This past weekend was my 20 miler peak run in prep for the next marathon. It was an unusually warm day in December...low 60's whereas the weekend before was a blizzard.
Much of the bike path was now in a slush which might have been what did me in. The first mile or so was in this ankle deep slush/icy slurry and after feeling a bit like running in wet sand I decided to stay on the roads. The roads were a bit better, but the sidewalks on the busy streets we about the same except with hardend icy splotches.
Around mile 18 my left Achilles tendon decided it had had enough and went from being tight to sore with a bit of a sting. Stretching didn't help so I slowed my pace down to a slight jog and wide step walk, but eventually settled on a slight jog since it didn't make much of a difference in comfort and jogging would get me home sooner.
Immediately at home I stretched for about 20 minutes then started an ice-therapy regime. Iced for 15 minutes off for 5 for as long as I had ice and could remember to keep it up. A little stretching just to keep from getting locked up to a hobble, but really focusing on the icing for the day. That night I did some rolling of my legs but nothing intense (yet) and went to be with an icepack. Wore compression socks for the rest of the day.
The next day was more ice and light stretching (entire body), but that evening I did an intense rolling out. Wore compression socks for as much of the day as I could withstand....by the evening my legs needed a break.
The next day was an occasional icing but mostly a good stretch in the morning and good stretch at night and now working on the knots in my calf for a while at night.
Today things felt almost good enough to go for a run, but held off and focused on more work on the remaining knots (surprisingly few) and easy stretching. Tomorrow, I'll try out my leg with an easy 4 miler with compression socks on. If it was a bad idea, I'll let you know.