this time that i remember that i stepped hard on some uneven roots on sunday's run and tweeked the front of my left ankle in a painful way, but since that pain faded almost immediately i didn't think much of it at the time or since.

by the time i got home my ankle was throbbing.  i showered and massaged it.  took some ibuprofen and that helped some.  then i got on the internets and did some research.  all the symptoms i have been experiencing point to achilles tendonitis.

*sigh*

this is not good.  it's only 6 weeks until ice age.  this marks my very first "injury" of the 2015 season.

i decided that i'll lay off the running for one week and see how i feel after that.  i have also been fighting a migraine since tuesday so that sucks.  i went into work this morning and talked to my friend megan who is also one of the medical assistants.  she told me i should get ultrasound therapy done and so she did that for me.  we'll see how that pans out.  didn't feel like much.  i'm willing to try anything to help tho'.  she also gave me a boot to stretch the tendon which i'm supposed to wear while watching tv and sleeping when i've worked up to that length of time.  the boot holds one's ankle in a flexed position thereby stretching the tendon.  i wore it for about 15 minutes and it felt like my toes were falling asleep so i took it off.  i'll do it again for awhile and so on and so on until my ankle stretches more.

in the meantime i'm hoping that the pain goes away and by this time next week i'm able to run again painfree.  if not i'm prepared to take another week off.  i've got a really good base for my race so i'm not too stressed out about it just yet.  i think it's more important that i rest the injury than make it worse for sure.

my running has been going really well otherwise.  this little set back is just that... a little set back.