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Not that Achilles. I'm talking about my achilles tendons. It turns out that there's really something to that whole metaphorical value of the term 'achilles heel'. I recently injured both of them.
Yes, I said both of them. Upon returning from Ireland, I eagerly rejoined my Ultimate frisbee team. For the uninitiated, Ultimate is an oh-so-west-coast sport played outdoors with a frisbee (or 'disk', for those in the know). It involves a great deal of running. In fact, the activity is similar to playing basketball, if the court was twice as large, made of grass and you played with a small, flat beach ball. |
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About six weeks, while hustling for Fox Force 7, pursuing some guy who was way quicker than I was (a description that can be applied to all ultimate players with two legs), when I felt an unpleasant sort of 'pop' in my right ankle. The pain wasn't really awful--it just became apparent that I could really put much weight on it. I eventually diagnosed it as a sprain of the muscles around the achilles tendon, and sat out for a few weeks.
I was diligent. I applied the four cornerstones of sports recovery: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation (that spells RICE). I stretched regularly, returned to walking and then jogging and, eventually, returned to the team for limited action. Well, what do you know, the following week, what do I do? The same thing to my other ankle.
So now I've got two gimped ankles and the lateral movement of Dana Murzyn. I've being doing some research, though, and it turns out I need to do more eccentric exercises. In the meantime, I'm just swimming a lot and glumly sitting on the Ultimate sidelines.
So, in short, don't take your achilles for granted. It's not just all myth:
Achilles heel (plural Achilles heels) n.
small but fatal weakness: a weakness that seems small but makes somebody or something fatally vulnerable
11:48:47 AM 
Sports
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