Don't wanna be your monkey wrench
One more indecent accident
I'd rather leave than suffer this
I'll never be your monkey wrench...
Well, all good things must come to an end. My streak of being injury-free lasted all of 10 months.
Last time, as you'll recall, it was my pirifomis issue that almost knocked me right out of Quassy.
Well, this time, I got lucky and unlucky.
Recap:
So, as you might've read in my report from the Charleston Marathon, I ran into some issues with my Achilles during training. It started with a "short" long run in December of 10 miles, where it was a little icy on a downhill. I followed that up with a session at the Rev3 Kickr Studio where I, for some reason I am still looking for, decided it'd be smart to try and race Tim a little bit. My Achilles swelled a bit that day. I iced, stretched, and rolled; all seemed well.
I hit the next few workouts with no more than a little mild discomfort of "hey, I guess I tweaked it a little, but it's not changing my stride and it doesn't hurt" and plowed on ahead. Recovery weeks came and all felt fantastic.
And then the wheels came apart, with a long run where it locked on up. Had to tweak the running plans to reflect that, really trying to baby it. Hit my next and final long run without any pain. No big deal.
Until, of course, it was a big deal on race day.
I've been taking it very easy on the running front since, getting some active recovery in and riding the bike a little bit. Things started to loosen on back up, although there still was some swelling.
I had a nice Battenkill training ride planned out for last Saturday. As it turns out, there was a good group ride coming together of a local cycling team. It'd be good to get to know some people in the community, as well as talk about the Kickr studio and the forthcoming store opening.
So off I went with Tim and Todd (awesome local guy who comes to the rides at the shop). We rolled through the first 20 miles in short order. Pretty fast group. Legs weren't feeling great, but we were there. Took 2nd in a KOM, pulled the chase group for a little bit, hung out in the back...just cruising with the group.
We took a turn onto some really solid rollers. The ride suddenly became surge-stall. It was sapping the crap out of my legs, but I was holding on. Until the 2nd to last roller...when I went to get out of the saddle to hit the climb hard...
...and something went "pop."
Immediately everything in the calf and Achilles region on that side got very warm, very fast, and very painful. Worse, I was off the back and twisting in the wind. It was time to bite the tip of my tongue off and try to claw my way back to the ride.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA. Well, that was futile. Took me all of about 10 seconds to realize that wasn't going to happen.
Luckily, Tim, Todd, and I had previously discussed pulling off the ride at the next route junction, which came up in about a mile. We were 30 miles into the ride and there was no way of getting out of this ride without an additional 25-30 miles worth of work.
Needless to say, the inside of my cheek is still raw from how much I gouged out of it riding. Also discovered just how much I need a new set of cleats and pedals (which may be part of the problem in the first place...anyways).
Got myself to get it checked out: partially ruptured/torn Achilles tendon. Probably from that slip on the run, made worse when I biked on it, and consistently partially healed and re-injured ever since.
The Path Forward
Allowed to aqua jog, swim, and hit the weight pile. So doing that for the time being until I can begin running and cycling rehab.
This for sure knocks me out of 140.6 training, and Battenkill may be in jeopardy as well. So currently looking at what to do in the late summer timeframe that won't majorly conflict with the race schedule of Rev3. We'll see what happens.
Until then, though, it's time to focus on the weaknesses and get back to being healthy. And then hit the training hard again.
