the main good news is that I resumed running...
the PT told me that at this point anyway I better gradually resume running and see the reaction of the ankles.. at the pinch test they might still be a bit painful, but he claims this is not necessarily a bad thing and that anyway unless I put some load, the tendon are not going to regenerate...
I must also sing praises of the ShockWave Therapy... I found out that it was also available in Hong Kong and had some session which greatly improved the problem of the adhesion between tendon and his sheath. After only a couple of session I felt much better and the "pinch test" was a very positive indicator of improvement.
Now I will have other sessions and hope to report some good news... if someone is interested I might dwell a bit longer on all the therapies I tried for the tendinosis and my opinion on each...
Runningwise, I run already 3-4 times for 10-15 minutes on the treadmill. I would never imagined that a treadmill run would have been so sweet...
Now I must obviously avoid getting carried away and I will stick to run every other day for 15-20 minutes max for all the month of January, to see if the tendons hold.
No long terms plan or yearly plan, just take one week at the time.
Main current focus is to work in strengthening and stretching:
- the PT told me that my right hip is very weak and therefore the stride put too much demand on the ankles. So I must work a lot on strenghen the hip and the gluteus, plus working on general balance and ankle/feet strenght
- after 13 months of no running and only cycling, my muscles are very stiff... I lost a lot of range of motion and flexibility, so this is another area on which I must focus on
I want to also stick to cycling as long as possible, to make up the total "aerobic" time in a week and also because it is pretty enjoyable at the time... since I have gained a decent cycling fitness... very likely that I will close the cycling racing season in June and then hang the bike and just run. By that period, I hope to be able to "train" and not just "run"...
It is a steep road ahead, but I feel motivated
Lastly, I quick balance of 2009
RUNNING: 2 Km in 1 run ...
CYCLING:
==> around 5500km, 170 rides in around 200 hours (MTB+Road).. (not bad, but also not not impressive...)..
==> 2 races with excellent results (2nd overall in SZ and 4th AG at HK criterium)
As a side effect of the injury, I should have also done a total of all the medical and non medical expenses related to the problem, but it would be too shocking. Between medical care not covered by the insurance, expenses for cycling stuff, etc, etc...the total easily amounts to several thousands USD... so I really recommend to take care of your injuries in a preventive way becuase it is better to spend some money earlier on new shoes, orthotics or massage than later shell out 100USD/session on the PT bed..
