A visit with my physiotherapst today. He said I've got inflamation of the instertion point of the achilles tendon into the calf. Also, the muscle at the outside of the lower calf is cramping and making the whole lower half tight and sore. I've been told not to anything that makes me go up on my toes till it stops hurting (easier said than done, try walking up/down stairs flat footed) then do calf raises to strengthen the muscle. He did some massage and ultra sounds and said to ice it and stretch VERY gently. He said NO running for a week and go back next week to see how it is. The Neolithic may not be a possibility but I have to wait and see. I have Halstead on 14 th May so hopefully I will be better in time for that one and then I may do the New Forest Marathon but that's not till September, if the Neolithic is out of the question. He also said I can cycle, swim and walk and have to go back to running very gradually.
That's not as bad as I had exptected, nothing torn so great relief about that. But its still sore to walk on so I'm staying put indoors today with a book and my feet up and I'll start the x training in earnest tomorrow.
I am disappointed, of course, about the Neolithic. I don't realistically expect to do this now as I haven't got time to get the inflamation down and then have time to try it out over a longish run to see how it will behave before the marathon. I certainly don't want to get all the way there then find out I have to drop out of the event after a couple of miles and then maybe mess it up again so that I can't do Halstead either. Better to get the leg strong again and go for another one a little later on.
I did also mention the groin to the physio. He said its a hip flexor overstrained - probably stretching as I thought - and to ice it and of course, I'll be resting it anyway.
So, that's my marathon training for today. I suppose I am lucky to only have the injuries I've got as he keeps telling me how well I am doing to keep running all these miles as I am biomechanically unsound with my tilted pelvis and my dodgy back and that running is not a very good sport for me to be doing but I like him because he keeps me running anyway and always tells me what I want to hear, and I just ignore anything I don't want to hear!!