Achilles Tendon Rupture Recovery

I ran the 4 mile, The Race to Deliver in Central Park this past Sunday.  This was my 9th race of the year, and I’ve already received my volunteer credit from the NY Road Runner’s club.  So, I can happily say that I’ve reached my goal of qualifying for the 2010 NYC Marathon.  So one  milestone reached, many more to go.

I am excited about the prospect of running the marathon again, but I am a little disappointed that I haven’t been as consistent with running as I would have liked this year.  My pace has been around 8-9 minutes a mile at these races, and that’s not exactly where I wanted to be.  But I guess life is like that sometimes: some successes, some disappointments.  You keep trying, and you aim for more successes  and try to minimize the disappointments.

One of my friends trained hard for about 8 months and was able to run the marathon in around 3 hours, and I’d like to get there as well by next October.  I ran my first marathon at a little over 4 hour mark, so if I complete my 2nd marathon in under 3 hrs, then that would really be amazing.

It seems impossible right now, and those of you who are avid runners may agree that it’s impossible.  Well, let’s see.. I have a lot of work ahead of me.  I have about 11 months to train.

I’ll keep you posted on my training and everything that I learn along the way.  In addition to training, I have a lot of research ahead of me.   This site seems like a good starting point: http://www.sub3hour.com/

I have to be lucky too and stay injury free.  The one roadblock I see is not my Achilles, but my right knee.  As long as my right knee holds up, I am confident that I can do it.

I wish you all a speedy recovery!

My update is long overdue, so here it is!

I’ve been running every so often, and I now play basketball about twice a week. I am happy to say that my recovering Achilles feels pretty good. What has attention now is my right knee that bothers me when I play basketball, but it’s been manageable. I just can’t do the things that I used to be able to a few years ago. What a surprise.. oh well.

This past week, I played basketball 3 days and ran one day about 5 miles. I haven’t been running very consistently, and I plan on changing that. I’d like to run about 2-3 times a week, play basketball about twice a week and lift weights daily. Okay, maybe lifting weights daily is being a bit too optimistic.

Comparing my recovering Achilles from the 1 year mark to now (about 1 year and 9 months), I can definitely say that it has improved. It feels more “comfortable”, and it doesn’t feel so stiff in the mornings. It used to feel “off”, something uncomfortable about it, and it doesn’t feel like that any more. So I am hopeful that it’ll continually get better.

So I tried a new free application on my iphone called imapmyrun, which uses the iphone’s GPS to track the your running route, pace, distance, etc. So here’s what the data looks like when I used it to run 5.1 miles in Central Park this past Sunday late afternoon:

Date: 10/25/2009
Start: 17:04:23
End: 17:49:57
Time Taken: 00:45:34
Total Distance: 7.88 mi.
Pace: 05:47 (avg)
Speed: 10.37 (mi/hr) (avg)

As you can see, it’s not perfect.. The GPS data isn’t the most accurate, even in Central Park where there really aren’t any tall buildings to obstruct the GPS signal. Okay maybe some trees, but that’s about it. I actually ran around 5.1 miles, not 7.88 miles, in a leisurely pace, which means that I didn’t run 5:47 per mile, but rather 8 to 9 min per mile. Anyway, it’s still pretty neat that we can do things like this on a phone. Hopefully the accuracy will improve in the future.

So I think I have one more NYRR run to complete, and then I am guaranteed entry to 2010 NYC marathon. I am really looking forward to both getting the guaranteed entry, and running the marathon next year. I plan on training hard and beating my time from when I ran it in 2001, hopefully by a significant margin.

So, I wish everyone a speedy and steady recovery without any twists and turns, but as other ahead of me told me, just be patient. Thanks guys!

I’ve been running the NY Road Runner’s club races in order to qualify for the 2010 NYC Marathon.  Since my last post, I ran the Japan Day 4 miler, Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5miles, and NYRR Dash 10K.  This coming Sunday, I’ll be running the Father’s Day Race Against Prostate Cancer 5 miler.  These races have been great, as it forces me to get up early on weekends and do something productive and fun.  I am not in the best shape of my life, but I am on the right track.

Waking up early is difficult, but I am always glad to be out in Central Park warming up for the runs while taking in the nice weather.

My time has been improving, and I’ve been feeling better both out on the RRC races and on the basketball courts.  I am not sucking wind as much any more.  I am averaging about 9 min miles on longer runs, and 8:30 for the 5Ks.  My legs feel pretty good throughout the race, but the limiting factor still seem to be my lungs.  I know that it’ll get better as I run more, so I just need to keep up with my runs.  On average, I am running about twice a week, and my goal is to run 3 times a week.

Here are some pictures from the Japan Day run:

My recovering Achilles is getting stronger.  I wouldn’t say that it’s 100 % as it feels “different” than  my other Achilles.  I don’t feel any pain or have any other issues, but it does get a little stiff in the mornings, and I need to warm up before doing any sort of exercise.  I’d say that it’s at about 95%.  I am not disappointed that it doesn’t feel 100%, as others who are further along in their recovery mentioned that they do see gradual improvements even after 2-3 years.

My Achilles hasn’t held me back from basketball or running, so I am more than happy with my progress.

The surgery scar is still somewhat unsightly, but I am fine with that.  I just look at it as a badge of honor, and it reminds me of the trying times from a year ago.   Here are some recent pictures of my Achilles:

Let’s see, what else is going on?  I’ve switched jobs, and I am enjoying the work.  There is always some stress involved in starting a new job as I need to learn the different ways of doing things, new projects, and getting to know the people in the new environment.  Running and playing basketball have been keeping me motivated, focused, and optimistic.

I don’t think about my recovering Achilles as much as I used to. (maybe just in the mornings)  Reflecting on my injury, even though it was just a year and some months ago, it’s a distant memory now. Happy healing everyone!

Now AchillesBlog is on Twitter! If you are curious about Twitter, please check out: www.twitter.com
AchillesBlog’s Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/AchillesBlog

I created the AchillesBlog Twitter account mid last year, but didn’t really put it to much use, as I just didn’t get how Twitter could be useful for the Achilles bloggers. The truth is, I still don’t know, but this article from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14twitter.html?em prompted me to finally make it official and see where it goes. If there are experienced Twitters out there, please feel free make suggestions. Let’s see what happens.

Get your thumbs warmed up. Texting from the phone, here we go. Let the twittering begin!

I’ve fixed the problem with the sign-up on the site.  For the new AchillesBloggers out there, who’s been waiting to register, you should now be able to register on your own: Sign Up Here.

This upgrade took a lot longer to complete, but it’s well worth the effort.  The new Admin interface for the blogs is much nicer.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment on this post, and I’ll take a look.  I hope everyone is healing nicely, and I am looking forward to reading your posts.  Patience is key.