It’s done, I’m fine, yesterday was a perfect run with nary a hint of anything achilles-related (ditto today).  An unpleasant few days though, especially when you read posts like “I wish I’d only broken my leg, at least that way you know it’ll be over eventually”.  But here’s what kept me calm:

1. I’ve never had achilles trouble before so it wasn’t a form or imbalance problem
2. I’ve been wearing the same shoe model for over a year with no problems
3. My mileage has been steady for a few months now
4. I found the muscle knot from hell in my calf

I’m ecstatically grateful for finding that post mentioning a relationship between achilles and calf knots.  Without that, it surely would have gone on much longer than it did.  As it was, it took me 3 solid days to get rid of that knot – a knot that I could not find with my roller!  Unreal.  But my fingers or the Stick would have found it, so that’s my bad, though when nothing’s hurting there’s little reason to go poking around.  Anyway, I’ve vowed to feel myself up on a daily basis from here on in.

Speaking of calves, mine are big, which is probably the reason I don’t feel much on the roller and also pretty much disqualifies me from ever becoming an Elite (oh, the injustice).  But instead of crying into my spilled Wheaties, I’m happy for this silver lining: did you know that large calves are less likely to get stress fractures than slim ones?  Here’s a great little paper on Lower Extremity Stress Fractures for Runners: Risk Factor and Prevention from Steve Magness of Science Of Running that mentions this tidbit (though I’ve read it in other places as well).  Having some extra cushioning is not always a bad thing.  The paper also makes a case for taking shorter strides (aka increasing cadence), among other things.  Give it a look when you have a chance.

In other non-runnerly, yet extremely annoying news, I was flossing my teeth a couple nights ago, like the angelic well-behaved girl I am, and felt something hard. Figuring it was a blueberry remnant, I spit it down the drain.  After brushing my teeth, I looked in the mirror and realized that what I’d spit down the drain was a piece of my lower front tooth.  It’s very small so not embarrassing, though it’s weird to see a slightly different me.  And while it’s not worthy of major dental work, I’ll eventually go in and get it filed smoother.  Just one of those gentle reminders of advancing decrepitude.  God, it sucks.

An injured week in review:
Monday: 9@8:28 (7 strides)
Tuesday: 12@8:14 (12 x 60 sec. on/offs +  6m. Achilles jog of shame)
Wednesday: Achilles rest day
Thursday: Achilles rest day
Friday: 9@8:39
Saturday: 13.5@8:10
Sunday: 13.5@8:09
Total: 57 mi (avg pace 8:18)

I don’t usually do .5s but there was a Triathlon going on this weekend – Sprint yesterday, Olympic today – and those thoughtless creatures put their finish line .25 mi in front of my turnaround point.  I wasn’t into making it up somewhere else, that’s enough come-back distance for this week.  Tomorrow, I’m back to the schedule. yay!

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