During my little mini break after the six half Ironmans, I started to feel a little niggle in my Achilles but thought nothing of it until I took off onto a 45 min hilly run. 20 minutes into the run on the longest hill, my Achilles made itself known to me in a very painful way! I ended up walking home the entire way not wanting to aggravate it anymore. Called my coach, massage therapist, and physical therapist to get it sorted out as soon as possible. If you remember earlier in the year, Joe Gambles, was sidelined for a lengthy amount of time due to a Achilles issue. I can't afford (literally) to be out for any time at all. Lesson learned is that I'm not 20 year old anymore and can't get away with out not stretching and using my TP equipment daily.
It was 12 days off of land and into the water with the aqua belt per coach Dixon's orders. I had two session with Dr. Jarod Carter (manual PT) who really went after my issue. I came out of one session looking as if I just jumped out of the shower because he really got into it. I have never been worked on so hard before in my life but it helped. The past week Ron helped massage out the rest of the issues.
The past 12 days have been very swim and bike intensive in the lead up to the back-to-back half ironman's. With the names like Hoffman and Tollekson in some of the races, you have to be near coming into T2 to stay close because they can also run! Lot and lots of big gear work on hills.
Here are some pictures of my favorite hill loop just down the road from me.
Love this place (River Place)
The start of hill. Has three kickers followed by two more short climbs (12 loops today)
nice view to finish off the ride (Lake Travis)
Train hard!
JC
