about 3 years ago, i partially tore (ruptured?) my achilles. The physical therapist told me i could continue riding, because it wasn’t the cause. as the condition worsened, we finally decided i needed to stop all activity for about 3 months…
fast forward to this past weekend’s long ride – i changed my look cleats from the red to the grey & thought i put them back in the same neutral position. within about an hour of riding, i could tell my achilles was going to be aching after the ride. however this time it’s on my right leg (my previous injury was on the left)
has anyone had any experience with achilles pain from biking, and if so, what was the solution? i’m thinking it must be related to the cleat positioning, but not sure what to do about it…any advice is appreciated.
Could well be the cleat position. Grey cleats give you less float than reds. Maybe you were at an angle with the red cleats already. So your foot wasn’t “neutral” to begin with. The grey cleats now don’t allow you that anymore…
Have you checked your foot position during the pedal stroke on the red cleats?
The Achilles tendons are the tendons at the back of the ankle, connecting the calf muscle to the heel. If you have pain in these tendons, it usually indicates a problem in pedaling technique. Achilles tendon problems often result from "ankling*" during the pedal stroke. This is occasionally related to having the saddle set too high, forcing the cyclist to point the toes excessively to reach the bottom of the pedal swing. *
Having your cleats set too far forward, or otherwise pedaling with the toes. The farther forward the contact between the foot and the pedal, the greater the stress on the Achilles tendons.
Achilles issues usually point to problems with the soleus muscle. A very hard ride, a change in bike position, anything can cause this. Bet if you press on your soleus about 8" up from your ankle there’s tenderness. You massage that area. You can use your thumbs, “The Stick”, a rolling pin, whatever works for you.
Trigger points come and go, and they are just a part of stressing our bodies. If you ignore them, then yes, they can turn into something more serious like tendinitis, but take care of them now.
Also ask your massage therapist to work on that soleus muscle. You should be fine.
But do the other stuff about your cleat position too, otherwise your soleus might keep getting inflamed recurringly.
I see calf/achilles issues all the time. 90% of the time, I’d say that person has a bad tendency of keeping the heel up(as mentioned by a previous poster) through the pedal stroke. Other causes can be overpronation, poor cleat alignment and the saddle too high (forcing the heel up). Since you just changed your cleat and have been injury free for a few years, that is likely the culprit if nothign else changed. Try this, lower the saddle just a touch and slide the cleat a little bit back on your shoe, this will put less strain on the achilles so it can actively recover. Don’t forget to RICE.
Thanks to all for your input/advice. As recommended, I tried moving the cleat back a bit on my shoe for my commute this morning, and although it wasn’t a very long or hard ride, I was pain free. I’ve been icing it nightly & rubbing the heck out of both calves with “the stick”. Hopefully this cures it before this weekend’s long ride…