The pain and annoyance of my chronic achilles tendonitis finally became too much for me to handle and I knew that it was back to the drawing board for some relief. Truth be told, it never really settled after my HK100 no matter how much icing and stretching I gave it. The bump on the back of my heel continues to get larger although oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be leading to heel blisters. It still fits nicely into my
Salomon S-Labs.
The only time that I have experienced a day of being pain free was last year when I went to see
Colin Miller here in Squamish. He provides the most aggressive form of IMS that I have ever experienced, make me cry, scream and curse as hundreds of needles get put in all over my body. What was magical despite the pain was that for the first time ever, I awoke the next morning pain free. This was now over 1/2 a year ago and I knew after returning from Hong Kong back in February that I was due for a Colin visit to get things back under control. My 2012 season would suck big time if I didn't address this now. I'm not getting the most out of my workouts because I'm always compensating.
I wasn't able to get in to see Colin for 2 weeks so I tried other forms for physio that did include IMS. No luck though on settling the achilles down, just as I had anticipated. My body responds the best to aggressive treatment. Sticking a few needles in me and thinking that is going to do the trick just isn't the case. I knew I mentally had to prepare myself for a "Colin treatment" if I really was too get better. To say it bluntly, he needled the crap out of me, aiming to re-set nerves throughout the body, not just direct to the achilles. From spine, low lumbar, glutes, hip flexors and calves, he hit's you hard with it. Colin's treatment is not for everyone but he has huge success with people who can handle a very aggressive form of treatment.
Thursday evening I finally got in for an appointment. After 1hr of hell, I hobbled out and straight home to the couch. I wasn't able to move but it was the type of pain that told me "tomorrow I will awake as a new person." During my treatment, my crying would get so out of control as I struggled to put the pain into the pain box. Colin would calm me down and get me to re-focus my breathing. 45mins of needles was not fun at all but I reached a point where I needed to be moving again properly, Colin was my only hope.
I wasn't surprised when I got up at 5am and headed to Chief for training. For the first time in months, I didn't feel my achilles like I had before. I got out for another run later in the day as well. Yesterday was the true test as Jenni and headed out for a trail run for 4hrs. I was able to hold form and have no pain for the first 3hrs30mins, it was awesome. I could see that we had made progress, I was putting my foot down correctly and not hobbling. The last 30mins things got a little ugly and I knew that I needed to call it quits, get home and get the ultra-sound right back onto it. With that said though, I'm on the road to restoration with another appointment mid this week. In a sick way, I'm excited about my next treatment because I know it means healing.
I'm now 1.5 weeks away from my Ireland departure and a rock'in 100km course that waits there for me. I will try to get another few IMS appoints with Colin in before I go, I want to run pain free, I don't want to struggle with this all year.
ONWARDS...........