Ok, I have been experiencing some mild discomfort in my left heel/achilles area for about 3 weeks now. It all started after a uphill interval session. I have tried icing it (whole foot in bucket of ice water) for about a 1/2 hour at a time on and off since it happened. Doesn’t seem to be improving or getting any worse. I have cut back on my miles, haven’t been doing any intervals only tempo runs or easy runs. I am supposed to do the maui 1/2 in middle of Sept. and a sprint tri beginning of October. At this point I don’t know about the 1/2. Any ideas or help. A little concerned in Hawaii.
Whenever I over do my running and get pain in my lower legs (calves, heel, achilles) it takes me about 2-3 weeks of no running before it goes away. Sometimes I am able to run through things, if it is mild enough and I take it easy, but it really delays the healing. The longer I try to run through an injury, or run before it’s healed, the longer it takes to heal.
You’re not going to lose a lot of your half fitness in 2 weeks off of running; if it is mild enough, that might be enough to heal it up. Regardless, you don’t want to go hard on it if it isn’t healed by the half and injure yourself worse. Caution is always the way to go when you’re hurting, it saves you lots of time later.
Just think, if you would have rested three weeks ago, you’d be healed up by now. Instead you have 3 weeks of subpar training, and now you still have that needed off time to recover. If you’re really desperate, get some massage/ART to see if that helps speed the healing, but take some time off. You don’t want to mess with your achilles.
Dude, I feel ya! Achillies tendonitis and then tendonosis led me to an avulsion of my calcaneous. In other words, don’t ignore what your body is telling you. Something is wrong, you need to find an orthopod who specializes in sports medicine to evaluate your condition. Please, before you get what I did and not compete for a very long time. Be smart.
Thanks for the input. I have been really struggling with what to do-ie-just rest or continue at an easier pace. I will seek some help from a specialist and focus on my other disiplines. Thanks again.
Massage the crap out of it. Use a rolling pin on it hard as you can take it.
Not sure if this is the same thing…
I changed my running style to more “Pose” method on ended up with a torn calf and achillies [roblems. So…1st lesson is DO NOT listen to folks who let you to change your running style. Your style is your style.
When I went to the DR, I swore it was my achillies…but he concluded it was my calf. So, 2nd lesson is to make sure you know the injury.
For the treatment, you need to do the typical R.I.C.E. stuff as you’re doing. For the compression, I bought some youth-sized elbow ACE elastic slip-on thingies. Wore them pretty much anytime I wasn’t working out. When I was working out, I had a horse-training friend get me some 3M vet-wrap. This stuff works WONDERS!!!
After a week of no-running, but plenty of biking (didn’t hurt, but I could feel it), I started LOTS of slight stretching. Nothing hardcore, just lots of it.
That lasted about 2 months. I can “run” now…although I’ve yet to try to go over 90%. I certainly can still feel something is wrong, but it doesn’t hurt…nor does it get any worse.
I think anyone that knows anything about pose or similar styles will tell you the same thing, TAKE IT SLOW. It takes a long time to build up your legs. It’s very easy to injure yourself if you build milage too quickly. You have to be extremely patient and not expect quick results.
Massage the crap out of it. Use a rolling pin on it hard as you can take it.
A sure fire way to make hurt yourself. Even the Reflex Point Technologies Massage Ball will warn to stop if you feel pain.
You are a marplot. Look it up.
No sir. I heard that from several ST’r and my brother-in-law the PT. The idea is to break up scar tissues that forms when you have an injury. I’d have to say that it has worked for me. Electro massage from a chiro or PT also does wonders.
I am a mapping program?
Yes, I even had the Isoflourensic elecrtolysis. Breaking up scar tissue is not the problem. Its the mechanism of injury, the repetion of that mechanism and the resulting cortisal levels.
ok, see this is exactly why I posted here. More than one opinion I love it! Let’s see if I can descirbe the discomfort a little more. It is right at the back of my heel and the very bottom of my achilles. The discomfort is always there-I would say on a scale of 1-10 10 - needing sedation, it is about a 3. Just enough to know it’s there but not enough to really hinder me. Thanks again.
If you feel any pain from your Achilies you have a problem. Pain when you do the pinch test (gently squeeze the heel where the tendon attaches) when walking or running indicates a problem. It will not get better if you keep training.
I have had this problem for 18mths and it won’t go away. At first it is a low grade niggle but will end up being painful just walking.
Knowing what I do now I would stop all running until the pinch test gives you no pain. There is lots of info on the web about how to treat it.
There have been a lot of great threads on this topic over the last 3 months. Do a quick search. I have been dealing with this for 2 years. Unfortunately, I believe the “front line” treatment for it is time off. I took 90 days off from my last flare up and am just easing back to running. I did 1.5 miles last night woohhoooo! I’ll hold that for another week or so then bump to 2 miles.
Here is a pretty good site to visit. www.smiweb.org look at the injury prevention guides. When you do you will notice one thing. The guy is barefoot, why? It helps reduce injury. I had my Achilles flare up in March. I spent 3 weeks running barefoot at a local park and it cleared up rather easily. No pain since. You don’t have to run barefoot everytime you run but incoporate some and you will see and feel the difference.
Shoes make a difference too. I used to wear Nike’s and have switched to Asics. So far, no troubles.
Ok, now I am completely confused, rest, run barefooted, massage, I know-I will rest while running barefooted to get a massage. Yeah, that’s the ticket. But, seriously thanks for all the good info.
All of the above.
Rest
Massage-however you choose to do it. Need to move blood flow to the area. Electromassage -I’m sure there is a more official name for this but it is the tingley machine that makes the muscle contract.
Start stretching/run barefoot
recover slowly/easy back into mileage. consider other shoes.
pray like crazy it goes away.
Another spin on this issue…
So, we all agree that if I have an achilies problem I should not run. But what about Cycling, Swimming, or running in water? Can I continue to train in a way that does not stress the area or do I take time off entierly?
I suffered a torn achilles, when I ignored mine. Get in the pool for some deep water running for a couple of weeks and ice it.
And, do eccentric exercises.
Google–achilles eccentric.
Her’s a start
http://wls3.com/running/hartmann-achilles.php
Furndog,
I tore my right achilles skiing a few years ago. I had surgery and went through a year of rehab before it was 100%. Dont take this lightly! I can do HIM’s now, and am as good as new. Except: Now the left one hurts constantly as I am a little lopsided in my strength, and the left one takes a beating (this is normal). I can say you can learn to live with it.
What I do for achilles maintenance is to stretch every morning for a few minutes when I take a shower. I stretch both achilles/calfs on both sides evenly. I stretch it both from long leg extension, and a short foot elevation against the wall methodoligies. Every day! This really helps!
Then, during the day I will find time to stetch it some more. I always stretch pre-run, and sometimes I will stop and stetch it while running if it bothers me. This works too! I always ice it when I am done with my run, and stretch some more before I go to sleep. Sometimes I will lightly massage it myself at night while lying on the couch to keep the blood supply to the area.
This approach has worked very well for me, and this basically follows what my PT told me after the first injury. Hope this helps!
JL