I would love to wake up tomorrow morning and have all my aches and pains magically disappear…wouldn’t we all!

However, the reality is that it takes longer for my body to heal injuries like this Achilles tendon thingamobob than it used to. While I know that the worst of this injury is behind me, there is still a lot of pain in the arse stuff, left to be done to get to where I need myself to be to achieve my running goals.

I have to keep reminding myself that rehab is not a straight-line progression of getting better every day. 

Yes, I will have good days and bad days while I rehab this Achilles injury and can’t let myself get too high or low due to either one. Today is one of those bad days, but I am dealing with it pretty well and not attempting to do what I planned – starting the Intro to Stryd two-week program, which was too optimistic to begin with. 

Am I disappointed? Sure, I wanted to get going on actually running with Power and seeing if that is part of the answer or not. However, the leg is not ready and I need to be more patient regarding when it will be.

I adjusted my timeline to start it on Memorial Day (which is not a drop dead kind of date), and did what was more realistic for me now.

• Walked the dog 3x
• Floor eccentric leg drops vs. using the front steps and going too deep into the stretch for the Achilles
• Resistance band exercises
• Walked 2.0 miles easy
• Pounded on the tire with a sledgehammer 180 times (yeah, it felt hard, but worked out a few frustrations)
• Iced the Achilles 
• Mowed the main lawn – about another 2.0 miles of walking behind a lawnmower
• Mobilization exercises
• Iced the Achilles again 
• Read/listen to more of The Comeback Quotient by Matt Fitzgerald – I will have a few thoughts on this book later this week.

Why did the Achilles react badly this morning? 

It probably had something to do with what I did yesterday: multiple dog walks, a couple of miles of lawn mowing, and then later on doing a run, plus doing all the rehab stuff that I do. It is the cumulative stress that I am putting on the Achilles that makes it grumpy. Which means that I have to cut-back on some of the too aggressive rehab work and be more patient about what I do when I run.

I tend to do too much, but I also don’t see too much changing anytime soon. 

While knowing all this doesn’t make the leg feel any better, at least I have an idea about why the bad days are bad days.

However, doing that other real-life stuff beyond running creates more harmony in the house when I continue to do my fair share of the workload vs. sitting on my arse feeling sorry for myself because I can’t run as much or as well as I want. Based on my choices, I know and am accepting that the Achilles issue will take longer to heal than if I made it more of a priority.

That is just the way things are, and I am good with it. 😃

Pretty much anyways.

I will still have those days where I get a bit frustrated about not running or only running sporadically on the good days, but it is a choice that I am making, and yes, I am chuckling as I write this. I know myself too well and have a feeling that I will still be whining a bit, even though I know it doesn’t do any good to do so. 

The leg will take as long as the leg takes to get right, and I can even see good is coming out of this injury. Other parts of my body, the mental side of running and learning more about training, are areas that needed my attention. I believe the progress I have made and am making in those areas will make me more resistant to future injuries. 

That is a good thing, and patience continues to be the watchword I need to focus on as the Achilles slowwwwwlllllllyyyyyy heals. 🙃