Achilles troubles and more...That's where I've been

Hello again, ladies and gentlemen! 
Seems like it's been ages since I've had the time to pen or should I say type on this blog. My last post I was getting excited about the possibility of competing again this season! Training was hit or miss due to the addition of the new baby but I was still training pretty good. I decided it was time to get back to the track so I went to www.charliefrancis.com, one of my favorite training resources, and found a workout I wanted to give a shot. The workout was simple:

1st set 100 + 100 + 100 (meters)
2nd set 100 + 200 + 100 + 100 (meters)
3rd set 100 + 100 + 200 + 200 (meters)
4th set 100 + 200 + 100 + 100 (meters)
5th set 100 + 100 + 100 (meters)
* relaxed runs
(+ = walk 50 meters, walk 100 meters between sets)

"PRIDE COMETH BEFORE THE FALL"

As I was completing my workout there was a coach and athlete from one of the local universities completing a workout as well. They had a pretty tough workout going and since I always want to look like the track athlete I was, I was doing my best to look like a pro. However, on about my 4th set I noticed my Achilles felt a little tender and I picked up a slight limp. No worries I thought. It was a great workout and no need to push any more, I'll just do something tomorrow. The problem is, when tomorrow came my Achilles was still sore. One day, two day, a week, two weeks...still sore and my Achilles hasn't quite been the same since. Luckily, I didn't pop anything as I know what that feels like from my other Achilles accident some years earlier. But, till this day it is still not 100%.

I did buy some compression socks http://www.2xu.com/men-s-compression-perf-run-sock-ma2442e.html which seem to help but most mornings, it takes about a good hour before the circulation is good enough that I don't feel discomfort. The compression socks however feel awesome and I'll probably do a review on them soon.


SO WHAT WAS THE CAUSE?

Minimalist shoes! Yep, they warn you.."take your time building up your tolerance in these shoes." In my opinion, I wasn't running mileage so that didn't apply to me. The draw for me was sprinting without SHIN SPLINTS. Lawd knows I've dealt with them for too much of my running life so to be able to sprint pain free was a blessing. However, I guess I fell in the "too much too fast" category because on two seperate occassions my Achilles tendons have paid the price. My first incident occured when I was wearing Vibram Five fingers and now wearing the Inov8 Lite 195's https://instagram.com/p/0J3MfpEEne/?taken-by=markbfitness
Initially I would not have blamed the shoes and would have thought it was just freak accidents until I read someone else have the same thing happen with the Vibram Five Fingers. Not to mention there is a class action lawsuit against them right now for false advertising. If you're interested here's the link to file https://www.fivefingerssettlement.com/

Ah well, hopefully, my achilles will heal up soon. If I find a good method for rehab I'll be sure to post that as well. Injuries suck and make training unpleasant but I guess it's just a part of getting older.

MORAL OF THE STORY
Take your time and train smarter. Slow and steady wins the race...well sometimes atleast.

-Mark