Side-lined for a bit

Looks like the coach aka my doctor has sidelined me for a bit. Too much speedwork and hills in racing flats has lead to a yellow card with Achilles Tendinitis.  The pleasure was worth the pain. In the past few months of training/racing;  I set a new 5k (19:27) in Dec, 10k (43:01) in Nov and half marathon (1:35:48) last weekend, all new PRs at the expense of some discomfort in my Achilles. 

So the next ten days I will not run or jog. Allowing myself some proper recovery time so I can race again later this year.  Sometimes you have to stop and let the body rest. Even though most of us hate taking the time off or even the sound of the word taper.  In the long course of life I know I will get more out of my running by sitting out the next several days.  Not too bad for running the past five years with really no breaks except a mild taper here and there for races.  Some races I even trained all the way up to race day and started the day following the race.

I even went and got a 90 minute massage today at the Aveda Salon. I think my entire benefited from the time on the table and is feeling better already.  Later tonight I will pick a book Run The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel to help pass the time by. I have found that using my downtime by reading proves to be quite beneficial.  I learn a bit more about running and pick up some useful knowledge that otherwise I might miss out on reading. Too bad I didn't read up on Tendinitis before it got me.

The nice thing about these recent days is that with the blizzard in effect; right now is an ideal time to sit back and rest. I plan to ease back in with some light running mixed in with some biking to offset the longer runs I want to do.  At the end of the month I have the Cowtown Ultra so I have to build smart so that I don't end back up in this predicament.

Best wishes to everyone out there running!!