Bruised and battered but not Broken

Forgot to update you folks on the achilles situation and the plan for Sunday - To race or not to race. After spending an hour and a half getting therapy on both my achilles mainly my left since the right is more irritated than injured, the therapist told me that there were no signs on a tear - he put me through a bunch of diagnostic tests and a grueling soft tissue massage which although it was painful as hell at the time did wonders for my recovery. We also did some myofacial release on the extra-firm foam roller mixed with actively dorsi/plantar flexing my foot with the goal of increasing my range-of-motion. This followed by a slush bath and huge improvement in the amount of swelling and pain. Still though after trying to do some calf raises my achilles was still in pain so I was still unsure about Sunday. But then came Thursday. I woke up looked at my left foot and my God I could actually see some definition in the tendon. Another ice session and more foam rolling and I was off to school. I focused nicely, took solid notes, and yes was confident about my chances of racing on Sunday. One professor who is an athletic therapist told me to get an achilles compression brace to help vascularize the area and promote healing, as well as prevent the tendon from rupturing. Both the professor and the therapist from Wed. said running on Sunday at race pace will be putting alot of stress on the tendons and since they are weak and fragile at the moment and therefore I would be taking a risk - risking a bigger more substantial injury. However, I asked the therapist, "Basically I know it's risky but will it be possible to run." His answer, "Warm it up really good before the race and if you feel your calf starting to tense up immediately stop running to prevent the tendon from tearing." Good, so then it's settled. After a run in with my brace and new adios 2.0 my legs were feeling solid, by the end of the run both tendons (especially the right since unfortunately no running store in Canada had two of the braces so I could only buy one) were in some pain but nothing that was going to stop me from toeing the line on Sunday.

So the race plan is as follows: I'm not going to check the confirmation list this time because it is unreliable and many people register late for halfs. I don't want to go into the race thinking this is an easy win or easy top 5, or whatever. I want to go in with the mindset of I'm just going to put my head down (figuratively of course since I need to look ahead) and just run a good race. Sure, because this week I haven't exactly prepared for this race as I would have liked too since I haven't done any workouts since Monday morning so not really feeling in PB form, however, I am depending on all the hard workouts I did throughout the season especially in the last 5-6 weeks of training to carry me to a successful race. Apparently the course is rather hilly to start (which quite Frankly I'm not looking forward to since uphills are what aggravate the achilles tendon the most) and then flattens out when we run through the roads surrounding the vineyards - supposed to be a quite pretty course especially now around the fall time. The weather looks good supposed to be 12 degrees and sunny although there is supposed to be a rather stiff 25km/h NW wind. In terms of the run plan I want to run a negative split. I'm not going to say I'm going to run a 34min 10k then a 33:45 and finish sub 1:12 because as a said before alot of my pacing for this race due to my achilles situation will just be playing it by feel - so I'm not going to set my sight on a specific pace to keep or time to get. The only real time goal I will say is I'll be happy with anything under 1:15 and content with sub 1:16 but still knowing that going to STWM I will need to run two back to back 1:17s to achieve my goal  2:34 time. Honestly, before the achilles issue I was thinking 1:10 but in this sport you just have to roll with the punches. Until, Sunday afternoon happy running and my tip of the day, Every time you are struggling to get out the door or out on a tough run think to yourself what would you rather be doing, would you rather be icing your legs on the couch and feeling like a sloth, cherish your runs, and embrace the feeling of your heart racing and legs screaming to stop because there is nothing better.