I dunno. I've been writing up a variety of post attempts for this "entry" only to ultimately delete everything I'd written multiple times. I did it so many times that now nothing is remotely the same as it was before...which should make it a bit easier to write and commit to a post now. Simply updating with all the changes is enough for its own post...or at least that's what the voices in my head tell me so they can entertain themselves with their own words.
Fact is, I have a variety of confessions to make. First, I desperately wanted to run a 100m dash at my Alma Mater Mount Union. It wasn't just a passing fancy, it was a legit goal. Clearly, I did not end up doing that; that meet was yesterday. I...was not there. I was still set to follow through on it and run as of two-ish weeks ago, and I started to feel pretty good about my performance possibilities up to that point...but my achilles had seemed to really be degrading, too.
But I was still going to force my way through running the meet as something of a test, anyway. My thinking was then I could reassess after the meet and see how it reacted to the intensity of competition. As a backup, I also decided to touch base with a PT about my achilles and see if I could get any solid advice on what to do with it going forward. The ultimate goal is and was to still to be healthy and fast in JULY. Technically, everything now should be in-service to that goal on some level.
So, on the day I saw the PT, I think I got some really solid advice and guidance. I also decided to play some full court pickup basketball after the appointment. When I decided to do that, I had already suspected that it was going to mean that my plan to run a sprint workout later that week was no longer going to be viable, as the hoops was going to torch my body. I was OK with that; it was essentially a concious choice. It made sense at the time because I was wondering if I should delay the run anyway due to my achilles. Which is ironic because I was also about try to hoop it up on my achilles, but I thought hooping would ALSO be a good test...
Long story short (the world collectively laughs one huge exasperated "HA!"), I randomly pulled a muscle in my back while playing. The achilles was iffy while playing, but no different than I've experienced in the past couple years, and I still jumped relatively high and moved relatively fast on the court...until I hurt my back somehow. So, to an extent, the achilles passed the test. Hurrah.
I've been trying to lay low for a bit to let the back resolve. Plus, now I'm hoping a two or three week break from anything sprinting, heavy lifting, and/or explosive will be simple and long enough to let me get to a place with both my back AND my achilles so I can get back to hammering out training...though I'm a bit concerned if only two-ish weeks is enough time, specifically for the achilles. The back seems mostly minor, but I'm not familiar with it as I've never hurt anything in this area before. So I'm not clear how thats going to play out. It does feel relatively minor currently, though, and is already starting to turn a corner.
Over the last week, or so, I've really committed to the new achilles stuff (heavy loads on eccentric and static stuff, something I've never done for any of my achilles issues), and I've been doing pool workouts to try to keep some semblance of aerobic/anaerobic fitness pursuits. Another thing I wanted to do was go hard on intermittent fasting to try to get a handle on my weight, especially since my activity levels were going to take a hit. I've failed so far on the weight/fasting, and that's a big concern for me. But I'm hoping there's going to be a quick turnaround on the back strain, and if I can get the achilles to just COPE with the sprinting/load for the next couple months as a result of this "reset", then hopefully this short break will actually have become a boon to my goals, rather than hindrance of any kind.
I'm aiming for another week or two of time from NOW before I try and get back on the horse with really serious training (specifically sprints). I've kinda targeted April 24th as my goal for my next sprint workout. Then, from there, roll through July with essentially the same plan as I had before, but hopefully with a more compliant, if not healed/solved, achilles.
While two weeks isn't enough necessarily to officially heal something like an achilles, if it's enough to get me through training and running into July, then I'll be THRILLED. I do have the longer term goal of solving the achilles more in the off season after this summer; early signs from this new style of loading seems promising. And a full off season of work will maybe remodel the tendon the way I actually need. Dare to dream, I suppose.
Anyway, I'm really trying to crank out the pool workouts, and I'll start up some bigger lifting and maybe some plyos here pretty soon if the back green lights me and the achilles continues to seemingly progress. With any luck, my next really serious training update will be with a sprint workout result.
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