Broken Again

Its probably safe to say that everyday your learn something new.  Some days you even learn a life lesson.  Once again I find my racing season in doubt due to injury.   8 days ago I developed Achilles tendonitis in my left leg.  With my new stance on health I gave it 4 days of rest, re tested it and realized I needed to see a PT ASAP.  So I went to the UofM Medsport clinic to get my injury diagnosed.  From recommendations I went to see a fellow cyclist who happens to be a PT.  Sure enough he confirmed what I dreaded.  Achilles Tendonitis, the injury that can be a pain in the arse to get rid off.   The likely causes are what surprised me though.  First of all my hamstrings are not very flexible, I never noticed this though because my back on the other hand is super flexible.  Basically I need to focus on stretching better.  That was minor though and not likely the cause, the more likely cause was a certain massive contusion.  Yup, that injury I suffered at Iceman.  Turns out a bruise of that magnitude can wreck havoc on a muscle.  I thought I had rehabbed it with my bike training.  Nope, the tendon was slowly getting fed up with me.  When I left he recommended that I work on stretches for the time being.  Next week I plan to start a physical therapy plan to get me back up to speed and racing, but with the main goal of not training hard till I know the tendon is healed, strengthened and ready.  Who knows how long that will take, depends on how my body heals and reacts.  Back to the calf muscle though, the PT said I should be able to do 25 left foot calf raises easy for my fitness.  I tried two sets yesterday for kicks and failed with the left leg.  Today while using my massage roller on my calf I found a certain spot that was super sore.  Yup, right where I had the massive contusion on my left calf.  Lesson learned, if I ever get a massive bruise like that again I am going to seek an Injury clinic.  I had no idea a bad bruise could do this, now I know.