Forums >Running 101>Back to the Couch to 5K Drawing Board
After being away from running the last 5 years starting to get the running bug back. Havn't been on site in years and was pleasantly surprised that login still worked and all my logs; race data; etc. is still in tack...Thanks Eric!
Was fairly active on this site from 2008 - 2011 after never running before; started running 1/1/2008 and by 2009 was doing pretty well completing 3 marathons and around 2000 Miles per year. I think I had managed to get to the slow end of Fast or the Fast end of Slow at 4:01 marathon (yes 1 min beyond my goal) and run some respectable times in 5k through halfs.
2010 I tore my Peroneus Brevis Tendon in my ankle and pretty much put a halt to my running. In hindsight I should have had the surgery; but doing the research on recovery and the surgery pics scared me off.
The Actual Photos are a bit gruesome, so spared the weak stomached. After surgery and 8 inch scar; it would have been month in cast ; 1- 2 in boot; 2 - 3 rehab. So went with restr / rehab and so special insoles in shoes and had to cut down on miles as my tear was longitudal and 3.5 cm tear from tendon not quite in groove and shredded rubbing over bone. Running slowly deteriorated; as my drive was more race times; goals and accomplishments versus health and fitness; until I stopped running all together.
So fast forward 5 years and was in worse shape then when I started running in 2008. Well decided to start in a healthy eating and have been dropping weight (although not sure as haven't ever weighed myself ...didn't want to know); but knew by my gut too fat! So also mixing in some walking with short spurts of jogging. On a 3 - 4 mile walk maybe "ran" a few half block intervals.
Last Sunday was a nice day and have been seeing my gut shrink a bit so figured what the heck and managed a slow but steady pace for a mile at a time with 2 - 3 short walk breaks between mile runs. It felt good!
So back to my original goal I had back in 2008; which was just to run some 5ks before got all crazy and running a marathon after only 9 months of running. Will probably take it slow the next few weeks then start a little program 3/1 to get me in a April 5k. Pretty sure my Ankle wont sustain a whole lot of volume; so will plan long term to split miles between road; elliptical; Hiking some trails and Pool time. Maybe focus on Triathlons?
That being said the other day I was looking over this site; nice to still see some old familiar faces (or at least names ;-) ) and reading my old race logs. Although some were 5 - 7 years old it seemed like those races were yesterday. Well talk about putting the cart before the horse ... lets check out BQ times since now I am an older f$%ker see how much time I got....damn they actually lowered em a few years back!. So need to just keep the running to a healthy balance and its going to be hard to not compare myself against achievements of my former runner self. Main goal is not to re-tear Tendon as they never fully heal but assume I have some scar tissue to hold things together ;-)
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it Great!
Slowpoke
Ripped a tendon years back and had time off but no surgery......by the end of the rest and physio periods, the PT couldn't tell which ankle .
It can heal 100%. All the best coming back with your health and fitness.
GinSling ... Thanks .
Good news you were able to recover without the surgery. Which Tendon did you Tear? Do you do anything different in training after to avoid re-injury?
Hi Buckeye
i slipped on an oil patch running around the back of the car (was in a tearing hurry, no pun intended) at the petrol station - was not even training!
The whole ankle just rolled in a pretty horrible direction and sort of hung limp at the end of the leg....the physio predicted dire consequences so of course 6 (or it might have been 8) weeks later when she was manipulating both ankles and asking me which ankle it was I had to chuckle - as to which tendon - from memory (this is going back 25 years) it was the tibialis I think....and I don't even know for certain now which leg!
I did nothing different in training after as it was not a training related injury, just rested and did the prescribed physio exercises and massaged the ankle area a lot ( I remember I was allowed to go swimming - freestyle but not breaststroke). I've never had an injury from running (or training). I overstretched rib interstitial ligaments during a yoga exercise two years back and just avoided anything that triggered pain until there was no pain (no did I have any treatment for it). Same thing for any muscle-stretching (just ease up on the stretch) which is all I've ever (so far! touch wood!) had to manage.
As far as your tendon goes, you don't mention how you came to tear it. One of the things I've learned is to have strength in the muscles holding the joints to prevent injury - but this may only be particular to me since I am hyperflexible in my joints and a little stiff in my muscles. Hubby did his knee in two years ago in a spectacular fashion on the football field, but also elected to avoid surgery and monitor - did some body weight exercises, lots of walking, some cycling, nothing which would twist the knee, wore a support for a month or so, but basically accepted a two year "be careful" period - had no problem this Christmas with cross-country skating.
Coming back to a more intense frequency of running this year, and reading around the forum, a fair bit of advice seems to be to aim for increasing time and distance and not pace for a decent amount of time. That's what I'm aiming to do before starting any heavy anaerobic work, which is where fatigue might render you more likely to injury. I also have no desire to run races - did all that as a kid
My tear of the tendon was a Wear injury over time. Apparently have a shallow groove in bone were the brevis tendon lies and combined with my stride the tendon just rubs on the bone and over time is like a rope slowly being rubbed on an edge and frayed basically.
Although I think the actual straw that broke the camels back was training with my daughter for her to pass a "Beep Test" for Soccer. Which if you ever want a good short term fitness test / workout is pretty good. The test you basically running against a pre-set recorded "Beeps" at increasing intervals on 20 meter down and back sprints. It was a requirement to make the Soccer team to meet a certain level and she was having trouble; really her technique of stopping and returning. Which to cut down time need to run more like Basketball suicides of planting and cutting. So sessions of these hard cuts is what I think made the tendon tear ultimately, as felt loose after one day then the next day woke up and basically couldn't walk as felt like someone stuck a knife in my ankle.
After injury was mis-diagnosed by a so called "sports medicine expert" and Dr. thought was Achilles and put in boot for 6 weeks; then did 6 - 8 weeks rehab and it still wasn't right. Went back and told him it was more to side and still hurting and weak; he never said he screwed up and shot me with cortisone instead; which made it feel great for a few weeks and after research found out really not good idea to shoot directly into the tendon as although temporary relief it actually weakens the tendon.. Ran a race and then like 2 weeks later after golfing on vacation woke up next morning and could barely walk again. So did research on exactly were he shot me up and found the Breves tendon; which I never heard of. Went to Ankle Specialist and told him my diagnosis and he thought that was probably it. Had a MRI which confirmed the 3.5 cm tear along with Plantar Fasciitis; which I knew I had earlier but even after like 6 months of little to no running at this point still showed up which surprised me; and some ligament damage in ankle although really hadn't sprained ankle for like 10 years so must be permanent.
Part of the repair surgery was to clean out the groove to avoid future injury; which is fear that it will come back. So fear is may be like a ticking timebomb?? Best can do is take it slow and easy and try to avoid excessive wear and tear.
You do have it tough - the wear aspect is one of those unfortunate "potlucks".
Keep it simple sounds like a plan, hopefully you'll be able to feel any suspicious twinges before it degenerates. I've just started pool running (purely because having to cadence higher and run shorter steps is driving me insane) and really enjoying it, but you could opt for deep water running (I'm doing shallow) as this will keep you in running form minus any of the rebound/impact issues. Some people find it boring in teh pool, but living on the equator, it's a great excuse to keep cool!
Cheers and all the best.