Post the half marathon in Mumbai in January 2025 I have been focused on increasing the amount of running per Km and also strengthening the right ankle/calf. It is dosconcerting and disappointing that nearly 10m after the achilles tendon repair surgery I am still unable to do proper single leg calf raises on the right leg . As per many of the articles on TA rupture surgery and rehab being able to do a single leg calf raise is a prerequisite to running and one should be able to achieve it by about 6m post surgery. This is something that I should have paid more attention to in Sept/Oct 2024 when I restarted run/walk training. Unfortunately I did not research this properly and neither Dr HK(surgeon) or Dr G(sports ) emphasised this sufficiently as part of the rehab protocol. Without achieving single leg calf raise I managed to do the TMM HM fairly comfortable mainly due to the 55%run/45% walk regimen. But as I restarted running in Feb 2025I realised that the single leg calf raise is very critical to scale the distance towards FM training and also towards 100% running. As a consequence I have not run beyond 17K since Jan 2025 . And I have been struggling with pain in the quads/knee area even on shorter runs. As per Dr G (whom I consulted last week) this is because the ankle and calf are week and so the shin, knee and quads are being overloaded. . The only solution is to strengthen the ankle and calf. So I am diligently working on this while limiting my runs to under two hours. The good news is that Dr G has cleared me to run continupusly without walk breaks. Was happy to do my first such 10K run on 6th April. However, I am now beginning to doubt whether my ankle /calf/quads can take the load of a 5hr FM. Will find out soon as I start training for a FM in Bangalore on 21st September 2025. This will require me to start doing 20-35K runs latest from June. By that time I am hoping the range of the single leg calf raise improves and so the load on the shin and quads is reduced. Else one will have to downgrade to a HM and bring the curtain down on FM running. While I can and will need to reconcile with that if needed I hope I have a few more years of running FMs left in my legs. The next 3m will determine the future of my long distance (>21Km) running career!!
One good news in all this gloom is that the shoulder and arms have definitely becoming stronger with consistent gym workouts. After over 6m of consistent training am now able to do about 4 pull ups and 5 chin ups on a good day!!
