An Ironman’s recovery from an Achilles Tendon Rupture

Hey there!

I’ve been a bit tardy with my posts but when you are at this point in the recovery process there is not much going on so there is not too much to comment about. Plus, when you are more mobile, you don’t sit around the computer as much. This is why I am now going to post every 2 weeks (unless something huge happens).

Physio still happens twice a week for me and it is much of the same as before. My physiotherapist is still working on smushing the rest of the hump out. There is a general overall soreness in the whole achilles area. That may be due to the increased strength exercises and movement stresses I am putting on it. By the way, doing one legged raises in a swimming pool is so much easier. I discovered this last week and sure wish I started doing this a month ago.

I started walking on the treadmill this week and threw in a few 1 minute bursts of “running”. The fastest I’ve gone at those 1 minute bursts is 6:00/km pace. The strength is definitely not there. I did 2 5.3 km sessions. One for 50 min, and yesterday for 46 min. So not speedy at all but it is a start.

I vowed to start running by November so only one day to go. We will see what happens.

Happy healing to all. Thanks for reading.

Hoss

Yet another week has passed by and the strength on my left side has improved big time.

I can now do one-legged heel raises unassisted. It is definitely not like my right side but this is huge for me. Yesterday, I was at the gym and a little voice in my head told me to get on the treadmill to give it a go. But I resisted and held firm with my plan not to run until November. Now, that may change to the last week of October but until then I will continue to do some strengthening along with my physio.

Happy healing to all. Thanks for reading.

Hoss

We are having a warm spell (20-24 degree Celsius–68-75 F) up here in the Toronto area for the past 3 days (ends tomorrow when it goes back to 14 degrees Celsius) so I decided to head out on my first “real” bike ride out on the roads since the ATR. I don’t count my mountain bike commute from work (10 times in September) as a ride.

I took my trusty Siena road bike out for a 40 km ride and it felt glorious. I’ve missed a whole summer of training and it felt great to be back out there again. Despite the extra 20 lbs of belly, I was powering the flats and hills. My heart rate was through the roof though. Way above where it would be if I was in racing condition. The Achilles felt fine and I was loving every minute of it.

My left side continues to get stronger and I am doing my one leg heel/toe raises will minimal assistance (the index finger in each had holding on to a table or wall). It still feels a little tight at the extreme ends of ankle plantar and dorsi flexion but that is coming along too.  Progress is being made in smushing out my lone bump at my bottom incision holes.

That’s all for now. I now gotta head out for another ride in some 24 degree weather. This will probably be the last outdoor ride I’ll do in this type of weather for quite some time. To all Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanks for reading.

Hoss

I’ve got the same stuff happening as the last few weeks. The strength is slowly improving each week.

My massage therapist told me that there is a ton of inflamation and swelling on my left side so today a started my leg in an ice bucket ordeal once again. Fun stuff.

I used to do this before the ATR but now it is back. I’ll try to do it every day if I remember.

Til next time, thanks for reading.

Hoss