Thursday, 8/8/13: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

First, yesterday morning's run:

Start time: 6:45AM (I accidentally turned off my alarm; oops!)
Start temperature: 72 degrees F
Start humidity: There was actually more water than air. It was miserable.
Distance: 5.90 miles
Pace: I have no idea (explained below)

Ever have one of the mornings where, when you get back from your run, you're so sweaty and thirsty that you run straight for a bottle of water and forget to turn off your GPS running app?

Yeah, me too.

I didn't remember to turn it off and record my pace until half an hour later, so it recorded my pace as around 14 min/mile. Which, of course, wasn't correct. But I imagine by pace still wasn't fantastic, because I got off to a late start, allowing the sun to rise, and the temperature was a full 20 degrees warmer than my last run. And yeah, the humidity was miserable.


And now, I'd like to talk about pain.


For me, it started out as knee pain, a few years ago.

Then the knee pain went away, and my ankles started to hurt.

Now my ankles feel better, but my achilles tendons are killing me.

That thing right above your heel. 

I've never been worried about orthopedic pain before. All the other aches and pains I've experienced while running have gone away after a few weeks or months. I've always chocked it up to my body adjusting to a new training schedule, toughening up against more punishment (most of the time, that's how training works).  

But it feels different this time. My achilles feel stiff and cold in the morning, like an old piece of leather. If I step too quickly in the morning without stretching (not run... simply walk around my house), it hurts like the dickens. I don't remember my other running aches being so prevalent when I'm not actually running. I'm actually considering seeing an orthopedic specialist to get it checked out; I've been reading up on achilles tendons tears, and they sound really nasty. 

Then again, it could just be me being a hypochondriac. Still, while I have insurance that will (mostly) cover going to a specialist, I may take advantage of it. 

If you're having similar pains, Runner's World has posted a articles about achilles pain that I've found pretty helpful. 

Are you having running pains? Let me know! I'm not a doctor (not even close!), but we runners need to stick together through our limps.