(Apr 6th-12th: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– I pull on the pair of climbing shoes from the rupture
– Box jump is up to 35cm / 14″
– 10° incline @ 6min/km pace is no problem
– Gaining confidence loading my foot whilst climbing
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK25 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | Reddit: ‘Easter Bunny’ plyos on the stairs 🧗♂️ A good long sesssion, still with the boot – almost cracked a couple of VI+ / 5.10a routes |
| D-2 | 🧗♂️ Climbing without the boot: a IV+ route – in the run-up, the nerves made me feel sick |
| D-3 | Suitcase carry: 56kg / 120lbs (this is 171 days / 24w 3d post-injury) |
| D-4 | Treadmill getting closer & closer to jogging: – 6km/h @ 10° or 3.8mph @ 17.5% – 7km/h @ 2° or 4.4mph @ 3.5% |
| D-5 | Box jump: 35cm / 14″ |
| D-6 | |
| D-7 | 🧗♂️ Bootless climbing: 3 x the IV+ route – my confidence comes back smoothly 25 weeks / approx 9k steps per day |
< Note: For a complete list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
< Note: For my full physio program click <here>.
Walking
I’d measured the incline of various slopes I walk up almost daily … and these measured anywhere from 8-14°. So I figured it was time to see how well the tendon / calf coped with a bit of uphill – next day, just the smallest, very temporary increase in stiffness of the tendon was the only noticeable effect 👏 💪 !
Cycling / Elliptical
Another ‘thin’ week wrt to cycling & co. – just a short go after the previously mentioned incline treadmill.
(Note: see here for benefits of low load cycling for Achilles rehab)
Climbing
The most noteable ‘new’ experience this week was my first climb without ‘the boot’. I didn’t prepare myself well for it mentally, or, rather, I spent too long thinking about it, first in the car, then once I’d gotten to the hall. As a result, I was really nervous, shaking hands, even thought I might puke at one point. Ridiculous, really, but the way it was.
The actual climbing was ok, although it took a conscious effort to not use my knee and trust some weight to the foot.
Sunday saw me doing some bouldering, still with the boot on … here, the fear is pretty much gone. Once warmed up, I decided it was time to conquer the nerves of bootless climbing … one of my bouldering friends from the Tuesday session accompanied me, I pulled my belt on and the boot off, and then off I went – did the same easy IV+ / 5.5 route 3 times and by the time I came down from the third up/down climb, it felt like things were returning to normal: no more nerves, my confidence slowly coming back.
Not that it’s actually back to normal, of course … I still have to remember I’m recovering, not recovered; that I really need to take it slow and not just jump back into the hard climbs and full dorsiflexion, not to mention not exposing myself to unnecessary ‘slip’ dangers (which might result in me catching the recovering foot and accidently pushing it into more dorsiflexion than it can handle).
Nevertheless, it’s an important step and one to ‘celebrate’ and remember!
My thoughts on the coming Week 26
The end of week 26 is of course the end of the first 6 months. The original idea of 3 months recovery in the boot, followed by 3 months re-learning how to walk in normal shoes has been a pretty good measuring scale so far, I feel. I mean, I’m doing jumps since a couple of weeks, might have been further had I been more consistent during months 4-5 in particular … buuut I’m not unhappy with how it’s been so far.
This would then lead us to the next 3 months of re-learning how to jump and run. One of the main – if not the main – pre-requisite for starting to jog is the ability to do 10 decent SLRs. I’m a way off that … but let’s see if I haven’t, to some degree, ‘just’ not been pushing hard enough. And certainly they have come along the last few weeks: compared to the first attempt, where already the second one was drastically different to the first due to fatigue, I can now do multiple sets of SLRs, if not with terribly good height – the first one clocks in at around 60-70%, this drops to more like 40-50% by the end of the first set of 12.
Future-Sol’s reflections (< to come >)
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Achilles Rupture Recovery 