having some pain in my left achillis tendon. its been bothering me a little but after a race on saturday its still sore after 4 days. does anyone recommend the strassburg sock. and how much time should i stop running? thanks
It’s bad to mess with achilles tendonitis, even with a Strassburg sock- I was running super fast in 07 so I went into 08 really too hard on the hill repeats, got achilles tendonitis, and kept running on it until it put me out for a long time. Do not mess with it. I would take at least two weeks off to be sure because it is VERY easy for it to flare up. I cannot stress enough how important it is to not mess with it.
I had 3 months of physical therapy during the race season in 08 and could not race. They had me stretching my calves (two different stretches for 3x0:30 reps twice a day) and doing 2x30 reps of foot flexions away from the body pulling against the foot with a band on the bottom of the foot. If it gets bad they will also scrape your Achilles with a thick plastic device after putting cocoa butter on there and doing ultrasound. It’s very uncomfortable. It absolutely sucked to go from running 1:16s for my 70.3 to losing my running fitness over six months. Better to take two weeks off to stretch than six months. Get your footstrike analyzed too to see if you are snapping your Achilles when you push off.
Hope that helped and sorry if that scared you.
I battle with this but ice and massage on the calf/soleus area is enough to keep me on track.
I’ve battled with lingering achilles issues. From my experience, I’d say if it hurts, don’t run. When you have no pain from daily activities (i.e. getting out of bed) then try and run. Its entirely possible within the first 5 - 10 minutes of the run you will experience pain. That is your cue to stop running again. Pushing through that pain has proven to prolong my troubles.
Stretching after each run (two different calf stretches) as well as strengthening exercises at least a few times a week have really helped me.
Go see a doctor. Don’t be stupid like me.
ooooo me too. The advice that I got was no stretching for 3-4 days in addition to, of course, no running. Ice 15 minutes each day and submerge in hot water at night. Swimming with fins (lightly) really seems to help keep it limber. Any comments on cycling or not with tendinitis? Cycling doesn’t seem to bother it at all.
I’ve found the gentle stretch from the Strassburg sock is pretty helpful for achilles problems as it stops the stiff ankle problem when you first step out of bed in the morning, and from my experience it feels like this helps reduce inflammation more quickly. The most effective treatment I’ve found is performing three sets of eccentric heel drops 2-3 times a day. Check out this chapter which summarises some of the research in this area.
I’ll pipe in and second or third the above opinions. Stretch, Ice, Rest. I battled tendonitis/bursitis all summer. Brought about by crappy shoes and increasing mileage too quickly. Took me awhile to figure out the shoes were the main culprit - Asics Kayano. I changed to Saucony, which my feet seem to love, but did this a month out from Louisville. Only got my long run back to 12 miles but was determined to go through with the race. While up there walking through expo, seeing the sites, a few stairs - It flared up and had my first DNS. Nothing like the feeling of waking up early and grabbing your crap out of transition when you should be heading to the swim start.
So when everyone says baby it for a couple weeks, you should!! Examine any changes or any other factors that may have played into the flare-up.
Good Luck!!
John
Take the time now, or you’ll end up like me, or worse swimfan (who I believe had surgery)
Below is my injury history, which started as a flare up, turned into a tear, and is now chronis tendonosis. Hopefully these 12 weeks off will put an end to it. I’d recommend 3 weeks off. I’m no doctor, but in my defense I’ve googled ‘achilles tendonosis’ alot more than more than the average doctor!
9/24/09 - First injury, lowered volume (5 mile run in 109 degree heat)
10/7/09 - First tear 11/19 back to training (Low cadence cycling)
2/24/10 - Aggravated 3/11 back to training (2 hour trainer session)
5/12/10 - Aggravated, lowered volume (dehydrated, pulled)
7/14/10 - Aggravated (bike ride, 105 degree heat)
Good advice from everyone. I am on the recovering side of an achilles issue. Finally have gotten back up to speed, but it is mildly sore in the morning.
Best course as already stated is rest, Ice and stretching. If you can get physical therapy, that would be best. Definitely do not run if it hurts, and build up slowly when you get back at it.
Yes, just search my post regarding surgery/achilles tendon.
On more sweet note, it’s been 4 weeks since the surgery and now I am dealing with blood cloting issues on my left calf after the surgery.
Got the same thing,
Have rested it for a few weeks, started doing soem gentle stretching (straight legged wall strecth),
My question is - should I be feeling any kind of pain (I say pain - its more of an uncomfortable niggle - scar tissue pulling ? )when doing the stretching and should I work through this. Don’t want to make it any worse. I also still feel a slight niggle at times when walkinga round - again is that normal (thinking of scar tissue again ?)
Precisely what the ortho told me: after years of usage, a good bit of fluid ad scar tissue had built up. I went a good three weeks without running and as I said previously, NO direct stretching of the achilles. I’m up and running to about 5 miles twice a week, stretch religiously, do pilates, 90 heel drops per day, ice and take a lot of epsom salt baths. One other item and you have to be super careful with this and keep in mind that I do not have a tear in my achilles : my doc told me that starting out running, it may be a little tight or sore due to the inflamation / crumbly stuff, but should subside once it loosens up. It usually does, but if it continues past a mile (my first mile is seriously slow), I stop cold, do 15 heel drops from the curb, go another half mile, then if it hasn’t gone away completely, I turn around and walk home. One little trick I’ve learned is that when I step out of bed in the morning, i try not to flex my foot right away. Think of how you foot would be in a splint.
X2 the Strassburg sock. Found it stops the stiffness and pain in the morning. I use it every night. Does it help beyond this? I really don’t know but feel it can’t hurt.
I guess it might be obvious but if you buy it you only get one. I somehow was expecting two. My right is much more sore than my left but would like two socks. Which single shipping it would have been better to buy two initially.
its been six weeks since i last ran. my achillis is still hurting
and its very stiff and aching in the mornings. i thought about getting the strassburg sock but would not be able to wear it every night being a firefighter. i stretch 3 times a day and do calf raises 3 times a week. just wondering when its gonna heal so i can start running again.
The other advice on here is good, generally achillles pain takes forever to go away.
Some things I didnt see:
1.Heat the calf muscle and warm the achilles before running or stretching. The whole issue with achilles stuff is lack of bloodflow
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Massage: This is huge, this should help with the stiff, cracking, tightness feeling. You should use a foam roller or the stick on your calf, and use your fingers on your achilles. Google achilles massage, there’s some good how-to videos. This has helped me in the past.
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Put some heel raisers under you insoles in your running shoes. Avoid gel or squishy ones though. I just cut the heel off of some old running shoe insoles. During the day though, you want to walk around barefoot or in soles with no heel so you can fully stretch the achilles.
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If your insurance pays for physical therapy, that’s your best bet. Ultrasound, stim, and different exercises is much more effective at any at home treatments.
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For awhile I was putting biofreeze on my achilles and sleeping in compression socks, my thought being that it would increase blood flow to the area. No clue how effective it was compared to the other things i was doing, but chances are it helps a little. More blood is good.
Achilles Tendonitis Treatment that Worked for Someone: That was the exact ST forum topic I had been hoping to see for a year, and now I can write the post.
The Injury, Spring/Summer of 2009: I think it started as bursitis in my left heel in the spring of 2009. A few sprint tris, a duathlon and lots of hilly runs, and my heel pain was limiting my runs drastically. It felt like the lower-inside of the heel was bruised, it hurt to the touch. I told myself I’d not run, but since I’m an idiot I ran probably 2x per week all summer. I think a modified stride to compensate for the heel pain lead to the tendonitis, and by the fall I was in full blown tendonitis.
Do Nothing, Fall of 2009 & Winter ’09-‘10: After realizing I was being an idiot, I stopped running in the fall for a good 4 months. I spent the long Minnesota winter riding the trainer in the basement, as cycling didn’t bother it at all. The good news is that I watched 5 seasons of Entourage, the entire Deadwood series and 3 seasons of Dexter.
Spring of 2010: Started running again and it hurt right away. Inflamed, sore, the whole deal. But I ran anyway – as you’ll remember, I’m an idiot. Iced it after every run which seemed to do nothing.
Late Spring, Race Season 2010: After my 3rd tri of the season, the idiocy seemed to subside and I realized I was seriously f-ing up my foot. I won a bike at the raffle of my final race (need to give a shout to Gear West & the Minnesota Multisport Series- the best race series in the nation!) but I could hardly walk up to accept my prize. It was redonkulous and I was in a ton of pain.
Dr. Visit #1, late June 2010: I went to a Podiatrist MD, assuming it was the right thing to do. The MD simply pointed at my Achilles and said “Yep, that’s full-blown tendonitis. It’s pretty bad, but it’s not going to rupture. Stop running and do some heel drops. It should feel better in 3 months.” The guy didn’t even touch me, except for when I shook his hand out of politeness when I left. But I was very frustrated – he was no help at all.
Options: I’ve never been a firm believer in Chiropractic science; it just seemed a bit too ‘out there’. My co-workers knew about my injury and one guy’s wife recommended a Chiro in town. She said he took care of her hip issues in just a few visits. I looked him up on the web and saw he was the DC for Team Minnesota, our elite running team. He also has Ironman ART accreditation, which simply told me he was at least trying to be visible to triathletes.
The Chiro’s office: He had issues of Triathlete, Runners World and Running Times in the waiting room. His Admin was a cute 2:30 marathoner who ran for Team Minnesota. He had an autographed poster of Carrie Tollefson (who deserves her very own Hottie thread) thanking him for his help of an injury. All signs pointed to me being in the right place.
The Treatment: I saw him for 10 sessions of therapy. Each time he’d do the ART, which was essentially deep (and I mean DEEP) tissue ‘massage’ (more like torture) where the soleus muscle meets up with the gastrocnemius. He’d press hard while I flexed my foot, bringing my toes toward my kneecap. It was painful and I was wincing the whole time. Then, he’d connect two pads to my leg, one to the soleus and one to my Achilles and run electric current through while I did heel drops. After 10 minutes, he’d change the current (think up-to-down, then down-to-up) and I’d continue to stretch. This was definitely the most voodoo part of the whole treatment for me – electric current? It seemed like he should have been reading my Tarot cards at the same time. Next was a plastic boot, which I’ve been sleeping in for 3 months. It keeps your foot at a 90 degree angle. Immediately gone was the heel pain I’d had with the first 20 steps of the day after crawling out of bed. Wearing the boot to bed each night was huge – I’m pretty convinced it was 80% of the contribution to healing. Last was stretching – he got on the ground and showed me how to stretch, showed me the correct way to do the heel drops, etc. I admit I slacked on the stretching a bit once it started to feel better (still an idiot). I forgot to mention he was a triathlete too, and we realized we both did IM WI in 2006 - the cold, wet one.
Healing & running again: Something worked. I can’t tell you what. In my soul, I want to say it was the boot and stretching/heel drops. But who knows- maybe the current was the real cure? Either way, after a year of pissing around, I’m back up to running 4 days a week. My longest run in the last 1.5 years was yesterday, a 6 miler pain free. I’m hoping to run the Winter Carnival half marathon in St. Paul in January, and do a half-IM distance race in June. I don’t see why I couldn’t, at this point.
Recommendations: If I could have talked to myself 1.5 years ago, I’d say to find a Chiropractor NOW. (I wasted a full season doing nothing.) Do a little research, talk to some friends & maybe check out your local Tri club or Distance Running association’s web sites and see which Chiro’s are advertising. Buy the boot and wear it each night – I’ll wear it forever if it keeps me healthy and running. Do the stretches and the heel drops, they feel good. Keep swimming and biking. Losing the 8 pounds you’ll gain is a pain in the ass.
Like you TDork, I was an ‘idiot’!!
I posted something asking for help about my Achilles a few weeks back as it was 6 months and not really improving despite all the usual stuff …ice, stretching, no running etc… But someone suggested (thanks!) immersing the Achilles in icy cold water for as long as you can stand it (the Guinness record is an amazing 76 hours so …!) and then immersing it in the hottest water you can stand…
It works! Inflammation is minimal and after this masochistic treatment, I can run …running is what I missed most the last six months… I just did a sprint triathlon here in Dubai and although I wasn’t super-competitive, I was able to treat it as a kind of 'B" race… afterwards, straight into the ice/hot water treatment…
Of course, I am still stretching, massaging, rubbing, Tiger-balming at night etc … oh and I bought a roller made og wood to stretch the underside of the foot as well… Do whatever it takes and keep an open mind - what works for others might work for you…
Fingers crossed you all get better - what a bloody nasty injury to have…
Cheers,
Sharkman