This week we had a chiropractor talk to our marathon clinic about injury prevention. And then I went and injured myself. We were doing speed work around Charleston Park and I wiped out in a corner and ripped up my hand. Not a bid deal. What is a big deal is how my ankle felt the next morning. At first I thought it was just stiff so I went running anyway on Wednesdday night, but after 3 km I knew something was wrong.

I’m pretty sure I have achilles tendonitis. It seems pretty mild, but I need it to heal fully if I plan on running a marathon. So I stopped running, focusing instead on hip stability exercises. By the end of the week my achilles felt good. I tried doing the Sunday long run (Week 5 spoiler alert), and it felt good at first but after 12 km I could feel my achilles starting to ache again. I stopped immediately and took the bus home. Obviously I need to give it more than 4 days to heal, spend some time strengthening it, and figure out the root cause of the problem.

I’ve never had achilles problems before, but I’ve never run 50+ km a week. From what I’ve read, the cause is probably a combination of a sudden increase in running, too much speed work, my new running shoes, and the 5 km I ran in my Vibram’s. I might buy a new pair of shoes if I can find something that puts less strain on my achilles.

4 week downs, 13 more to heal and get marathon ready. Last weeks results are here.