This whole Achilles rupture thing happened quite suddenly. The movement that triggered the rupture was not violent or intense, it just chose that moment to give out. However, I think I can safely conclude that it was a buildup of stress in that area and then “kaboom.”
When it happened, I was not surprised. I heard the “pop” and knew immediately. Frankly, I thought this would happen last year, but I sought treatment, was very careful, managed the injury the best I could and thought I fought it off.
Things were relatively pain free this year, I am in the best shape I have ever been in (confirmed by a recent fitness test – my VO2 max increased by 9 points) so of course something like this happened.
I was checking through old race reports and blog postings to confirm that the signs were there to predict this Achilles tendon rupture and sure enough….
“… I had some pain in my right hamstring along with my Achilles (usual thing since I started playing competitive tennis again). So I basically spent the rest of the day icing constantly.” - June 12, 2007
“I should also give credit to Dr. Andrew Romanelli of SPC. They had a free post-race treatment station at the race and I took full advantage. He diagnosed some possible causes for my knee pain and used ART to treat my aching knee and Achilles. He detected a lot of tightness and definitely broke down a lot of scar tissue in the area. I felt tons better.” - June 19, 2007
“Having pulled my hamstring the weekend before (still don’t know how), and with my ongoing Achilles problems, I did not do anything but ice, stretch and physio from Sunday – Wednesday. With Ironman Canada only a few weeks away this was a huge scare.” - August 16, 2007
“Other than my usual tight Achilles, I felt fairly fresh race morning.” - August 16, 2007
“This week I finally did 2 slow runs totaling 41 minutes (6.5 km). Both Achilles were still achy and so was my left knee.” - September 12, 2007
“As soon as I recover, left calf still very sore, I look forward to switching gears to some longer training hours for Ironman Lake Placid in July.” - May 11, 2008
There you go. This is one of the reasons to write about this stuff in race reports and blogs. You can trace back and find out some valuable injury history. The warning signs were there but I think it was inevitable. Other than sitting on my butt for the rest of my life, I am not sure there was much else I could have done to prevent something like this from happening. The wheels were in motion.
More to follow since I will have lots of time on my hands.
RH
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