May 06 2014
Almost week 11 - easing back a bit
After a very active weekend, I was feeling a lot of tenderness, aching and general weakness in the tendon Monday morning. I decided to ease back and spend more time in my boot again (which I had virtually stopped wearing) and dial back on my walking/rehab exercises. I don’t like the idea of my tendon being stressed and think I’m at a good enough state right now that I can pause a couple days to make sure it is healing well. I don’t want to set up a chronic use injury, like tendonitis, which might make me prone to a re-rupture.
One tool I’ve been using is the Fitbit app on my iPhone. I don’t have the wristband, but am tempted to get one given how useful the app is proving as a barometer of my activity. For those who don’t know, the app is free and runs in the background to track your activity all day long. I have my phone with me or in my pocket most of the time, so its a fairly accurate count of steps which it uses to estimate distance as well.
I’ve been averaging around 8-10K steps per day, which includes a 1 to 1.5 mile walk usually. The distance estimate they give is around 3.5-4 miles for those steps. Most of that has been in two shoes at this point, with maybe .5 mile in my boot if I take the train in to work.
It turns out over the weekend, without even doing any walks, I spiked up to 15K steps or 6 to 7 miles of distance on Saturday and Sunday! Just a lot of activity like kid’s baseball games, cinco de mayo parties, shopping, eating out, gardening, walking around the house, etc. I was feeling it a little on Sunday, but still felt strong despite a lot of swelling Sunday night. Monday morning, however, I could tell I had overdone it and even in the morning my calf, foot and tendon were sore.
Was able to ramp down to around 6K steps yesterday (probably 50% in my boot) and will do the same today. Tendon was feeling better this morning already and I was very tempted to not be conservative, but I really want to make sure I have no pain before restarting activity designed to strengthen it.
Here is a screenshot showing my spike:
Anyway, just thought I’d share the tip about Fitbit, or other activity monitors, as a good tool to gauge how much load you are putting on your tendon. It was shocking to me how much I did over the weekend without realizing it!
Seeing my doctor for the 11 week follow-up later today. Hopefully no issues!
I like the way you think!