From the highs to the lows, with only 4 days in between. Sunday I ran a road half marathon and got my sub 2 hour goal.  Monday was rest day, Tuesday was a track session followed by a 13km slow run on Wednesday. No issues at all.

The weather forecast for Thursday was sunny and warmish so I decided to cross train and take the bike. I cycled the 2km to the station in the morning as this saves having to shower at work. I hopped on the bike that afternoon ready for the 17km ride home, I think I’d gone 200m when my left achilles tendon made itself known, and it wasn’t happy. I continued home on the bike, assuming it was just a bit stiff.

I didn’t really think anything of it. I gave it a bit of a stretch that night. Friday was a rest day. Saturday is parkrun day. I did a pre parkrun 2.5km slow lap and the tendon again made itself know. It wasn’t too bad, and quickly settled down to just being annoying. I finished parkrun and Saturday went on without any further issues.

Sunday morning was going to be a big run, about 32km with 800m of elevation gain was on loaded on the Garmin. I headed to Lysterfield for a 6am start. I found a friends car parked there with the interior light on, they were crazy and had started at 5:30am on a Sunday! I sent them a message to let them know and headed off. Everything was fine until about halfway up the first hill, then the tendon really made itself know. Enough that I had to alter my gait to get up the hill. I ran the flats and downhills, but all the up hurt, and it was getting worse. At 6km I decided to pull the pin and head back to the car. That still meant 4km more including a double hill. I walked up the hills!

I went to see a man about it on Tuesday.

It doesn’t appear to be a damaged achilles tendon. More likely an over use injury caused by my dodgy running style and the increased km. So with 32 days to go until Chicago I’m limited to 3 runs a week with a maximum distance of 10km. That’s assuming no pain when I run on the flat.