Trip to China: Good excuse for a break

I travelled to China last week on business.   The week before I was very heavily occupied with trip preparations;  at the same time it had dawned on me that my achilles tendons are not improving so it is time for a full-stop rest to allow the tendonitis to heal and the inflammation cycle to settle down.  I am now into a 2 week full stop rest.  I need now to discipline myself not to massage the achilles-  just let it be.

If ever I had to pick a week to NOT be running this was it.  Here is a lovely sunrise near I was staying last week in China:

Sunrise with PM2.5 in excess of 170ug/m^3

And a late afternoon view from my hotel....no, that is NOT mountain mist.  The PM2.5 level was greater than 170ug/m3 the whole time I was there.  This is 6 times the safe  24 limit according to US standards.  You do feel it-  its like breathing cigarette smoke.

Late afternoon view from my hotel

The last time I had an achilles tendonitis I took a full rest for 4-5 months and was able to resume running.  A hard lesson in 2004  was to stop fiddling with it:  No more cross frictions etc.  Back then (in 2004) I had kept the injury alive for several months  by doing various self-massage treatments and trying to run at a low level.

The impulse to "take control" and force the darned thing  to heal -  by massaging the heck out of it--  is very powerful (in me) but the reality is that I know from experience that these measures prolong the inflammation.  It is now time for me  to surrender to the process of healing.  I'll post how it goes.  My plan is to take a solid 4 week break...or until there is no pain when I pinch the tendon.  Then re-start and ramp back up very gradually.

....and a fine barefoot run chaser

I had a great run around the neighborhood this morning running barefoot as I have been doing the last few weeks.  As has been the case the last few weeks, the achilles were fine on this run.  Again, go figure!  All I can say is that the run felt great.

My feet have developed a bit of callous where the longer barefoot runs had previously given me blisters.   I suppose the barefoot running on roads and sidewalks in the neighborhood is a bit of a form drill.  I run these flat barefoot runs at about a 9 minute per mile pace and keep my feet under me so to speak.

Mt Wilson, 20 miles

It was a beautiful fall morning in the San Gabriels...did the Mt Wilson walk up (2:39) run down (4:02 total) 20 miler today.  The achilles was acting up on the left.  Not sure what to do-- take a 2 month solid break?  or continue on as the achilles is neither getting better or worse.  Oddly,  after these 20 milers the achilles feels better, but then reverts to tenderness within a day or two.

This morning I hit the trail before sunrise and caught daybreak at I trudged up the Toll Road...

It was a clear and crisp morning..

Grand Canyon RRR & the government shutdown

We have had reservations for some months to drive out to the Grand Canyon this coming weekend to meet a group of friends from New Mexico to do a Canyon double crossing.  We had reserved an RV in Flagstaff to drive up to the South Rim, but have cancelled the reservation given that the political rhetoric over the shutdown shows no signs of abating.  All in all the arguments of the GOP seem reminiscent of the rhetoric used in the run up to the second gulf war.  Is this about Romney-Care ..er Obama-care ..or the deficit /debt limit or what?  I feel for the small business owner in Flagstaff that would have been renting the RV to us next weekend, this family is bleeding while Washington puts its dysfunction on display.