My right heel has been holding up great and I have just some very minor soreness in my left heel, but even then, it’s only periodic. I think my worse pain or soreness was actually yesterday. For some reason my hips and inner thighs were extremely sore. I don’t know why as I can’t recall doing anything out of the ordinary. I also tried to go for a run yesterday and I just couldn’t do it. My whole body felt tired. I ran 0.25 miles before deciding I probably needed to rest. I ran this morning instead and I felt fine. Very odd!

The plan for now is to continue running 3-4 miles. I can feel my fitness slowly coming back, but it’s now where near what I’d like it to be in order to start ramping up my mileage.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been running just 3 miles, but even then I had to take walking breaks in the last 1 - 1.5 miles.  Today I managed to run 3 miles without walking and I did an extra mile with a couple walking breaks for a total of 4 miles.  It felt great!

My right heel has been great.  I have had absolutely no pain, discomfort nor stiffness.  Nothing at all all.  It feels perfectly normal.  I don’t know how long it’ll last, but I hope it’s a long time.  I even told my wife the bump at the back of my heel seems smaller, but she says it’s probably just wishful thinking

I have a follow up appointment with my Orthopedic surgeon on Monday to see how my heel is doing.

I am getting very slight stiffness in my left heel, but nothing I am worried about.

The plan for next week is to run 4 miles again on Sunday and then go back to 3-mile runs during the week.

As of today I feel very good about being able to resume running on a regular basis.  My plan is to stick to just 3-mile runs for now.  The last thing I want to do is overdo it and cause some other problem.

I decided to seek out advice from various people, including my dad who is a GP and the great folks at RunningAHEAD.  I also asked my Ortho about it and he mentioned that the tendon ruptures are actually associated more with shots into the tendon 2-3″ above where my shot would be.

I was was told by multiple people that it can hurt quite a bit, and being a wuss when it comes to pain, that is definitely a factor to be considered.

I decided to go ahead with the shot under the following conditions:

• I would only get ONE shot in my right heel.  I may get one in my left heel in the future, but I’ll only do one shot in any given area.  I’m hoping that one shouldn’t cause an issue with tendon weakness.
• I’ll see how the shot works out and if I find that it doesn’t help or the pain returns, then I’ll explore other options or simply give up on running.

I made the appointment and went this morning to get it.  After all the build up of people telling me how it would hurt, including my Ortho who said it would sting, it was actually a very easy procedure.  I felt a prick from the first needle that he used with an anesthetic, but after that initial prick, I felt very little.  To be honest, I don’t know all the fuss was about with regards to the pain.

My heel is a little sore right now (an hour later) and I imagine it will be this way throughout the day, but I’m really glad there was no pain and that it didn’t hurt like everyone else said it would.  And believe me, if there was pain involved, I would know…..I’m a huge wuss when it comes to needles and pain!!

So, now I will rest the heel for a couple days and my Ortho siad  I can run again on Saturday.

My fingers are crossed and we’ll see how this works out…..

The doctor gave me a few options that include:

• Cortisone shot
• Physical Therapy
• Surgery

I didn’t have the cortisone shot right away, but I plan to go and get it done on Thursday.

Even though I have bone spur, I am actually very relieved. After all this time of just guessing what was wrong, I have a proper diagnose and can actually purse a proper course of action.

With the cortisone shot I should be able to resume running. This actually has me quite excited!!

EDIT: I forgot to add, he also suggested Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy, but mentioned it was very expensive and insurance companies wouldn’t pay for it as it’s considered experimental.

So, I had both heels x-rayed and it turns out that I do not have bone spur on my heel. My father suggested I get an MRI which should show what is actually wrong.  I’ll do that once I get back to the US.
I haven’t been running for quite some time and I still feel soreness and stiffness at the back of my heel.

Today I woke up and my heel was stiff, but then a few hours later (I’m a bit slow) I realized that it was my “left” heel that was stiff!  My left heel is the one that has always been good and it was my right heel that was the one giving me all the problems.  So, now it seems I have two bum heels!

I pretty sure my left heel is achilles tendonitis.   It’s just very stiff and sore in the mornings.  My right heel is the one with what I think is a bone spur which lately, seems to be getting bigger!  I’m going to make a dilligent effort to ensure I stretch my achilles tendon every time I exercise, but part of me knows I should probably lay off the elliptical.

I turn 40 within the next 2 months and unfortunately this old body is starting to show its age!

Thursday was in the low 70’sF, but it was warm enough that it made my 4-mile run a really tough one.  I’ve come to realize that I am terrible when it comes to running in temperatures above the low 60’sF.

Friday was 85F at the time that I was scheduled to run and I just couldn’t stomach the thought of having to struggle through another run so I took the day off.

This morning as 57F…great weather as far as I am concerned.  I decided to do a 4-mile run since I missed a couple days this week, but the weather was so nice and I felt great that I deicded to make it a 5-mile run.

I ended the week at 23 miles.  My goal was 27-28 miles.

I plan to switch to running in the mornings.  I did it the whole of last year so I know I will eventually get used to having to get up an hour earlier.

My goal for next week is about 25-27 miles.  I’m on vacation and we’re taking a short 2-day mini-vacation so I will most likely only get in 6 days of running.

The problem was on Thursday. We had this cold front that moved in on Thursday along with wind and rain. On Thursday afternoon, it was about 35F, raining, and windy, but I just had to run. I decided to go out and try my normal 4 miles, but I figured that once I got in at least 2 miles, I would be happy. It was the most brutal weather I’ve had to run in for quite some time. The rain was actually icy and it was stinging as it hit my face. To make matter worse, I stepped in a puddle about 5 mins into the run and so my left foot was wet and cold. I kept going and after a while my face and body felt fine, but my foot was starting to get numb. I decided to cut the run short and ended it at 2 miles.

I normally see at least 2-3 other people running when I go out, but needless to say, there was no on else out there on Thursday. I’m sure that the people in the many cars that passed me must have thought I was crazy.

As a result of only running 2 miles on Thursday, I ran 5 on Friday and made my recovery run on Saturday 3 miles so I could have ended the week at 27 miles.

My plan this week to to continue to run every day. I increased my Sunday run to 6 miles and so I hope to run about 28 miles for the week.

I ran a long run of 5 miles on Sunday and then ran 4 miles each of the next 5 days. I was a bit undecided as to whether or not I should run today, or take a rest day.  I like the fact I had run for seven consecutive days when I include last week Saturday, and in the end, I decided to do a short 2-mile run today to keep my streak alive.  I wanted today’s run to be a very slow recovery run so I asked my 6 1/2 year old daughter if she wanted to go running with me.  To my surprise, she agreed and was actually excited about it.  I have never run with her in the past, but I knew it would definitely force me to run slowly.

I decided to run the first mile with her, doing a loop in such a way that I could have dropped her back home and then go on to do my second mile.  It was great running with her and she was a real trooper.  She managed to run the full mile without having to walk.  I am so proud of her.  All I could think about was the first time I went running and could barely managed 60 seconds at a time.  As expected, we took 13 mins to run the mile, but it was nice and slow.

I’m looking forward to many more runs with her in the future.