Injury Bug

Well, after two years of near injury free training, it finally caught up to me and over the past two months I've been trying to fix myself. A funny thing goes through most athletes' heads in ignoring the inevitable for fear of losing time and training, but if I would have listened to my coach, my body, or just common sense, I wouldn't be in as deep a situation as I got into. I wouldn't have an educational blog posting either, so lets at least stay with the positive!

After Kona I took two weeks off from really most anything except light spin classes. Another week on top of that and I started light running, just for something to do. Three weeks out, going crazy in my own head, I decided it was time to go long again. Stupid! Not only that, but I looked up the Strava segments for my routes ahead of time thinking to go crush them, not smart (Note: I think Strava is awesome, but you need to control yourself on run segments and keep with your workout goals). This attitude went on for a few weeks until a sharp pain started appearing when I'd push hard on the track. Figured I'd take a week off as this was a slight issue between Canada and Kona, and it would go away pretty easily. I'd gone over the edge already and the damage was already done. A week later I finally realized a lump had formed on the back of my heel that was probably causing the pain from the insertion of my Achilles.

Good Heel:

Bad Heel - Note bump at Achilles insertion

After a month of no running, and feeling really ornery, I was off to Presidio Sports Medicine to get checked out to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong with me.  I tried to self diagnose ahead of time, thinking it was bursitis in my heel, and hoping a quick shot of cortisone would be a cure-all, but unfortunately, and fortunately, my new buddy Tyler diagnosed it as tendinosis, an evil cousin of tendonitis, but more of a thickening of the achilles and luckily less painful.

Some of the causes we came up with were:
#1 Overuse - Really, three IM's in a year does that to you?
#2 Poor form - Running on tired legs leads to poor form and that puts strain on all sorts of parts that are not used to it.
#3 Heel Striking - Having changed to a short, mid-foot strike two years ago this really surprised me, but as a result of the above two, a heel strike on my left foot developed in my stride.

"Tendinosis is a diffuse thickening of the tendon without histologic evidence of inflammation caused by intertendinous degeneration. This condition is common in persons older than 35 years and may gradually develop as a result of ongoing microtrauma, aging, vascular compromise, or a combination of these factors.12 Pure tendinosis may produce no clinical symptoms or present as a painless, palpable nodule on the Achilles tendon.

The tendinosis cycle begins with an increased demand on the Achilles tendon. Factors such as vascular compromise and aging result in inadequate repair of the tendon matrix and tenocyte death.6 The cycle leads to further impairment of matrix production, causing increased predisposition to injury and microtears within the tendon.2 The cycle ultimately results in collagen degeneration, fibrosis, and calcification within the tendon. The diagnosis of tendinosis is made on physical examination when a thick unilateral or bilateral nodular cord is present. Treatment of tendinosis is the same as that for tendonitis." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222702/?tool=pubmed

Now I'm saddled with "fun" rehab exercises such as heel drops, stretching, band walking, and other pilates like hamstring strengthening movements.  Tyler said my hamstrings and glutes were weak, go figure, I'm a triathlete.

Another aspect to speed the recovery, and get rid of this lump, is "scraping" (which doesn't hurt so much as other parts of the body since there isn't much soft tissue around the heel), ultrasound, and ART (Active Release Techniques).  Going in for weekly treatments, but I've read from the above article that they think 2 a week could be better.  Not sure I have the time for that.

To keep my "run" legs going, and try to maintain at least 20 miles a week I'm utilizing the Alter-G at M2 Revolution.  This past weekend, second week back running, I managed to run pain free at 90% body weight and perform a "Yasso" workout with 3:00 800's.  Amazing how time flies when you can incorporate a detailed workout, instead of slogging through miles on a treadmill. After running, even without pain, its still a good idea to ice the heel as I do notice some inflammation.  It gets under control quickly though after 15-20 minutes of icing.

Hoping to go another week reducing the weight again to gain confidence in my heel and make sure by body performs a proper mid-foot strike.  The biggest part is making sure my stride is proper so I don't re-injure the heel or other things from favoring my left side.  There is definitely a mental block that is causing me to favor my left foot strike in anticipation of the dagger feeling I experience.  With luck, the Alter-G will help kick that thought out of my head.  Here's a video from M2 featuring another athlete from the studio recovering from knee surgery.



Starting to let myself get excited for the season now as once I'm running outside I can start setting goals.  Oceanside and Wildflower are targets of mine and I would love to improve upon last years times.

M2 - June 2011 Playlist

After a mixed month of recovery, travel and illness, got back to finishing a playlist I'd been working on for the studio!  I was pretty excited when people finally started buying some music from my blog and a few people bough entire albums which upped my take to a whopping $2.00, wahoooo!

Jack Johnson - From the Clouds


Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home


Will Smith - Summertime (Actually 80 degrees in SF today!)


Phoenix - Run Run Run


Guster - Amsterdam


Hesta Prynn - Recall


Foster the People - Don't Stop (Color ON the Walls)


Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone


Bibio - Take Off Your Shirt


Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes


ToToM - Acceptable in the Seven Nation Army - SoundCloud
ToToM - Acceptable in the Seven Nation Army (White Stripes vs. Calvin Harris) by ToToM

Mac Miller - Knock Knock


Martin Solveig & Dragonette - Hello (Love the cover art. Wonder is my sister gets it.)


Afrojack - Take Over Control


LMFAO - Part Rock Anthem


Nine Inch Nails vs 50 Cent - (Can't find anywhere so if there is a legit version let me know)
Nine Inch Nails vs 50 Cent - Closer In Da Club by dj__xxcess

Illikon - Circus Jack (Can't find on Amazon, but its on iTunes and from the player below.)
Illikon - Circus Jack by illikon

Korn - Got the Life


Sugar Ray - RPM


DJ Throwback Mashup (Absolutely random mashup that sounded good on SoundCloud)
Dj Throwback 90's HipHop 54 tune Mashup by Dj Throwback

Track Running for Dummies

First off I'll offer up that I don't go to Master's swim practice because I have no idea what to do and I don't want to look like an idiot.

So, i write this trying to help others as well as release a bit of aggravation.  Running track at an early age (I think it was a form of babysitting for my Mom), admittedly, I am a track practice snob, but accept people don't have the same attitude towards it that I do.  Basically there was a coach watching nearly everything going on for every interval I did from age 6 - 18, created a serious sense of urgency and regimen that should be followed.  This is not for everyone I know, but there is a purpose for doing track workouts and that is to get faster so I've come up with a few guidelines (gripes) to help steer people to a better result for themselves, and others at the track.  It is such a powerful tool to get faster if taken seriously.

#1 Drills - Pay attention to the coach when they tell you how to perform them.  There are specific reasons for them to help with form in the long run.  Faster running starts with proper running, and it helps reduce injury too!

#2 Timing - Wear a watch.  If you pay a ton for a private coach, then fine, your coach is responsible for timing, but at a large group workout, with many people in your speed range, it is easy to think someone else will have one.  What happens though?  Nobody brings one or the person who always has one gets fed up with it.  Get a $20-30 Timex that lasts forever and be done with it.

#3 Workout Knowledge - This goes along with Timing in that each person should make an attempt to know the workout before showing up.  Don't rely on others in the group to remember it.

#4 Track etiquette - For the most part everyone gets the picture pretty quick, or others are quick to help them out, but you don't "jog" in lane 1 and if you do run there if you hear "TRACK!" that means, "please get out of my way" in the nicest form.  They don't mean to yell or sound angry, but their heart rates are probably up around 180 bpm and can hardly spare much more effort than that.

#5 Chatter - For warm-ups, stretching, drills, and rest sessions, talk all you want as long as you are getting what you need done.  For intervals, for the most part, if you are talking, then you aren't running fast enough and you should move up a group.  For longer intervals or training runs that don't take you up to VO2 someone might be able to get some good conversation in, that's why they call it conversational pace, but for track practice you should be pushing yourself to move that pace faster so you can feel what a pace past your comfort level is like.

#6 Group Mob - My club is fairly large and we bring a lot of people to the track for our practices.  Its not much of a problem for me, but I'm sure the other groups and individuals see it as a nuisance.  When doing intervals or drills, try to keep to 2 people widths.  All too often you see 3-5 people across when larger groups work out.  Its a bit of a problem for others to work out and avoid this mob, especially adding a HUGE chunk around a corner to pass.

#7 Clothes - This is advice purely for comfort.  "Cotton kills" was what my Dad always told us when working out in the cold.  This holds true for just feeling good in the SF weather.  When its 50 degrees out, you will still sweat, and cotton holds that moisture too well.  Your clothes stick to your body, and any warming capabilities are now lost.  Invest in some basic "Tech" t-shirts and proper running shorts or tights.  There is no reason to add negative aspects to going to track and uncomfortable clothes makes it miserable and adds to the chaffing dangers.

I guess the bright side is that I set out on this trying to come up with a top 10 list.  Maybe my perception is worse than reality and I have to lighten up.  Don't get me wrong though, I love seeing so many people out trying to add something positive to their lives and I always try to support that.  Having the fattest population in the world is not a race worth winning.  Good luck to everyone and I hope this was educational for a few.  Nobody wants to look stupid out on the track and it is a great, safe place to improve running, just stay out of lane 1;)

Just for a laugh - long time ago, me in the red.