I have taken a break for almost two weeks from jogging as my achilles felt sore and uncomfortable for several days after my 2nd jogging experience. My achilles finally feels better, and I went to the gym for another 15 minute walk-jog and other exercises. This time, I walked a bit longer, but I began to run a little faster than last time. I was under 12 min/mile this time around for few minutes. After I stopped running, I didn’t have that odd numbing sensation like I did the time before.
It could be that I was rushing it a bit last time, but at least it felt better this time around. The improvements seem very subtle after a few months, so it’s really hard to feel that you are getting better. But I think your body continues to heal in different ways that we can not easily notice… So I’ve come to accept this, and not get too frustrated with my progress/regress.
This is amusing.. I nearly fell off the treadmill today during the cool down period. I misjudged that the treadmill was going to stop sooner than it actually did, and I was wiping my face with the towel, while expecting the treadmill to stop. Well, it didn’t stop, and I was basically standing still on a moving treadmill and it nearly carried me right off the edge while I had my head covered with the towel. I caught myself just in time.
I no longer wear my dress shoes as it really hurts my heel, and I’ve been wearing my dress-sneakers, and they are very comfortable. My walking has gotten a lot better, and I don’t really limp now.
However, I am still hesitant in situations where I end up stretching my achilles, like going down stairs. I know that I have full range of motion, and that it is okay for me to walk normally down stairs. It’s a mental thing. I need to practice going downstairs and get used to the idea that it’s okay to let my achilles withstand some tension and I need to convince myself it’s not going to snap.
It sure is a long road to recovery, but I knew that..
Creating AchillesBlog T-shirts has been more difficult than I had anticipated. Good news is that I think I’ve found the right place to print the T-shirts for us, and I ordered some sample white T-shirts to make sure that I print the designs on the best quality (and softest) T-shirts.
My brother, who is studying to be an architect, has drawn some samples, and I wanted to get your opinion. This will be the logo on the left chest area. Which one do you like the best? Or which parts of the images do you like? You can mix and match.
This is just one of the themes that’s in consideration, and he’s working on others. Also, we are open to other ideas for the design, so don’t hesitate to make a suggestion!
Even better, if you have some graphic design skills and want to create some designs, please let me know. (One small image for the left chest, and a large one for the back) I’d be happy to send you a couple of T-shirts.
The upgrade from 1.3.3 to 1.5.1 went well. “Your Achilles Profile” menu now sits under “Users” on the right side of your admin console if you have a blog.
If you are just registered with no blog, you can find “Your Achilles Profile” under “Profile” on the admin console.
That should be it! Please let me know if you have any problems.
So day 2 of my treadmill jogging went fairly well, but it took a lot of self-restraint to stop myself from pushing too hard.
I set the timer to 15 minutes, and I started on a walk for about 5 minutes. I then steadily increased the speed until I was jogging at a slow pace. As I was working up a sweat, I steadily increased the speed until I was jogging at about 12 min per mile. I was feeling pretty good, and I didn’t feel any pain in my achilles, just a slight uncomfortable feeling that’s always there.
I then started thinking about the conversation on my previous post, and I recalled my conversation with daveleft where I mentioned that I didn’t have much pain just before the achilles rupture. There wasn’t much pain during and after the rupture either.. And then I started to wonder if I was pushing a bit much, as I am only supposed to start jogging at around 6 month mark. I also figured that my body won’t be giving me much warning if re-rupture happened.
Still, I felt great and my lungs/legs were begging me to push the “UP” arrow. As I was trying to decide if I should run faster, I had forgotten that I had set the timer to 15 minutes. A few minutes passed, and I heard the “cool down” beep, and it started to slow down.. I then decided that it was probably wise that I stop.
I got off of the treadmill, and I felt around my achilles area and it felt a bit odd. There was this numbness throughout the tendon, as if it was this foreign object inside my body. I also massaged around the tendon area and there was really no discernible pain. I don’t know what that means, but I decided that I should move onto other exercises. I did leg extensions, squat machine with no weights, upper body workout, etc.
After I monitor how my leg feels for the next few days, I’ll continue to experiment with jogging on the treadmill.
It really felt great to jog, and I am looking forward to the next one.
My heel has been feeling much better past couple of days. Walking, I noticed that I am now able to push off naturally most of the time. There is still a twinge of uncomfortable strain every now and then to remind me that I am still not 100%.
I hopped on the treadmill at the gym today, and I started my usual warm-up walk. After 5 minutes into the walk, my heel felt pretty good.. so I upped the speed and started jogging. My heel felt fine, so I continued for another 10 minutes. I wasn’t limp-jogging, but jogging jogging. My recovering heel was pulling its weight.
I had tried jogging about 4 weeks ago on the track, and I couldn’t do more than just limp-jogging, so I stopped. I don’t know whether it was a mental block of being hesitant to put weight on my achilles or that I didn’t have the strength in my calf muscle, but I just couldn’t do it then.
I’ll go back to the gym tomorrow and see if I can jog a little longer.
By the way, I think I figured out why the first massage therapist canceled on me. Massage Therapists are scared of people who recently had surgery.
My guess is that they don’t want to be liable for causing any damage on the healing tendon during a massage.
I went to see another massage therapist who comes periodically to my gym. When I told the massage therapist that I had surgery on my achilles less than 6 months ago, she told me that unless I had explicit permission from the doctor clearing me for massage around my achilles, she wasn’t going to work on that area.
I called another massage therapist, and I pretty much heard the same story. If the surgery was less than 6 months ago, then they won’t work on your achilles region. You need to have permission from the doctor.
Did anyone else have this problem? I haven’t asked my doctor about getting massages, so I don’t have explicit permission. I’ll give the doctor a call tomorrow.
Anyway, I am looking forward to going to the gym tomorrow. I’ll see how my heel can handle jogging a couple of miles.
