Hi everyone,
I’m new here but decided to write in after suffering from a recurring injury to my achilles tendon. I have seen lots of advice on here but I guess that I am trying to decide whether to go back to the doctor or not.
I have the same thing again, it is achey in the morning but doen’t always hurt. I do the pinch test after running and it doesn’t hurt, but sometimes hurts when I do the pinch test later. I am gradually increasing milage again after a 2 week lay off but I feel like it is getting worse again
The morning after a run there are either thicker lumps in it or it feels thinner… has anyone experienced this kind of injury? I have tried the calf raises which always make it worse, and so does cycling.
I am more worried as this is the second time I have signed up for Roth, and last time I didn’t make it due to this injury!!
Can anyone offer any advice/ideas? I know people say you shouldn’t try to run through this - Help!
I’m no doc, but I’ve had a partial tear and tendonitis over the years.
A tear would cause bruising; which sounds like there is none. The lumps are more than likely scar tissue trying to repair itself. ART or Graston work well, but I would see a doctor first.
Regardless if its tedonitis or a tear I wouldn’t do anything on the achilles for at least 3 weeks.
Thanks for that. I don’t think there is any. Definitely not visible. I’ve been trying to self treat it for nearly 6 weeks already and getting a bit desperate. Lucky the tri season is over I was looking forward to some winter running races though.
ART and Graston are 2 choices. There are other types of scar adhesion removal techniques used. It is usually Physical therapists or Chiropractors that do the work in North America.
What you are doing and most likely have done the first time, not let it heal completely before you went back to running. You have typical symptoms of tendinitis.
First, I am not a doc. I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night though.
Just a joke.
I had the same injury in 2010 with the same symptoms. Here is what my doctor suggested and I followed to the T.
All activity that puts load or strain on it ceases now. All. No calf rises ( too late by the way), no running, no cycling standing except light spinning, no hard pushing off the walls.
I was told nothing for minimum 8 week. Was cleared to swim and bike per above, certainly no strengthening work now as you will just be re injuring it.
Anti inflammatory medication was suggested
massage of the area 3-4x day
icing the area 3-4x day 10-15min
I was given the heel inserts for my shoes to elevate the heel and take the load of the tendon, after healing those were removed.
I took it seriously, followed everything as told, went back after 8 weeks and was cleared to gradually return to training, eliptical first, than treadmill 2-3mi…very very slowly.
It seems that you are not patient and you may end up with a chronic problem. That is the biggest tendon in our body with a very poor blood flow. It is white in color. It is very hard to heal and you need to have the patience to let it heal.
Again, I am not a doctor, but had one episode of that injury with no issues later.
I feel your pain, been there… It can be difficult to determine if you have a partial tear or tendonitis without getting an MRI. My partial tear required 3 weeks of no running. When I started back, I ran with heel pads, and avoided hills / speedwork. To speed up the healing process, you need to get bloodflow to the tendon which normally doesn’t get much blood to it, which is why its a large white tendon. You also want to avoid any exercises or stretches that risk making the tear worse.
I spent a lot of last fall and winter hobbled by an achilles injury. When I finally went to the doctor, we had me stop stretching, doing heel lifts, anything that hurt it and had me put a heel lift in my walking shoes. The lifts were an immediate relief from pain, he had me stretching after about 3 weeks and I was about to start running after about 6 weeks. I am almost completely pain free now, but I still wear the lift when I run, but I am starting to wean myself off of them.
Acute tear vs. overuse tendonitits/tendonosis (which many think is multiple small tears) would be treated the same initially with your symptoms…
That being said - almost certainly overuse tendonitis/tendonosis.
I battled a similar thing with patellar tendonosis and tried to run through it…lost 2+ years and am just starting over again. I was/am still worried that I’ll never be able to run decently again…
My advice - err on the side of resting more - do everything to make sure it is healed and start slowly…losing 2-3 months or even 6 months or even a year is better than chronic problems that could affect you for the rest of your life.
I’d avoid NSAIDS as they will slow recovery/healing.
I’d try to find a good doctor to advise me though the key is rest for now (avoid stretching and anything that may aggravate it) - eccentric exercises at some point - try to figure out the root of the problem - start back very slowly after complete recovery…
I agree with docfuel about the eccentric exercise. Make SURE you are doing them correctly. Remember start with your heel up then bring it down. Don’t do calf raises, those are terrible for a tight achilles. There seems to be a point in healing where easy running on it makes it better rather than worse.
Also, if cycling is making it worse then your cleats may be worn which causes your achilles to have to stabilize the lateral motion of your foot.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all your comments and advice. I am going to the doc tomorrow so will see what he says. I also have a pain in my calf, which I thought was a strain, but now I think it is a tear as it feels better after a few days but then hurts again when I do some running/biking - it is very localised, about half way up my calf. could this be contributing to the tendonitis? I kept massaging it yesterday afternoon and now it is killing me!! The symptoms are almost identical to what I had two years ago, but the doc didn’t comment on the calf pain before.
And the cause?? I just think I did one race too many this summer, overuse I’d say…
Give us an update. I’m suffering the same thing. It was really sore after my last run, so I took a week off. The pain was gone so I ran again, and sure enough it started. So I decided to take two weeks off, a week and a half through it, I had to chase my toddler 15 feet and it started hurting again. Though it went away much sooner. It only hurts when running, not when doing anything else. So I’ll see a doc if it still hurts when I run in a couple weeks.
Ugg, I had a similar problem in the spring—post fast marathon, ran too soon afterward with an inflamed achilles, then really aggravated it with a long bike ride. I had a muscle tear in my calf and achilles tendonitis (plus tendonitis of multiple tendons in my ankle). I went to PT for a few weeks but really rest did the trick. I couldn’t bike or run for 2 months. I did a lot of swimming, pool running, and elliptical. Started back running very cautiously–run/walk every 3 days starting with 15 mins total run time. But i have to say I was just so happy to be out there I didn’t care. I think I started with a 2:1 walk run ratio. I was able to train over the summer although my tri season was pretty much shot. However my main goal was IMF and happily completed that with no issues. Good luck, be patient for now…
Also, did you look into your running? I had the same issue which prevented me from racing much this year and a half iron that turned into an aqua velo.
I noticed myself landing far on my forefoot which caused a lot of strains on my left calf. Now I changed it more to midfoot and let the heel slightly touch the ground. So mid foot, heel then left. That helped the strain with my calf which I believe was the main cause to my injury.
Hmm, so it sounds exactly like my situation, I heard it was a good idea to do a marathon at the end of the triathlon season with the whole years training behind me… had some small issues before a marathon in October, but my legs were shot for a couple of weeks but kept thinking I’d be fine, but it’s not good. I think that last week I started building on mileage a bit too fast…
How long did it take you to get back to running normally? And what’s your take on the calf strengthening? Last time I had issues like this I gave up with them as they just made it worse for me…
And congrats on the IMF finish… bet it felt even better after all those problems
Well I’d like to say that my recovery was without incident…back to running normally, about 3 weeks once I started running (approx 7-8 weeks post accute injury). I gradually increased the run/walk ratio while keeping time constant. From 15 mins of run/walk with a ratio of about 1:1, 2;1, etc. I built up to 30 mins, then kept increasing my run time to 8:1, then I ran 30 min with no walking…i did most of that on the treadmill in case I had to switch to the elliptical if it hurt. I was slow too, about a 10 min mile. Again I was just happy to have some run time though. Once I got to 30 mins running I increased time, but never ran more than 3 times a week and no speed work until the fall. Even then only minimal speed work. I kept that throughout my IM training. But that’s partially because I aggravated the peroneal tendon on my other ankle after an 1/2 marathon trail run. As far as calf raises, I did those, if it didn’t hurt. But one thing I really focused on was hip strengthening exercises. I highly recommend those.
Too much info? hehe sorry.
So so happy to make it to florida after all that. I spent most of the summer and fall very nervous…
Thanks! I was thinking about this last night, and realized that this is similar to the way I came back last time - not like I was trying to this time!! I need to stop thinking about racing this winter and concentrate on getting healthy. The body can’t be rushed! I know but it’s hard to remember
My legs are feeling better already, tendon doesn’t hurt ad I can almost walk without pain…maybe I was overreacting at the weekend!!!.. No I must be patient…
Ok, good news is no calf tear that the doctor can see. No calf stretches or massage until it stops hurting, and 4-6 weeks off running. Not as bad as I expected… I’m going to get ultrasound on it and in true ‘Czech doctor style’ I also get foot bath treatment (they prescribe it for everything-me and my friends joke about it!!) so looking forward to that
I was looking forward to some winter running races though.