Building From the Ground Up
Week One
Background
I started running at 12 and found success pretty quickly. In high school and college we ran barefoot when we could — strides after runs, grass when it was available. I ran a 1:11 marathon in college, a sub-15 5k and 2:35 marathon after college, and a 1:17 half marathon in a later comeback.
My achilles has been complaining since high school track workouts. By 2012 it was getting bad but I was still running some. By 2015 it had gotten to the point where if I ran at all it would get super bad. That was the low point.
What got me moving again was dreaming about doing the rim-to-rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. The rebuild started around 2015, 2016. Through all the heel pain I’ve managed that rim-to-rim-to-rim, a 100-mile trail run, a sub-17 5k, and a lot of other races and efforts along the way.
But I’ve never fixed the problem. I’ve managed it.
The Diagnosis
What I’m dealing with is a combination of insertional achilles tendinopathy, retrocalcaneal bursitis, and Haglund’s deformity — a bony prominence on the heel that mechanically irritates everything around it.
The standard eccentric loading protocol helped somewhat but didn’t resolve it. That’s because eccentrics are designed for mid-portion tendinopathy. For insertional issues the bottom of the range compresses the very spot that’s already irritated.
I switched to HOKAs a few years back and felt much better almost immediately. In hindsight that was a band-aid. A useful one — I kept training and racing — but the root cause was still there.
The Idea
My plan is to transition fully into zero drop Altra shoes. The opposite of what most people with achilles issues are told to do.
I’d put the odds of this fully working at about 20/80. I’ll probably be running Fatdog with some heel pain like I’ve run every other ultra. But the reasoning is sound:
Zero drop naturally increases cadence and reduces impact per step. It activates the first ray properly, which engages the windlass mechanism and offloads the achilles. It forces the calves, soleus, and intrinsic foot muscles to do the work the shoe was doing. Arthur Lydiard’s runners did barefoot bounding strides up sand dunes as a preparatory phase before harder work — we just ran barefoot when we could in high school and college, strides after runs, grass when it was available. There’s logic to building the foundation from the ground up.
The plan is to train in zero drop and race in low drop Altras with more cushioning.
Where I’m Headed
Fatdog 100k, August 9th. Last year, while I was Pacing my friend Ann – at Fatdog 100k – I was in so much heal pain that I had to drop from pacing at 40k. This year I’m entered in the full 100k.
Week 1
This week was a spontaneous deload after a local trail race at Royal Roads (part of the Island Trail series)
The shoes feel unfamiliar — like I don’t quite know how to run in them. My soleus is working harder than usual even at easy pace. But the steps feel lighter, cadence is naturally higher, less aggressive push-off, more ground feel.
Morning stiffness has been 3-4/10 which is my normal baseline. One day spiked to 5/10 after combining a bigger hill run with five hours of driving and moving furniture — a reminder that load is load. Pain during runs has been primarily tendon and calf rather than sharp insertional compression, which is an encouraging early sign.
Baseline established: 3/10 morning stiffness at low load.
Next Week
One threshold session with Island Endurance, a longer easy trail run, daily short easy runs, and cycling to maintain fitness without adding achilles load. (I might add a bit more intensity to Friday’s run)
Updates next week.
Morning stiffness and pain: 1-10 scale. All running in Altra Escalante (zero drop) unless noted.
