Achilles and Naoshima

My achilles tendon in my left leg seems to have good days and bad. I've been experimenting with shoes and treatments. I bought a pair of Mizuno Wave Aero shoes. They feel better than my Asics DS shoes. Initially I was using sorbathane heel lifts (small pieces of sorbathane which only go under the heel), but I found they altered the way I run too much which led to knee pain. So I've removed the sorbathane - which brings me back to square one in a sense - I now have no added protection for my achilles.

Ice helps, as does one particular stretch. It's a common stretch - I sit on a mat, left leg straight, right leg bent to the side, and hold on to my foot on the left leg. It seems to stretch the problem area better than the recommended stretches such as standing on a step and lowering the ankle.

I went to Naoshima on the weekend, so my training was interupted again. We planned to go running on the island, but after seeing all the art on the island (www.naoshima-is.co.jp) we were told a typhoon was coming, so we had to leave quickly on an early ferry. We planned to go for a run when we got to Kobe, but as soon as I rested on a bad I fell asleep. We ran an hour the next day - and because I had no ice and because I didn't stretch long enough I know have the tendonitis back worse than it was after my last few runs. But it's OK. I'm not in pain, I can walk around in the mornings (the first few steps are tender), and I feel like if it stays at this level I'll be fine.

Here's a picture taken from our hotel window in Naoshima...



On the weekend I'm running in a 5km event - The Terry Fox 5km - at Imperial Palace. I want to beat my previous best for the hilly course of 18.35. I'm sure I can. I'm aiming to go under 18 minutes, but it will be tough. The course is lumpy and it remains open to the public, so you have to run around kids, dogs, bikes and prams etc.

So today I will run with tendonitis AND knee pain - maybe I will look back on this blog entry one day and say "That's when my leg pain problems really got worse." Maybe not.