All my training now is on roller skis as I recover from my achilles injury. I'm not exactly sure what the injury is now that the pain is confined to a small point on the back of the heel - could be insertional achilles tendonosis or it could be retrocalcaneal bursitis. I don't really care as its not worth spending tax dollars to scan my foot 1000 ways to ultimately tell me to rest, etc.
And because of my syncope episode on snow skis last week, all of my training is long slow distance. The heart thing motivated me to replace my HRM to insure that I'm not stressing my heart too much. I'm not - even my fast rolls are at an average HR of 129 with a max in the upper 140s, which is about 85% MHR. I'm eager to do some tempo rolls and get the HR a little higher and my training more in line for racing. But the cardiologist discouraged that - he's concerned about my long QT interval. Looking into the literature, I should be concerned too. Except that I have no family history of this and it's really a genetic long QT interval that seems to be the concern. Still waiting for a stress test, which is next week...
My HR has jumped because of a few near-fall episodes. The first was last week when I was paying more attention to a car behind me than the road ahead of me and my right pole went into a storm drain. Deep into it. I nearly did a front flip. I had to run with my roller skis to keep from falling and somehow I managed to stay upright. I looked a bit like the picture above but on roller skis. And in shorts.
Then yesterday I had my left ski buckle (roll) at the ankle thrice, twice while I was rolling fast downhill (the other time will climbing a steep hill). I've been working on my balance and trying to actively skate these fast downhills instead of just rolling and I think if the ski is angled just a little to far sideways the friction on the tires is greater than my brain expects and I get the buckle (ankle roll). But why the same phenomenon on the uphill? And why only the left leg? I thought maybe that the first event weakened my boot since this had never happened to me and once it happened yesterday it happened twice more. But my left boot doesn't appear to be any weaker when I just roll my ankles in. Anyway, I didn't fall on any of these but if it keeps happening I'm in for a nasty wipeout.
Weekly training since stopping running (all LSD)
3 weeks ago - 53.7 miles - over the last 4 days (last run was on Tues)
2 weeks ago - 20 miles (roller ski + ski) - took time off to let achilles recover from long roll previous week
1 week ago - 77.1 miles - achilles not aggravated even on the long rolls
Have you ever videotaped yourself from different angles, speeds, etc.?
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that the roller blading doesn't aggrivate the archilles also as you are still pushing off while the body propels forward....I wonder if your running stride isn't a bit too long. have you tried shortening your stride when running?
ReplyDeleteThe roller skiing is a large lateral push and so is a big gluteal load but also quads to extend the knee. The ankle stays relatively flexed or at least when I do plantar flex the ankle most of the work has already been done in transferring my weight to the other ski. I think if I classic roller skied, this might aggravate more since it is much more like a running movement (which is why I'm a little worried that my running-specific endurance is tanking).
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