My Achilles' leg

Yea, I know it's Achilles' tendon, or Achilles' heel harkening back to Greek mythology. For my issue, I have coined the phrase Achilles' leg. My Achilles' leg is my left leg.

The problems with my left leg run the gamut. The kicker is I never have any problems with my right leg, which I was worried about after my ski accident in 2005 due to the damage to my knee. After all, I suffered a contusion to the lateral femoral condyle, fraying of the lateral meniscus (no tears, thank God), MCL/ACL sprain, and chondromalacia patella. I was in recovery for almost 6 months.

Since then, I have struggled with shin splints. I know now these can result from a variety of issues. In my case it was inadequate training, infreqent and incorrect stretching, and fast bursts of speed at the end of a race. I have modified my routine to train more consistently and taper before a big race, stretch at the right time and in the right manner, and no showing off or hotdogging through the finish line. It was the damn hotdogging that turned minor shin splints into full-on multiple stress fractures in....you guessed it....my left leg at the end of a 10K up in Dallas in 2008. Only 8 weeks before running the Half Marathon in San Antonio.

....where things got so much worse about 8 miles into the race. The stress fractures flared up, which affected my gait, which then had a huge impact on both my knee and my hip. The pain radiating from my ankle to my hip was excruciating enough to contemplate walking through the finish line. Thanks to a nameless lady, whom I mentioned in a previous post, I was able to "run" through the finish line but my time was badly mangled.

I worked very hard on training smartly and I thought I had kicked the problem, up until now, as runner's knee rears its head. For my last Half in New Orleans, I pleaded with my doctor to give me a cortisone injection. He said it may or may not help. It did and I ran all 13.1 miles with NO pain. It was beautiful! Shaved 17 minutes off my previous time. He warned me, however, that I couldn't do that all the time.

Which brings me to where I am now: a race approaching in 5 days with an ITB flare-up and no end in sight to the pain without just staying immobile.

I have 2 other major races I want to run later this year. One is the Ten for Texas 10-miler in October and then the St. Jude Half Marathon in Memphis in December.

My plan is to stay immobile until Sunday, with the exception of some walking. Run the race on Sunday and implement all of my "smart" stretching and strategies. Then take some time off, maybe 2 weeks, before slowly adding on miles again complete with full stretching of the IT band on a regular basis.

Achilles' died as a result of his wound. I hope this injury will not force the same dismal curtain call for my running and cycling, for what would I then do to vent my energies?