My Triathlon Adventure

I was browsing the site and noticed that my last post was in October.  At the time I was struggling with foot pain and my Achilles, but I had lofty goals.  So now, nearly 7 months later, where do I stand?

Well, the foot pain is still there.  It happens only when I squeeze my foot the wide way across, or if I kick a ball with that foot.  It seems to vary in intensity, but never when I’m running, and as I type this I squeezed my foot hard and it barely hurt at all.

My Achilles has still been bothering me, but not nearly as much as before.

I have been working out with weights and doing some HIIT workouts.  My legs feel strong as a result, and I have put a bit of muscle on my upper body as well (nothing really all that significant, but I do notice a change).

I have been running since late winter, and have gotten some good distance (I’ve gotten to a 10.5 mile run).  My Achilles aches slightly until I warm up, and then feels fine through the run.  It is always sore the night that I run, but by 24 hours it isn’t sore anymore.  I have been stretching and foam rolling my calves and using a field hockey ball to roll my feet.

Lately I have been more consistently doing the eccentric heel drop exercises, and I have even started adding some weights while doing so.  I also bought a night brace and have been using that the last few days. My Achilles seems to be improving, and I’m hopeful that I can beat this condition once and for all.

For what I’m guessing is a related reason, I have also been experiencing less foot pain.  Perhaps my Achilles was putting some sort of pressure on my foot as well, not sure.

This last weekend I completed an indoor sprint triathlon (.5 mile swim, 13 mile spin bike, and 3.1 mile outdoor run).  I did fine considering my lack of bike and swim training, and my Achilles wasn’t too bad the next day.

As to my goals, I am scheduled to do the Iron Horse half marathon in a couple of weeks.  I have also registered for the Spartan Beast, which will be a real test of how well my Achilles is healing.  I have a century on the horizon, and am planning on doing a marathon in the fall of my body holds together, and if I can get my swim together I may be doing a half iron man in late summer.

In between I may do a sprint and perhaps even an Olympic tri if the swim training goes ok, and budget and schedules allow.

I’ve been plagued with injuries which seem to be unrelated to working out. My left foot has been bothering me for months despite the fact that I have not been running at all. I did start to run in June, but shortly after starting very smoothly I hurt my Achilles on the same side, I’m thinking it was related to the foot pain.

I’ve been to two doctors, and they both feel that I should continue working our, so now it starts again. I plan to work on some strength training with some short light running to get me started.

Hopefully I can build from there. My goal is a half marathon, a half iron run relay, and an Olympic tri. If all goes well I’ll build to a full marathon by next fall.

I’ve written it, so now I need to follow through.

So the last 6 months has been very busy.  I have a new job, which is keeping me busy.  We have also purchased a new house and I’ve been working on some remodeling work there during all of my free time.  So I have done no working out of any kind since last summer.

Prior to that I was plagued with injuries stemming from a back injury, and as a result I put on about 15 pounds from my lowest weight back at the start of last year.  Since February I have been eating better, and I”m now down about 11 pounds, so I’m close to my fighting weight. 

The good news is that we are moving in this weekend, and I hope to pick up the training once we settle in.  I’m most likely going to start with some weight training to get myself ready to do some running.  I still have a goal of completing a marathon, and we’ll see if this is the year for that.

I’ll try to keep up with my posts, because, honestly it is a good record for me of what I’ve done right, and more importantly, what I’ve done wrong.  Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

OK, so I was out of the water for about 4 weeks with pain on the top of my foot.  I stopped all running just to be safe, and then last week I finally visited my doctor.  He said rest was the right direction.  He recommended new shoes (which I already had ready to go) and to ice and use Aleve if I needed to for pain.  He thinks it’s just tendonitis and that I should be able to run through it, so, yay!

I went running 3 miles the next day, then 3 miles at the Color me Rad race the next day.  I ran again (4 miles) this past Saturday.  I plan to start picking up the distance training again this week.

I also did my first open water swim of the year this past Sunday,  and it went ok.

One last update, I signed up for the Amica Ocean Beach Triathlon on Sunday, and I’m going to have to get serious with my training now or it’s gonna hurt.

Happy training!

Work has kept me very busy, so, although I have been maintaining my run schedule, I have not been posting about it.

This past weekend I had a 13.1 mile training run.  I was super excited to be able to run that distance without knee pain.  Unfortunately, the day before I had moved my grandparents to a new home, and re-injured my back.  It was sore the morning of my run, and I considered bailing on the run, but I went for it anyway.  My neck and shoulders were also sore, but my back was my biggest issue.

My back was fine throughout the run, but oddly, my neck got stiffer and stiffer.  I suspect that I was favoring my back, and therefore tweaking everything else.  My knee was sore a few hours after the run, and I suspect that was a result of my back as well.  It took a couple of days for my knee to feel better, but even now my back is still pretty sore.

I hope to squeeze an easy run in this afternoon if I can swing it, and see how my back does.

Bike and swim training have gone by the wayside at this point as I focus on the run.  I have a lot of projects going on at home too that are eating up a lot of my time.  I plan to continue the running, and if all goes well I’ll be doing the Iron Horse Half Marathon in June.  Wish me luck!