We all suffer setbacks in our sport and it's how you deal with them which defines you as an athlete. Last week I posted about how things were looking up for me in my training and I was getting over my slight achillies problems however when on a run round the outwoods in Loughborough I could feel it progressively getting worse. I didn't push on at all, kept it steady and nursed it all the way home. The next day I had to go out and test it and I knew when walking down the stairs of my apartment that it wasn't going to be a good day and I was right. After literally 10 strides I was in agony, this time a lot worse than when it first flared up.

That was it for me, in the pool for a few days in the hope it would settle down. I booked in for a deep massage to loosen up my calfs and feet, what I think was causing the problem. I managed to get jogging on Friday, a minute on, minute off on the grass but it wasn't 100%. I could still feel something there. Again Saturday was the same story with slightly longer runs but the same feeling. Knowing there was something not quite right I booked into the physio, thankfully I got a last minute appointment today with Cat who trains in my group and she seen me within a few hours. So a huge thank you to her for looking at my achillies. It's turned out to be a very similar problem to last year but slightly worse I think, massage on my calfs and feet didn't cure it and there was a lot of tightness in the back of my knee. Hopefully after some treatment today it'll be ok tomorrow as i've been told I can run straight up 30mins as it's not something that can get much worse, I guess I'm just very cautious when it comes to any pain I feel as I always believe it's hurting for a reason!

So i'd aways recommend to other athletes if you feel any sort of pain, just stop as it's not worth trying to run through it. It's ok if its an ache as I think as those are just niggles which will subside and you don't really want to be a hypochondriac calling the physio every week!

So anyway I thought i'd update once things began to look up as I hate being negative on here, I don't really want to become an energy sapper from people when they read this so I like to keep things positive.

I'm still fairly confident i'll be on the start line of the 6 stage next Saturday even though i'm yet to run faster than 5:50 per mile pace! I'm hoping i've carried a fair amount of summer fitness through and the aqua jogging will bring that back out in me as the sessions have been pretty intense.

For those who are interested, today I did 2x 3mins, 2mins, 1min, 30sec off 60,45,30 and 2mins between the 2 sets. I would have probably done a 3rd set but I did it between lectures as the aqua jogging lane was only open till 3pm today much to the swimmers delight as they hate the fact they have to share a lane with other swimmers when there's only me in a single lane taking 90seconds to do 25m of the pool! 

Tomorrow i'll get my run done in the morning then do something hard in the pool to get the lactic built up once again. Today my legs filled up that much I felt lactic build up in my feet I was working that hard so I want that feeling again!