Burn less, Basals up
How can I NOT start the new year with a post about exercise? I wish this was a post about how much exercise I’ve been doing and what cool new race I’ve signed up for as a resolution, but it’s not. No friends, this is way less exciting. I have an injured Achilles tendon and I’m pretty much here to tell you that this is one big bummer of an injury (sorry, I was probably supposed to start the year off with something positive….later this week maybe? Can I just bitch for one post? Ok thanks….)
I ran a half marathon in August of this year, and it went great. Towards the end of my training though, I noticed pretty consistent and troubling pain in my left Achilles. It would be the worst first thing in the morning upon getting out of bed. I would run on it anyways, and the pain would subside about five minutes into the run, then return full force shortly after finishing. It got bad enough that I would hobble a bit in the evenings after a morning run and walking on it all day. Not good.
I did some research online: really not good. Achilles tendon tears can be career-ending for runners. They occur more frequently as we get older (great, thanks for the reminder), and they occur when ramping up mileage or speed too quickly (I trained pretty fast overall for the half). But I actually didn’t need the internet at al - I need not look further than across the breakfast table to know I had to work on this injury. My husband actually blew out his Achilles several years ago. He said although it wasn’t a crazy painful injury, the rehab was torture. He was forced to stay off it completely for weeks, completely limiting his mobility. The road to rehab was long and boring, and he has said more than once that it was one of the most challenging times in his life. Yeah….let’s not push it with this one.
I took a firm, no-running whatsoever stance way back in November, with the intent to give it two weeks and see if it improves. Now, I’m nearly six weeks deep of no running and it hasn’t improved much. Next week I’m going to see a doctor about it finally, but I’m concerned about it.
Without running, my activity level has changed quite a bit. I still have to get the dog out several mornings a week, so I’ve been walking her for an hour in the mornings. And if you thought getting up at 5:30 to run for 30 minutes in the Portland winter sounded unappealing, trying getting up twice as early so you can walk twice the distance and not be nearly as warmed up as a run would get you. Super. Lame.
I’ve been going to strength training classes as well, but there’s nothing that torches calories or is as mobile as running. My work trips have forced me to get on the dreaded elliptical in hotel gyms, and truly, I would rather watch paint dry than do the elliptical, I find it so so boring.
The biggest challenge with all of this, aside from me missing running is that it has quickly cranked up my insulin needs. You can see it as clear as day between my endo appointment on September 1 and the one on December 5th. My total daily units in September were in the high 20s. December has shown a 10 unit increase to the high 30s. Ug. We all know more insulin means more weight gain, which can lead to insulin resistance. I’ve gone up a few pounds despite my best efforts to eat well, partially because I have to maintain this low A1c. And lemme tell ya, the holidays is not the season I want to be restricting anything.
I am hoping a trip to the doctor will at least give me a clear path of how to move forward. My fear is that I won’t be able to return to my beloved running, but I’m trying to think positive. Until then, I’ll be the crazy dog lady on walks at 4:45 in the morning….see ya out there.
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Comments
Good luck with the tendons 
While I don’t usually condone running (except in “running away!”) and would recommend cycling, I’ll accept that you are a lost cause
One note on the insulin requirements: I seem to remeber being taught about the dreaded “up/down-regulations”. When you supply more insulin, the number of insulin receptors in your cells decrease, requiring more insulin in the future. This has a ceiling (and the other option: less insulin -> more receptors -> requires less insulin total has a bottom), but when you are near one of those ends, it is especially easy to trigger that problem.
Or in other words: if you are fit, use little insulin and don’t eat many carbs, then a period of rest, carby foods and recovery will make everything worse in relatively large steps.
Options? Sadly not many. Eat a lot less to get everything back down, I suppose. Or become properly ill Also… have you tried cycling?
Not a good start but hopefully you will find a way to heal and exercise in a way that is more interesting than watching paint dry. I know for me injury that interferes with a preferred exercise routine does play havoc on BG, which for me is not insulin-adjusting but does lead directly to weight gain and A1C ++. I have found Pilates machines to be very sparing of muscle injury, as they focus on core and abdominal, not legs so much as my cycling. Now starting the New Year with regular walking, but that is in SD not Portland weather.