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another achilles question
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Over the years have had intermittent Achilles discomfort. Worst was long ago, a partial tear. Eventually was symptom free. But in past few years have had tendinopathy and discomfort most times when doing speedwork or long runs.
Acutely, it seems you want a decent drop (?12+mm) to ease the pain. But to prevent it, do you want no drop so the Achilles stretches/lengthens...or more drop so it won't overstretch and tear or become irritated?
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Re: another achilles question [ret123] [ In reply to ]
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What do you mean by drop? saddle height?

assuming that then yes i have found this helps, but you kinda have to modify your pedal stroke so you are letting the heel drop. also lay off gettiing out of the saddle at all. focusing on that and then moging on to a lot of fixed gear work helped me through an achilies problem that cam from an old snrowboarding injury that didnt "heel" properly.
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Re: another achilles question [ret123] [ In reply to ]
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Having missed many years of running through Achilles issues and now being in a much better place I think shoe drop is interesting but probably a small part of the solution.

My walk around shoes are all zero drop. Because I figure why not encourage a long tendon when it's not under a lot of strain. If I could figure out a practical way to stretch them while I slept I would. When I was starting again I was putting heel raises in Hoka shoes because they are only 4mm drop and I was thinking take the pressure off while running. In practice I just stopped using them. No way of knowing if they helped or if it was the hokas or of it was the barryp slow and steady build up approach.

My suggestion would be to have low drop as much as you can and high drop in a situation when it's likely to get aggravated. But I'd also suggest maybe just avoid the situations that aggravate it. At least for a while. There is a great thread here somewhere (I'll find it for you) but the bit of advice it had which changed the way I think is that tendons like the right level of exercise. They don't like none (so don't rest totally if you can avoid it) and they don't like too much. It sounds like you might just be in the too much zone too often. So I'd say bring it down a bit until it feels better and then test it with the trickier stuff carefully.

ETA This is the thread I found very helpful.
Last edited by: OddSlug: Jun 2, 19 14:27
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Re: another achilles question [ret123] [ In reply to ]
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Strengthen your gastroc and more importantly soleus.
The tendon won't change its current structure on a scan but what you can change is the tolerance in which it can handle.

Seated calf raise single leg 3x8 reps heavy load like 100-150kg best bang exercise for assisting with applying load.

As for shoes it depends. Higher heel drop OK when irritably even just a heel lift maybe OK.

Drop the speed work up the strength work

Andrew Garwood
http://www.2xu.com
http://www.newtonrunning.com
http://www.ascendsport.com.au
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Re: another achilles question [ret123] [ In reply to ]
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What works for me:
- 0 drop shoes when not working out
- 10mm drop running shoes
- excentric calf stretches daily with straight and bend leg (gastric vs soleus) carrying 10kg weight (4 * 15reps)
Sam
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