(May 25th-31st: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– First 5k post-injury run (29:04 incl. walk break)
– Bouldering buddy with fear of heights climbs again
– Couple of ‘rucking’ hikes on the local ‘mountain’
– Peak biking power output ‘kisses’ 500W
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK32 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | RUN 9: 2 x 2km running with 200m walk break – avg. pace over 4.2km: 5:56min/km, peak 5:11 |
| D-2 | Short ‘rucking’ hike on my local mountain – 3.4km / 130m ascent with 18kg / 40lbs rucksack |
| D-3 | (this is 220 days / 31w 3d post-injury) |
| D-4 | RUN 10: 3.5km (without walk break) – avg. pace over 3.5km: 5:49min/km, peak 4:55 Another cycle to work: – peak power topped 500W |
| D-5 | 🧗♂️ One of my boulder buddies gets into climbing – she has a fear of heights but is facing it head on |
| D-6 | Longer ‘ruck’ on my local mountain – 9km / 360m ascent with 16kg / 35lbs rucksack Crack the 20k steps / day for the first time |
| D-7 | Sub 30min 5k: 2 x 2.4km run / 200m walk – avg. pace: 5:49min/km, peak 4:37 32 weeks / approx 15k steps per day |
< Note: For a complete list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
< Note: For my physio protocols click <here>.
Walking
Last week’s ‘rucking’ session on the treadmill was in preparation for what I woke up for before 5am on Tuesday: a mini-hike with almost 18kg / 40lbs in my rucksack on the local ‘mountain’.
No complaints next day from my calf / tendon 🥳 !
Seeing as serious hikers tend to have decent-sized calves, kinda like serious bikers, I figured this might help rehab my leg. So on Saturday I headed back out to the same hill and did 3 of these rounds, again with a heavy pack (16kgs / 35lbs):
A fourth round would have been doable, a fifth round questionable (minimum); again, no negative effects the next day … which really does irritate me, wrt ‘DOMS’ on my affected leg … kinda feels like I’m still not doing enough.
What with this hiking and the running mentioned below, I hit a new ‘high’ regarding steps / day (>20k) as well as steps / week (rounded up to 15k – my steps are recorded with my iPhone, which I don’t always have with me):
Running
The ninth ramp-up run on Monday (2 x 2km running / 200m walk break) went well, just marginal discomfort for the first few hundred metres or so; despite the 200m walking ‘break’ in the middle, I ran the 4.2km with an average pace of 5:56min/km … and that means I’m still ‘on track’ for a sub-30min 5k next week, if all carries on as is.
Thursday saw me doing the first non-stop 3.5km run (i.e. no walk break); discomfort continues to recede, had some minimal ankle pain the next day which faded quickly once I was up and mobile:
Then, finally, on Sunday, I moved to that ‘magical’ 5k distance – ok, it was a second progression in a week, buuut I was coming to the end of the ramp-up plan and I’d inserted an extra run myself anyway; Chris had in any case said it was more and more a ‘listen to your body’ kind of thing wrt what’s ok and what isn’t.
So, seeing as I was going to be on the road (short holiday) Mon-Fri the coming week, I figured I’d go for it, cancel if necessary. It was fine, with mild discomfort appearing 200-300m into the run and disappearing before the first 1000m was done:
I did have some minor heel pain, right at the bottom (insertion): it came slowly, stayed for a few hundred metres, then faded; that happened twice. Once I was back home and rested on the bed, it was back … but it again disappeared after a couple of minutes walking around the apartment. It didn’t come back the next day.
Cycling
The run on Thursday first thing was followed by a PT appointment. After that, I headed off to work on my ebike – as one can see from my pulse, this is still sport, despite the e-motor … and I’m doing the downhill sections at this point at speed (up to 50kph / 30mph), hitting significant bumps and ruts whilst standing. My worries of re-rupturing doing this are, in the meantime, practically zero.
Note: there is a short stretch of uphill where, standing up on the pedals and putting some effort in, I topped a peak power of 500W … I can feel both condition in general as well as leg muscles still have a way to go, but that’s up around 100W over a month ago; my top measured pre-injury peak was a bit over 700W; average sustainable power output is around 180-200W.
Climbing
The main thing of note this week was less the performance on my side, and more the positive development of one of my boulder buddies, J. She and I spent some hours on Friday in the climbing gym, first bouldering, then climbing.
As mentioned previously, she is managing to overcome her fear of heights, bit-by-bit. Just in this second session of tackling this fear head-on, she made some real progress again. She had been bouldering on her own in a different gym on Wednesday … when I asked her if she’d tried some climbing there, she said she hadn’t had the courage to try on her own. So it feels kinda heart-warming to know that I am, apparently, helping her in some small way to ‘grow’ and push her boundaries ☺️.
I also did some climbing myself of course … and can see I am slowly but surely making progress too, beginning to approach the level I was at pre-injury. In fact, at 69-70kg (should be more like 62-64kg), my weight is probably limiting me more at the moment than my injury status.
Oh yeah … there was one other thing: the climbing gym has set up a paddling pool 😁. On Friday early evening was getting on for 32°C (90°F) ☀️ … so I was loving this at the end of the day: feet in the pool and a cold beer in my hands 🍻 😎.
Achilles Rupture Recovery 