I’m training for the Boston marathon but started to experience some calf tightness and pain in the Achilles about 3-4 weeks ago. I thought it was nothing and trained through it. Saw my ART therapist a couple of times and he told me that I was fine to continue running but no hills and no speedwork. Followed his advice and did my runs on the flat trail or track.
Then after a long run about 2.5 weeks ago, I started to get that crunchy feeling in my Achilles. So I scheduled an MRI and went to the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. Diagnosis was Achilles tendonitis (but from reading things online I think it is specifically tenosynovitis). The orthopedist there told me to take 10 days off from running and then try things out. First run back (Wednesday March 16) was 2 miles and went well, just some tightness in the calf. Tried my second run (Friday March 18) at 4 miles. Felt tightness during the run but nothing awful. However, an hour afterward I started to get that weird crunchy feeling back again. It remained for the rest of the day but disappeared by Saturday morning. I decided not to try to run over the weekend, but now I am left wondering what is the best approach to get back. I’d still like to run Boston, albeit not to PR but rather just to finish.
Am I better off taking another week off before trying to run again? Is it normal to still have pain/crunchy feeling during recovery, and should I still be running? Also, I have kept up with swimming and biking. Rode an hour and 45 minutes on Saturday and 3 hours yesterday. Effort is Z3 or lower. Has all been on the trainer or on the flat trail, no out of the saddle. My ART therapist advised me to keep swimming and biking with moderate intensity, and that’s what I’ve kept up with. But is this affecting my recovery time?
Anyone have advice?
Thanks!
I never had that “crunchy” feeling you are referring to…just a big lump in my Achilles and pain.
It doesn’t seem like you are doing any PT for this…I think you gotta start there. Do eccentric calf raises using a weighted back pack. On a stair, rise up on your toes on your good leg switch to the injured leg and them lower past horizontal. Rise back up on the good leg, later, rinse repeat. 3x20. STart with 10 lbs in the back pack and work your way up. Doing this w/o the weight is almost useless. I went months doing calf raises w/o the weight and got nowhere. I ended up at 40 lbs in the backpack.
Keep doing the ART as well…was also helpful in my recovery. And swimming always made my Achilles feel great.
Also get The Stick and use that to help loosen your calf muscles. If your Achilles hurts the most in the AM (usually does), look into sleeping ina night brace to keep it stretched through the night.
I guess it would have helped if I mentioned these things first, but I have been doing the eccentric heel drops (albeit with no weights). Only once a day; should I be doing it more often? I also use the Trigger Point calf roller on my calf/Achilles 2 or 3 times per day. I’ve also been stretching throughout the day and also been doing some yoga; those downward dogs help stretch me out. And I’ve been sleeping with the Strassburg Sock as well.
no stretching.
warm w/ ultrasound or self massage before workouts.
ice.
no stretching. no yoga! no stretching.
nightly calf rub down.
calf flexing, eccentric work, self massage all the live long day.
I guess it would have helped if I mentioned these things first, but I have been doing the eccentric heel drops (albeit with no weights). Only once a day; should I be doing it more often? I also use the Trigger Point calf roller on my calf/Achilles 2 or 3 times per day. I’ve also been stretching throughout the day and also been doing some yoga; those downward dogs help stretch me out. And I’ve been sleeping with the Strassburg Sock as well.
You may want to dump the stretching as noted above. Once I started making progress w/ my rehab, I was not stretching (I had bought a Pro Stretch for home use). But discuss that w/ your PT as well. The Trigger point will obviously work well as a substitute for The Stick…
Biggest thing I can tell you is to add weight to your eccentric work. That is the key, not the calf raises / drops themselves. In terms of the Strasburg Sock, I found I had better results with a night brace…a bit more support and kept it stretched more. YMMV on that one…some people swear by the SS.