slow and steady

Well I ran last Wednesday for the first time in a month.  I warmed up on the elliptical for a half hour, stretched out my achilles then ran a mile on the treadmill at a 10 minute pace.  Right away I could feel my ankle and after 5 mins my ankle stopped but my achilles tightened up.  Overall it was not a great run.  I left feeling pretty defeated.  I came home to ice and do heel drops.  Recently I read about an experiment to improve achilles tendonitis.  It focuses on eccentric calf exercises - heel drops off the edge of a step with a straight leg then a bent leg.  It recommends 3 sets of 15 reps of each type twice a day.  That's 180 heel drops a day - ugh!  So time consuming.  However, I'm willing to try anything at this point.  The experiment showed improvement in 70% of its patients.  That is after 6 months of 180 heel drops a day!!  So Friday I ran a mile outside and I had no pain at all!  I was so thankful!  Brent and I went for a run last night and I felt good then too.  However, I went to run this morning and I did not feel nearly as good as the last two.  I guess this could be expected.  I am sure it's going to come in waves.  I made sure to ice as soon as I got back.  Later I did heel drops and iced again.  I'm praying Wednesday's run goes better.  Meanwhile I'll be doing more heel drops, icing and cross training.  This journey is definitely taking longer than I had ever envisioned, but I'm not ready to give up.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.