Disappiontment would be a major understatment for the way I felt after my achilles continued to feel like shit on my first run in a exactly a month on Sunday afternoon.

After having discussed the problem in depth with the athletic training staff on campus and getting some more guided ideas for rehab, I hadn’t even felt so much as a niggle during or after my cross training workouts. Things were feeling stable and strong. So, I certainly figured that my achilles would be up to handling a laughably easy run, right?

So, about 2 o’clock or so on Sunday, I headed out the City Ranch trails for what I hoped would be an enjoyable 30 minutes of 5 min run/1 min walk. And, trutfhully, the first nearly 20 minutes it was enjoyable, minus the fact that I couldn’t stop wondering if things were going to turn south with each footfall and that I really wanted to be going faster than the pace I was going at.

But as I began my second to last 5 minute segment of running the achilles started to feel, well, crappy again. Had it not been for the fact that there were young, impressionable deer alongside the trail by the river I probably would have let out a few choice words as soon as I felt this now all-too-familiar feeling in the achilles, but I didn’t feel like poisoning Bambi’s ears.

Walking the rest of the way home felt sort of like a walk of shame, but replace shame with utter disappointment and anger and I think it comes closer to summing up the way it really felt. The important thing here being that it was a WALK. What caused the most frustration was that after a month of nothing but XT and rehab exercises it seemed to be exactly where it was at the beginning of January when I first decided that I was going to have to shut down the running operation for a while to try and get this thing better.

So, this week I’ve been back to the broing-as-hell cross training and constant wondering of what the best plan of attack to return to good health and running is. On Monday Ken Woodard, who does a lot with the XC and track & field teams here at Adams State, worked his massage theraphy magic on my soleus (lower calf) to alleviate the area. It was definitely the most enjoyable pain I’ve been in for a while, and I do notice that there doesn’t seem to be any of the lingering tightness that was present before, so thank you to Ken for that.

However, I’m still searching to find something that will eliminate any of the discomfort I feel while in the act of actually running. Perhaps this will do the trick, but I haven’t tried running since Sunday and don’t plan to try again for at least a few days again. In the meantime, I’m trying to get in to see one of the local sports med doctors at the SLV Regional Medical Center. I’m not crazy about seeing doctors for injuries, especially when I have an athletic training room at my disposal, but when one of the local sports med doctors is Simon Gutierrez, who has run for the U.S. at the World Mountain Running Championships, I think you’ve at least got to consider it pretty strongly. I’ve talked to a coach here at the college who is currently seeing Simon about an achilles injury,and he seems to have nothing but good things to say and is reporting improvement after only a couple of weeks. So hopefully with a few mentions from some of the people I’ve talked to and been helped by, I can forego the doctor’s recommendation and get in to see Simon soon.

Until then, I guess I’ll be keeping up my current routine of ellipticalling, biking and rehabbing ‘til something new is recommended/comes up.