Wanting to Run Hard

Time: 35:27
Distance: 5.32 miles
Pace: 6:39
Map

We had a beautiful afternoon here in Charlotte and I was able to enjoy my run through Freedom Park skins. That's right shirtless. Meagan is out in Santa Fe, NM where it is snowing and I'm running skins here in North Carolina. I also broke out my Karhu Racers for the first time. This pair is actually my size which means no blistering. I wanted to see if going to something more minimalistic would increase or decrease the discomfort in my achilles. I'm not sure if it was the weather, the shoes or my less negative attitude on the day, but my achilles didn't really hurt during the run.

I had been running with a heel lift and a light orthotic to limit my movement in the shoe for the past couple of runs. I decided to forgo all that stuff and see how the achilles handled a more natural path. I was really encouraged by how the achilles/calf felt on the run. I think it is the first run in two weeks where I wanted to run longer.

This morning I spoke with Ryan Danner who is a local physical therapist who is opening his own practice in a few weeks. He gave me some advice about the achilles. None of his recommendations were anything I had not been doing, but hearing it from a trained and knowledgeable source helped reiterate that what I was doing is helping.