I'm encouraged by the progress of my right Achilles tendon since I injured it on Thursday. As of this writing it's still giving me some pain, but it's improved enough that I can walk more or less normally. I've been giving it the heat/ice treatment, and I'm pretty sure it'll be fine in a few more days. So I'm upbeat about that.
Whether I want to keep trying to run and risk more episodes of pain like this is another matter. Maybe I just need to forget it and spend my time on lower-impact cross-training activities. I never had any grandiose visions of resurrecting my competitive running career, after all. But it sure would be nice if I could go out for a run when I feel like it, and look good and feel good while I do it.
On Friday morning I did a gym session at home, and then went down to the river and paddled for 60 minutes. I could feel my ailing left arm muscles but was able to paddle just fine. The best news I have on the arm/shoulder front is that my rotator cuff area has been feeling a lot better lately. Certain movements that had been giving me pain for a long time are happening pain-free now.
When I got up Saturday morning the temperature was a pleasant 62 degrees Fahrenheit, but on the radio they were saying it would be dropping into the 40s as the day went on. Saturday morning is typically a time for me to paddle, but on this day the big annual marathon here in Memphis had shut down most of the streets between my house and the river, so I decided to ride my bike instead. I tried my best to get out while the temperature was still warm, but it was already down into the mid 50s by the time I was finally on the bike. I headed west from my house and rode along segments of the marathon course. In Overton Park I saw some of the better runners as they passed the 20-mile mark. I think these people were on pace to finish around 2 hours 40 minutes, meaning that they were running just over 6 minutes per mile. I can remember a time when I considered such a pace "slow," but those days are long gone. On a quarter-mile track a 6-minute mile is made up of four 90-second laps, and based on my recent runs I think I would be hard-pressed to run one lap in 90 seconds.
Riding along the marathon course meant that my bike ride had to be a leisurely one. There were places where I had no choice but to get off my bike and walk in order to stay out of the runners' and spectators' way. I told myself not to worry about it, that there's nothing wrong with some leisurely exercise.
Yesterday morning the sky was overcast, and as I drove down to the riverfront my car's temperature display yo-yoed between 39 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit. The bright side was that it wasn't windy. I got in the boat and paddled for 60 minutes, mostly in the harbor. My paddling sessions these days are mostly low-intensity, but I try to concentrate hard on good stroke mechanics and keep up some muscle memory. Lately I've been feeling pretty good in the boat, and I think that if I can just find a solution for these arm muscle woes I could be paddling well again.
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