Forums >Health and Nutrition>Any suggestions for getting over achilles tendinitis?
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Apologies for dredging, but I searched and this thread was the best I could find ...
I developed what appears to be Achilles tendinitis five days ago. Mileage over the past couple weeks has been slightly higher than usual, but the Achilles didn't bother me AT ALL until I was in the midst of three days' walking around on hilly and sandy ground (and carrying 20 pounds of golf bag).
The tendon actually feels reasonably good after I rest it, like when I get up in the morning or after a nap. After five days of rest, it's been getting less sore only in the past day or two (although there's still some low-grade pain). But I tried running today: utter fail, and the Achilles was more painful the rest of the day. There's some swelling, maybe a third of the way up from the heel to the bottom of the gastroc, that is pretty tender to pressure.
Anyway, what's the current thinking on how to resolve it? I want to get back to training, obviously, but I also don't want to make this worse/chronic.
"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."
-- Dick LeBeau
Petco Run/Walk/Wag 5k
I aggravated an achilles tendon running a very hilly half marathon in VFFs this fall. I used rest, ice, NSAIDs (Naproxen sodium in my case) and avoiding challenging runs, e.g. no incline running, downhills only, walk the inclines. Took a bit of time to stop feeling any twinges during the day. HTH
bob e v 2014 goals: keep on running! Is there anything more than that?
Complete the last 3 races in the Austin Distance Challenge, Rogue 30k, 3M Half, Austin Full
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History: blessed heart attack 3/15/2008; c25k july 2008 first 5k 10/26/2008 on 62nd birthday.
Right on Hereford...
I had this problem 2 weeks before the Chicago Marathon. Talk about panic inducing.
Jeff (on this board) recommend eccentric calf exercises. They worked like magic. I did them after every run (2 sets of 15 on each leg) and they literally saved my race. I ended up running a 2:58, a 32-minute PR, and had no calf pain during my marathon. I have done them after nearly every run since then as preventive maintenance.
Here is a great video showing exactly how to do the exercises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EKuuZ7C2E
Apologies for dredging, but I searched and this thread was the best I could find ... I developed what appears to be Achilles tendinitis five days ago. Mileage over the past couple weeks has been slightly higher than usual, but the Achilles didn't bother me AT ALL until I was in the midst of three days' walking around on hilly and sandy ground (and carrying 20 pounds of golf bag). The tendon actually feels reasonably good after I rest it, like when I get up in the morning or after a nap. After five days of rest, it's been getting less sore only in the past day or two (although there's still some low-grade pain). But I tried running today: utter fail, and the Achilles was more painful the rest of the day. There's some swelling, maybe a third of the way up from the heel to the bottom of the gastroc, that is pretty tender to pressure. Anyway, what's the current thinking on how to resolve it? I want to get back to training, obviously, but I also don't want to make this worse/chronic.
Clive:
Have we talked about this before? If we have, did what I had suggested fail? Somehow I thought we had...
I had suffered from Achilles issue for years. I really thought this was it for me with running simply because I just couldn't run--got to the point where I had no choice but consider surgery. What really triggered was my partner, Lorraine Moller, working on my subconscious. I went to Boulder to visit her; I went for a run and, after 10 minutes, I had to turn around and walk back. She worked on me the next day and I went for a run that evening and that was the first time in 2 months that I could cover an hour--with some pain but at least I could run. So I got more serious about fixing it.
For what I've come across and tried; first of all, you have to understand that there's virtually no blood supply in tendon itself. With injury or inflamation, your body tries to increase blood supply by growing blood vessels in/around it and apparently that's what hurts. Supposedly, some Swedish doctors developed a procedure to block all those developing blood vessels and it showed a marked improvement with pain. However, because it's blocking new blood vessel development, the tendon itself deteriorating in the future is also possibility. I found out that not running didn't really help. Just as you found out; it's fine while not running but it just didn't get rid of it and it'll come back as soon as you return to running. And I found out that, even if it hurts, if you continue working on it--just by running slowly--it went away more quickly. I massaged mine, even though it really hurt, and icing afterwards, really helped. Also, eccentric resistance exercise (simply heel raiser with up quick, down slow motion) really helped. At first, I couldn't raise with one leg (with sore Achilles) so I would go up with both feet; come down slowly on one leg. This really helped. Switching to low heel shoes and running on trail also helped in my case. It hurts at first; but I could see a marked improvement soon afterwards.
With mine, I felt it was a mistake to take some time off. I did that and I've wasted years. It was when I switched to "it's only pain..." attitude and stuck with it, that it really improved. I also found out that, while some degree of stretching is helpful (low heel shoes), excess stretch is not. Hill running is almost impossible because of extra stretch; but step running actually helped (the angle of your ankle is pretty much locked). I got a special shoe with mid sole all the way from toe to heel with the same thickness--in other words, it'll stretch your heel whenever--and stretch out my Achilles whenever I wear these and walk around actually really helped.
Personally, I believe had I taked these steps and basically ignore pain and hadn't take time off and come back only to find out the pain was still there, I wouldn't have wasted so many years.
wow...aftah new years, i thought i needed time off to let my achillies heal(heh)....so, i decided to take 2 weeks of of runnin and do othah shit. biggest mistake evah and it made it worse. i started feelin bettah aftah i said screw this and started runnin again. i still feel it but nothin like before. i do what i can and not what i can't. heh...it's only pain. run around it.
lockin my ankles help me too.
In order to see the truth, sometimes you have to loose an eye.
http://www.runningahead.com/groups/Utri/
Make your feet stronger.
Good Bad & The Monkey
You could try Airborne.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Why is it sideways?
After almost two weeks of doctor-ordered non-running, PT, ultrasound, NSAIDs, ice, stretching etc, still only marginally improved soreness.
My case is almost exactly like yours. Just substitute 4 years for 2 weeks and add 100 mile weeks and multiple PRs into mix and you've got the picture.