sorry to hear...

Rest + Ice

I had that issue when I ran an ultramarathon (60km) on a similar injury. Only solution for me was a lot of rest, which included some easy cycling. No running

---

website/blog | Instagram

I had this a few years ago and took a few weeks off of running, I used an elliptical and aquajogging (hated it) to keep up w/ my run workouts. I did calf drops and a lot of other strengthening exercises as well. I can't say if they made a difference or not.

I got it back in 2012 as I was building up to a HIM, which I decided not to do after all. I had to rest with no running for a while and do heel drops to get it to heal up. The great thing about it is that you do HEEL up. :-p It just takes some time off. I highly recommend not doing any running after your HIM. Come back to running gradually so you don't re-injure it.

This article was very helpful for me. It helped me better understand how to rehab it. There are two different treatment protocols depending on where you have the pain.

http://www.runningwritings.com/2013/11/achilles-tendonitis-in-runners.html

Super article; recommended reading. Thanks much.

I have had it on and off for about 3 years.

The article above is very good. The eccentric heel drops help a lot.
ART has helped me considerably. I had a bad time last October, did ART twice a week and gradually came back to normal. I do some ART "maintenance" about every 6 weeks.

Heat pad at night to help blood flow helps a lot.

Strangely enough high frequency running seems to be better for me. Twice I did the ST100 run challenge with 0 problems during and I rarely go for 3 months without it flaring up here and there.

But the eccentric heel drop are the best.

^^^^Heel drops for eccentric strengthening works pretty good. Make sure you are going through the full range of motion when you are doing them: using bad foot stand on a step where the ball of your foot is on the step and the rest is hanging off, then raise heel as high as you can and slowly lower it past the point to where its in line with the step, repeat this as much as you can tolerate.

Good luck

I would get a Straasburg sock and use it at night. Its mainly used by people with plantar fasciitis but I used it when I injured my Achilles. It keeps the Achilles tendon stretched out over night so it not super tight in the AM. This made a huge amount of difference in how painful (or not) my walking was in the AM.

Also, eccentric heel lifts are great. If your Achilles issue is insertional then do not drop below the horizontal. If the Achilles issue is high (up near the calf muscle) then ok to drop the heel down below horizontal before lifting back up.

Good luck

Im a big fan of massages, alternate between deep tissue massage of your foot arch, heel, archilles area as well as ICE batch after massage. Repeat every 48-72 hours....

---

Rick Loving
S Chicago
2012 9.9 Speed Concept

Surprised no one mentioned this: stretch your hamstrings. I've had a few Achilles issues the past couple of months, sometimes with one of them tightening up on me very quickly early on a run. Doing the calf stretches did very little to help and I had to walk a mile home in pain. Happened again a few days later, stopped and gave my hammies a good stretch and off I went, pain free. This has worked for me several times (I'm constantly battling muscle tightness.)

As I've learned through a few rounds of PT, your pain is usually caused somewhere else.

Oh, and keep taking ibuprofen every day, every 4 hours.

I just went through a partial tear of my achilles last year. Had the same symptoms, painful steps in the morning and after runs. I ignored it and trained through the pain. Eventually, I couldn't walk anymore and was diagnosed with a (partially) torn achilles.

The strassburg sock is an excellent way to keep the achilles from tightening overnight. I wish I had used it before.
Eccentrics are the go-to exercise to strengthen.
Also, you must stretch the ankles and calves. I also recommend massaging the calves as often as you can to eliminate tightness in the lower leg.
But as most everyone has said, stop running and rest/recover/ice.
Cycling hasn't bothered it so I've been primarily biking this year, with very short runs once a week. It takes a very long time to get over achilles injuries.

Good luck, get healthy.

Little thread drift here, I am reading this thread intensely as I have been having lingering achilles tendonitis for a about 5 weeks. I have a sprint race on September 21st and then a half distance tri on October 5th. Can I do the RICE method and heel drops say from now until the first race and take an easy on the run and finish and then rest until the race on the 5th and see what happens? I will do my best on swim and bike and then see how my achilles holds on for the rest? Is this a bad idea? My pace I am wanting on the run is 10-11 minutes so nothing fast. I have the Santa Barbara marathon on November 8th but am thinking that might be out the way it looks right now...

I think it depends on whether you have tendonitis or tendonosis........ice or heat respectively. From my own experience, I had what I thought was achilles tendonitis and iced it everyday for a few weeks w/ no improvement. I started applying heat to it that resulted in improvement each day until it was fully gone after about a week and half. I was never diagnosed and my soreness wasn't as bad as what you're describing so take that into consideration.

x2. that's probably the best article i've ever read on the subject...and i've read a ton of them.

to the OP, one thing i recently became aware of (and it's also stated in the article posted above) is that a possible reason why i suffer from achilles tendonitis is b/c of where I push off on my foot when running. i recently saw a few pictures of my gait during races, looked at my shoes, and realized i push with the outside of my foot badly. According to the article,

"...runners who would go on to develop Achilles tendonitis had a weaker "push" off the ground and put more weight on the outside of their foot during the middle of the stance phase of running."

If I were you, I'd take a look at your gait, especially if you're a mid- to fore-foot striking runner. I'd also work on correcting imbalances in your muscles (entire legs, not just calf) and start doing eccentrics (calf drops).

Good luck!

The RICE method and heel drops are definitely tools that can help you, but I would recommend going for Physical Therapy. At the least you will have somebody that is trained in musculoskeletal injuries providing you with guidance in each specific variable that is unique to "your" achilles issue. Usually the experiences for injuries like this are very individual, meaning some people can continue to train through it while some can't (with lot's of variation in between). If you have insurance that covers PT then all it can do is help you with achieving your goals.

From my experience as an athlete that did have achilles tendonitis 3 weeks before a marathon that left me unable to run for 10 days, I did as much as I could on my own (heel lifts, RICE, soft tissue mobilization, massage, ice massage, etc) and then went to PT for a few sessions, in which the PT provided a few exercises, more soft tissue mobilization, experimentation with K-tape and heel lifts, etc and I ended up not only running the marathon, but running it with a 13 minute PR.

From my experience as a PT student, who will be a DPT in less than a year, there are many things that may be individual to you that can be addressed that you will most likely not know on your own (or get from ST), for example weak right glutes causing you to favor your left side which has cumulatively caused achilles tendonitis/tendonosis.

I think that there are lots of things that you can do that will inevitably allow you to complete the races that you want, you just have to be very proactive in getting all the help available.

If I was you, I'd think long term here. Achilles injuries have derailed many people's enjoyment of running and I believe one of the biggest reasons is they keep running and don't give it time to heal. Just like bluecuch, I had a partial tear. I had to tak 3 months off running (continued cycling and swimming). Once I started back, I built up very gradual (0.5 mile every other day to start, walking ALL hills, slowing my pace down dramatically). I'm now back to 40 mpw with no issues. But, I still sleep with the sock, do heel lifts, and will stop at first sign I'm thinking it may be misbehaving again. Also, the suggestion to keep hamstrings stretched and to massage the calf muscles (to keep them loose) is excellent advice.

If you've been dealing with this for 5 weeks, STOP RUNNING NOW!!!

I didn't read all the responses, but I had an achilles flare up earlier this year. Felt like there was a knot in the tendon.

I found a video (can't find it for the life of me now) but basically you get your foam roller, cross your legs and work back and forth in short movements up and down the achilles. Surprisingly the working the top of the tendon by the calf a lot is what helped provide relief for me.

Pain was gone in about a week and I ran a marathon about a month later without issue.

Found the video I mention in my other post.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgHoePuZaPw


And yes, I used the rolling pin a couple times...MF'er....