In February I went to Sri Lanka and while I was there I did a couple of runs – one on a beach and one round a town, in and out of the Evo IIs. But after each I was hobbling. And the hobbling continued for a good couple of days afterwards. I had burning on the insides of my Achilles Tendons but didn’t know why.
When I came back I bought a small ultrasound device, after I saw a friend using one after skiing. And I also went to see my osteopath to try and understand what had happened.
Initially I put it down to a three-hour, relatively gentle, hill walk in Wellington Boots. The ground was soft and so my heels may have descended below the rest of the foot, but I’m not sure this was the root cause of the problem, though it may have been a contributing factor. In the end I had to accept that somehow I had overused or abused these tendons through the extra strain put on them by barefoot running. I thought I had been so careful on my journey to barefoot running.
Reassured by my osteopath that my legs weren’t going to fall off, I cut back my running to very short distances – initially a mile – and increased only as far as I could run without pain during or after the event. Over a couple of months I got the distance back, but still can get some pain or stiffness in the right one, especially after road running. I don’t know if I can do anything to make this better, but at least I am aware of it and can keep an eye on it.
You can’t be too careful.
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