Worse

My run with Laurence yesterday morning didn't help at all. I spent the whole day limping around with my achilles extremely sore. Last night I rubbed in some Voltarène and hoped that this would make it better. Fat chance.

Malakoff is becoming an obsession at work. I've managed to persuade a few colleagues to take part in a 5km race in a couple of weeks and now that the day is fast approaching, they are beginning to think about training a minimum so as to not humiliate themselves on the day by running in last. I've been pushing 2 guys in my team to do some training and was supposed to run with them both mid-week so as to show them what 5km felt like. One of them had run the distance last week and found that he had to walk long stretches and finished in just over 40 minutes.

I arranged to meet P. (name not mentioned in order to guarantee anonymity!) in Maisons Laffitte this morning to run 5k with him. I thought I'd run down to the park and back making a total of 15km for the run. I changed trainers this morning and put my Brooks on to see if this would help, but as soon as I left the house I knew that I was in trouble. My ankle was so sore that I modified my running style instinctively to protect it, but this didn't help. I trotted easily down towards Maisons Laffitte hoping that the pain would ease but after 5 kilometres to meet P., it hadn't gone.

I ran with P. along Avenue Albine and back and he managed the 5km after a couple of stops only after 4k and then just before the end. I could see that after 500m he was already suffering and red in the face but he was able to keep it up through sheer determination until almost the end. We ran the 5km in 28:30 or an average of 5:40 per km a 15 minute improvement on his first attempt last week.

I ran back home, met Laurence at the end of her run and finished together with her.

16km all up in 1:21. Applied ice to ankle when I got home and took a paracetemol but it's swollen and very tender. The problem would appear to be at the top of the achilles where it meets the calf and it feels as though I've been kicked in this area. I've decided not to run tomorrow in order to give the ankle a chance to heal and for the swelling to disappear. Bummer!