Inspiration point; Merrell Ascend Glove Goretex in wet trail running conditions

I had a nice run up the Sam Merrill Trail this morning with a 6:30am start on the trail up to Echo Mountain, to the Mt Lowe railbed trail on to  Inspiration Point and return, for 12 miles.  It's been raining hard the last couple of days in southern California- and so  I ran in my Merrell Ascend Glove-Goretex trail shoes.  I had bought these shoes last summer as an experiment to see whether the Goretex liner would keep trail dust out.  They did, but for summer running they were just too hot -  no surprise,  and I had been warned that this would likely be the case.  So I tucked them away for winter running.  Winter conditions at last showed up and so, I was looking forward to running in these shoes under the conditions for which there were designed.  It was cold and rainy yesterday and the Goretex Ascend Gloves kept my feet warm and dry while running in the neighborhood, even splashing through puddles.  The traction was terrific and kept me from slipping even on slimy moss covered sidewalks.  Today's run was on very rough trail and vertical terrain;  while it was not raining, everything was soaked and there was a good wet fog on the mountain for much of the run.  The shoes were perfect for these conditions and my feet were snug and dry.

I crossed paths with Larry Gassan and a couple of his AC100 buddies running up as I was coming down towards Echo Mountain.  It was nice to see these guys and great to see Larry running.

My achilles behaved;  I took it easy today, power walking up and then running down in a smooth easy gait, no rush.  By the bottom of the mountain both achilles were letting me know they were present, but they were fine afterwords and feel great now.  My plan is to keep building slowly and taking it easy to  adapt back into running after my 3 month lay-off.

Achilles update Jan 12

I have moved all the posts on the achilles rehab program I am following to one page to clean up the blog a bit.

Here is the progress so far on the heel drop regimen (3 sets of heel drops on each leg, straight leg, bent leg, done twice daily).

Week 1:  Week ending  Nov  10th-     No weight, high reps (sets of 30), done fast.  Not correct, achilles irritated.

Week 2  Week ending   Nov 17th:  No weight, slowed down the reps to 2-3 seconds per, and stuck to sets of 15

Week 3:  Week ending Nov 24th  Added 25 pounds in backpack. 

Week 4:  Week ending  Dec 1:   50 pounds.  Mostly done on flat surface (heel drop to horizontal).

Week 5:  Week ending Dec 8:  67 pounds.  Ditto.

Week 6:  Week ending Dec 15:  77 pounds.  Ditto.

Week 7:  Week ending Dec 22:  89 pounds.  Ditto.

Week 8:  Week ending Dec 29: 100 pounds.  Ditto.

Week 9:  Week ending Jan 5:   110pounds.  Started emphasizing heel drops on step edge rather than flat surface.  Experienced morning-after soreness -  took 2 rest days.

Week 10 :  Week ending Jan 12:  reduced the weight to 85 pounds

In much of the rehab work between weeks 4 and 9, the heel drops I was doing were done on a flat surface so that the heel could not drop below horizontal.  This was primarily due to inclement weather;  cold, and late work hours; -  I did the exercises indoors where I have a 1-step rise (for the lift leg).  I started doing the full heel drops on a stair case outside more frequently during week 9 and started experiencing morning-after soreness in the achilles.    Uh-oh. Reflecting on this I see that the weight progression done was mostly with the heel drops to horizontal and when I switched to the hanging heel drops the muscles and tendon were not adapted to it.  So I've backed off on the weight.  I have also started regular 4 mile walks.  Both achilles are a bit irritated but particularly the right.  They do not hurt walking (or running) but are tender when pinched, more so on the lateral side of each tendon.  

Eccentric exercises for the achilles; progress report.

Posts have been moved here:


Achilles rehab progress Oct 2013 to Jan 2014

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.