ACHILLES TENDON

The more you run, the more you have parts of your body hurt you never knew could hurt. I went into Bald Peak thinking my knees were going to be an issue, if anything I'd be walking away from that race with swollen, painful knees. Well, my knees feel great. My theory about them being sore from bowling seems to have stood up. Instead, I walked away from Bald Peak with a sore and inflamed Achilles tendon.

Based on the Achilles' role to stabilize and allow your foot to flex, I guess it kind of makes sense. Bald Peak requires a lot of flexing and I also might have been relying on it more because of my knees. I might have been subconsciously babying them and putting extra pressure on the tendon. Who knows. My knees and Achilles both felt fine the day of the race, nothing out of the ordinary. It was a surprise when I woke up Sunday morning and the lower half of my calf was throbbing.

When I woke up I immediately knew it wasn't my calf muscles themselves, I had dealt with that before, but instead something else. I guessed it was the Achilles based on where it hurt... on the back of my leg from the heel to the mid-calf. I wasn't an Achilles expert, so I looked it up online and sure as shit, that's exactly where the Achilles tendon is. I knew it was near your heel, but wasn't aware it went up so high. Well, now I do.

Long story short, it was a unique pain. I hobbled around for a couple days but it faded away like most other times something is sore. I could tell it was just sore and not injured in any way. There is a pretty distinct difference between those two types of pain. This was my Achilles' saying "Oh hey, wow, you used me more than normal, I'm fine, but I'm going to cry for a couple days, mkay?" Anyways, I ran last night at run group and felt fine. Back to my normal, rickety old self.