In case anyone is wondering, I hate my Achilles. It’s been bothering me since June of last year. I did Ironman Lake Placid on it, which was a big mistake. After IM, I took over FOUR months off from running. I started building up from 15 minutes every other day, adding five minutes each week. Now that I’m up around 40 miles a week my running is starting to feel pretty good. Unfortunately the Achilles is starting to act up once again. It seems that as soon as I get rolling, the injury rears its ugly head.
I’ve even been doing eccentric calf raises since July in order to strengthen the surrounding muscles.
I feel your pain. (said like slick willy) I am limping around the office now becuase of the same thing. Made 4 miles of the 10k in pain at WF, only to walk the last 2 when it got too much. Mine has been a problem for 18 months. I am not going to run until Jan 1, 2006 to see if I can clear it up. If not, I’m done with running. Very sad as running has been my constant exercise and an area I excelled in my 20’s.
I too am suffering from a recent achilles problem. Are there any success stories out there? Has anyone fully recovered from achilles tendonitis-- or is this a running ending injury? I’m starting to get depressed by all the negative stories.
No, I have not worked with a running coach, but I did go see at PT person and he didn’t comment on my running style. I’m going back to see him again in a week or two, so maybe he’ll have something more to add.
I can sympathize Adam. I have had nasty plantar fascitis in both feet for the past year. Haven’t been able to run at all for the last two months and IMLP is quickly approaching. Could be a long walk for me. I do feel that I’m on the road to recovery since I’ve been wearing night splints every night for the past two weeks. And I’ve tried everything else. This is what I’m wearing and it is supposed to help with achilles tendonitis as well: http://www.footsmart.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=100
If your PT is a runner, perhaps you can get good advise. Otherwise, I’d seek out a coach/podiatrist/doctor/shoe specialist/massage therapist/chiropractor. Sometimes, this is (1) person…other times it is (6). At the same time, do your own research (as you are doing).
I’m plagued with a cronic achilles problem after a very intense interval/track session a few years ago and found a great podatrist (who is a marathoner). It comes back slightly after intense sessions, but consider myself cured from the original problem.
What I did
Got custom Superfeet (I don’t use them anyone, but feel they helped my recovery)
lightly rub upper achilles before and after runs…and before bed.
LOTs of toe raises…pause at the top and hold.
Changed my stride for more heel striking (duck for cover). I was a psuedo-pose runner before
Bought 10 pair of running shoes from RRS and returned the ones that didn’t work.
Ice ice baby
Slowed down my pace on longer runs/sped up pace on fast days
lowered my center of gravity
Increased my cadence/foot speed
Perhaps the most important is #9 as everything else falls in place at the same pace…
I’m wearing a night splint too. I’ve been using it for two weeks now and it seems to help.
Been suffering w/ a minor Achilles problem for 8 weeks now. Decided to DNF at Wildflower rather than risk more injury. At this point I can run for about 15 minutes without pain after than my achilles/solues starts to tighten and ache. Luckily, I can put in significant volume on the bike with no pain whatsoever.
According to my doc my injury is a 3 on a scale of 1-10. I guess this should make me feel better but it doesn’t seeing how Alcatraz is right around the corner and I’ll probably have to abandon after the bike.
Soon I’ll need Prozac to go with that night split.
I hate mine too and run through the pain much more then I should. It’s funny you posted this so recently. I went out for an easy 4 miler after getting brand new shoes and my AT flared like no other and for no reason! So I got it to go away for awhile until a half marathon I did this last weekend brought it back like I expected. Well, there was the 1st group run of the year with some guys on Tuesday that I wanted to make so I babied the hell out of them and right before I left, cut off the heel end of some old shoes’ insert and put those in my shoes to raise the heel. Going into the run I would guarantee anyone that I would absolutely get a ton of Achilles pain and would have to stop short because I know my history and how AT is so easily aggravated. Surprisingly, I had very little! So put some old heel insoles in there.
Success with achilles tendonitis! Here is my story. In 1984 I broke my ankle (foot twisted 180 degrees – toes where heel was supposed to be and heel where toes were supposed to be). I totally tore it up. Almost had my foot amputated. I swam and rode a bike but had never run more than a quarter mile until I got started in tris in 2002. After a year of running my right achilles tendon became inflamed, swollen and very painful. I went to a sports medicine guy who put me on prescription anti inflammatory medication and told me rest, ice, elevate … you know the drill. It got better. I started running again and then both tendons started acting up. I self-treated but nothing seemed to work. I then had a two month trial where I did not working out and wore wingtips every day and was I on my feet for most of the day. My achilles tendons were fine. I compared my wingtips with my running shoes and noticed that the tops of backs of my running shoes were much higher than my wingtips and were rubbing on my achilles tendons. I began to experiment by cutting a notch out of the backs of my shoes. It worked. No problems since. Told my doctor and he said, “Great.” I have only ruined one pair of shoes by cutting too low and turning them into clogs! Now I notice that others cut their shoes as well. I tried heel lifts but that altered the rest of my foot/leg and caused different problems. I know it sounds goofy but it has worked! I even tested it this year with my newest pair of shoes. After my first four miles in them uncut … ouch. Cut the shoes … been fine since. Let me know if this works. Good luck.
I suffered from AT when I first got started in tri, three years ago. I biked before that and blamed it on the running. It was troublesome for the first year. The second year, I added Yoga/Pilates and a good session of deep tissue massage/month to the training plan and eventually the AT troubles went away. Maybe I would have got over it anyway, but I attribute a lot of it to the flexibility and ankle strength I gained by doing the Yoga/Pilates routines.
Man, I’m sorry to hear that story, and all I can say is I did beat my achilles, butit took surgery to do it! I had tendonitis symptoms for a long time, and did evrything that was suggested by everybody, and nothing worked. In the end I had it opened up and there was no ‘tear’ but the core of the tendon had, according to the surgeon, rotted away! Apparently the outside looked great, but inside it was rooted. So he scraped it out, encouraged scar tissue, and I haven’t had a problem since the post op. pain subsided. Four years and a bunch of IM and big miles and apart from lookign ugly as sin, it’s great!
I was waiting for this response. I know this sounds awful to many on this board, but I just did another of these procedures as well. The post-op is not fun for patients, but the outlook is often so grim that there is little choice. Now, I won’t do this unless the individual has failed all conservative modalities for over 1 year.
However, there is a new procedure that many of you on this board should look into: it is call extra corporeal shockwave therapy. Currently FDA approved for chronic proximal plantar fasciitis and lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow), but I have got many insurance payors to cover it for chronic achilles tendonitis. Similar in theory to lithotripsy to break up kidney stones. I have done several now after being certified and I am seeing some good success. Nice thing is that there is no surgery and no time off.
I have only been AT-pain free for 5 months so I don’t know if this qualifies as a success strory but my running is back to pre-injury levels so here goes.
My AT pain started shortly after a marathon last November. I reached the point where I couldn’t run more than a mile without having to stop because of the pain. I took a week off, resumed running slowly, problem came back. I took 2 weeks off, problem came back. I took 3 weeks off, problem came back.
I did enough research online to scare myself silly. I was convinced, based on the horror stories I read, that I would never be able to beat it so I went to see a podiatrist recommended by the local running club.
He said that AT problems have such a bad reputation because most people 1) don’t ice the injury correctly 2) don’t correct the contributing factors and 3) let the problem go unchecked too long before they treat it.
The AT is thick and tough. To ice it effectively I had to freeze a large (16oz+) cup of water. Take the block of ice out of the cup and massage the length of the tendon, both sides and the back. The skin is pretty tough in that area so the risk of frostbite is pretty low. I didn’t notice a real reduction in the swelling until I began icing for a few hours each day. Reading, watching TV, conference calls at work, always with a block of ice. Icing for a few hours can have the same effect as a week off if you do it right. I was able to run through the problem with continuous icing.
Once the AT becomes inflamed it is difficult to stop the cycle of inflamation and contributing factors that were not a problem before may become one now. In my case pronation was an issue. My doctor said that even mild pronation becomes a major problem once the AT is inflammed. Orthotics corrected this in my case. Also, poor hamstring and calf flexibility are usual suspects so a lot of stretching is needed. Temporary heel lifts are also effective but I didn’t have use them.
When the AT becomes inflamed for long periods of time it will lay down scar tissue inside the sheath so the sooner you correct the problem the better. The sooner you treat the problem effectively the better.
I was prepared to be told to take weeks/months off from running but my doctor said that as long as I continuously iced the area and eliminated the contributing factors there was no need to stop running. He was right.
Also, check http://www.byrn.org/gtips/triAT.htm. Gordo has seen a lot of instances where pedal setup is a contributing factor. A lot of people substitute cycling for running when the AT flares up but if the pedal setup is a factor you may be making things worse.
From what I’ve seen this injury is best treated by a professional, self-diagnosis and treatment usually are not effective. If you haven’t gone already, go see a podiatrist, you may save yourself a lot of down-time and frustration.