10 days out

I'm now 10 days out from the PRP injection into my achilles. Overall things are feeling pretty good. Not certain how I'm supposed to feel at this juncture, but figure reduced pain is a good thing. I was able to enjoy a spectacular day of alpine skiing today without a glitch of achilles pain. Unfortunately the rest of my body hurt. In a couple days I plan on ditching the walking boot I'm in and transitioning back to normal footware. This will spare me the awkward explanation of PRP to compassionate folks politely asking me what I did to my foot. I'm hopeful to be running in 2-3 weeks. Until then, a bit more PT, stretching and eccentric achilles loading. And of course, spinning.

National Cross Country Meet and PRP

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to watch the USATF cross country national championships in Spokane. Take home point...there are some wicked fast runners out there. The women's race featured Shalane Flannigan vs the rest of the field. It was pretty obvious after the first 2k that Shalane was essentially out for a controlled tempo run while everyone else was red lining it. She easily won the 8k event running a 5:04 pace. The men's race was also amazing to watch. Dathan Ritzenheim is as smooth as they come. I witnessed him effortlessly run with a pack of three runners, gradually pulling away from the rest of the field. Finally with about 3k to go, he turned on the burners and blew away the final two runners. He completed the 12k course at a 4:38 pace. I swear his last 3k was proably around a 4:20 pace. It was freakishly amazing. I put this picture in because when Ritz decided to kick, he actually passed the green photography vehicle. The vehicle had to short cut the race to get back in front of him.

It was also fun watching Max King run the race. He ran an incredible time, averaging a 4:48 pace, but said his legs felt heavy and finished in 11th place, which was lower than he hoped.

Katie ran the women's race however it wasn't as enjoyable to watch. She partially ruptured her plantar fascia about 1 mile into the race and ran the final 4 miles in severe pain. She still finished in a time that most women would die to run, but for her, it was nowhere near her potential. She is now hobbling around in a walking boot. She did the same thing to her other foot during Xterra nationals and now that foot is better than ever. We hope for the same recovery with this foot.

Today I made the decision to have a PRP injection into my left achilles tendon. The decision was not an easy one, as I have progressively increased my weekly mileage without any worsening of my condition. At the end of the day though, I still had pain in my achilles. I figured if it's going to heal completely, this is my best option.

I had the injection performed by Dr. Flattery at the Center of Integrated Medicine. He is the local injection guru and is the same physician that treated Kami Semick. Have to say it went well but man is it painful. I immediately hit the vicodin when I got home and it barely takes the edge off things. Plan over the next two weeks is for a walking boot and gentle range of motion activities, followed by gradual return to running. Hopefully I can crosstrain and more importantly control the "calories in" while my "calories out" are reduced. If all goes well then I'll probably have my right achilles treated in a couple weeks. I'm already dreading it. It's been 4 hours so time to hit the Vicodin again.