In December I bought new shoes (Asics cumulus). I have been running in Adidas for a couple years, but have previously done IM training with the cumulus.
First run with the new shoes, I went out for an easy 10k. The next morning, my left Achilles was screaming at me. It is most sore right above the heel.
After that, I didn’t run for several weeks (whole family got the flu, holidays, blah blah blah). During that time, I foam rolled my calves and lower legs.
Yesterday, I went for my first run since. An easy 30’ jog. Again, I woke up to a very cranky Achilles.
Is it the shoes? Something else? Why are such mild efforts, with tons of rest between, causing so much discomfort? What is the treatment?
First…might be good to see a doctor. My experience (below) is that the achilles is very tough to “heal” once damaged.
However, I can relate a similar experience from 15 years ago—when I switched shoes, briefly. The new shoes had a higher top the heal, and it “gripped” the top of my heal a little more. As such it dug into the achilles attachment point a little. Not a lot, it actually felt snug, secure, and comfortable. But, it badly irritated my achilles when I ran. I ran through it for a while before going to see a sports med doctor. Enough so that I developed an inflamed bulbous area in my tendon—stupid, but I was young and dumb.
He pointed out the fitment issue with the shoe. It took a long while to recover from it. Even now, 15+ years later if I ramp up too quickly, I’ll get some tightness in that tendon…and I have to back off and let it adjust.
Interesting. If anything, I find the heel of my shoes very loose. Some rubbing, but it’s not ‘digging’. Even when laced up, I can slide the shoes off my feet. It could be the culprit I suppose.
I’d second what Tom said. Achilles issues can drag on for ever and you want to be doing the right thing from the start. So a professional opinion must be the best first step.
It’s interesting you switched from Adidas. You didn’t say what model but some of the boost shoes have a brilliant (IMHO) heel counter. The part directly behind the heel is very soft and flexible with firmer plastic parts to either side. If that was the type you had maybe you had an issue all along and switching to a traditional heel counter gave the injury more to rub and press on.
I think this is the best thread in Achilles issues, particularly the part by Mortysct on the 3rd page.
If it was me, when it’s feeling better, I’d try just 5 or 10 minutes in the Adidas and see how it goes. But I’d get the professional opinion as well. Even if you can find shoes that allow you to continue you want to get to the cause of the problem and be addressing it.
I don’t remember the model of Adidas, it was just one of their medium-cushioned shoes. I had ran in the Boston’s before and liked them, but these had much cushion.
I also had orange super-feet insoles in them, and hadn’t yet switched the insoles to the Asics, so, that could be a contributing factor.
I’m not a doctor or a physical therapist but I think for an injury such as what you’re describing (lower Achilles, above the heel) you might want to look into doing eccentric heel raises on a daily basis. That might be better for you that just simply resting and expecting to come back totally healed.
Maybe use a very minimal shoe to do this - nike free/water shoes/etc. Walking around on your forefoot (walking to fridge, bathroom, etc) to continue to strengthen the area and increase blood flow to the area. Again, not a doctor or PT, but just saying the eccentric heel raises might be your ticket. And yes, not going with a shoe that is too cushioned but not too firm. And def a shoe that doesn’t press back against your heel inflaming that bursa area.
No idea about the insoles but they look quite substantial so they must have some effect on how you run. Certainly something to consider.
In another thread people were discussing shoe rotation. It sounds like you are using one pair at a time? If so I’d think about having at least two pairs on the go at any one time. It stops any hard, sudden change and lets you contrast the different shoes. So in your situation you might of introduced the Asics when the Adidas was roughly half way through it’s life and used them roughly alternating or at least both during a week. That won’t address the problem now but just a thought for the future.
I’d also probably do a bit less than 30 mins or 10k in brand new shoes. Ease them in a bit more if you are injury prone. I am.
Cranky like you can’t walk or jog? Rest it a few days, put your old shoes back on, and see it it’s the same/better/worse. If shoes were truly the only thing you changed, go back to what worked. Eccentric heel raises help, but you have to do a ton of them. Going to a minimalist shoe for running would likely exacerbate the issue. If it’s better with the old shoes, ditch the new ones and don’t look back.
Might be worth checking the fore-aft drop on the shoes.
If you are used to running in shoes with a big drop, switching to a lower drop shoe will definitely add load to the achilles and risk a strain if you ramp it up too fast.
The perfect example of this is going from cushy ‘normal’ road shoes (most of which have a substantial drop) to minimalist/barefoot with zero padding, and thus zero drop. The first thing you will learn that will severely limit your run volume right off the bat is achilles overuse/strains if you just try and jump in without a slow buildup.
You can definitely adapt to this style of lower or no drop shoe (might even be good training to do this once in awhile for achilles strengthening) but you definitely have to ease into it slowly.
TL;DR - I had a similar problem and after trying a lot of different fixes, it turned out it was my ankles getting cold. I fixed it by keeping them warm with thicker socks.
Last winter I developed a lot of pain in both my achilles tendons near my heel. It would hurt a lot at the beginning of a run somtimes even when walking, though the pain would subside after I warmed up. It was hard to track down the cause, initially I attributed it to a new pair of running shoes. Though after going back to my old shoes it would still re-occur. I tried changing my running syle to put less stress on my achilles. Nothing conclusive and it went away after a few months.
Anyway it restarted this winter and I discovered it was the cold. I don’t know if it is an age thing (I am now 43), I used to be fine running in shorts and cold weather, but now I need to keep my ankles warm when running. I find that if I wear thick socks or even thin long socks and double them over my ankles, I don’t have any problems. If I had more flair I might try these - https://amzn.to/2usn0AI
This may not be your problem, but I thought I would post as it may help someone else.
Achilles Tendinitis…bottom line…sucks. It can last for years. The Achilles has a very weak blood supply so it heals super slow if at all. The shoe could be the problem but once you figure out the problem the healing is the import and slow part.
The tendon fibers when healthy run in a vertical pattern. When there is an injury and the tendon starts to heal the tissue and forms in crazy patterns that looks like birds nest which is weak strength wise and very easy to break apart only to heal again and break again in a nasty cycle…you get the drift.
Like someone else said do heal/calf stretches when you wake up in the morning to break up the birds nest and let the fibers heal in a normal vertical pattern (which is what a strong healthy Achilles look like). It can take months but it works.
Can it really be possible to cause that with one run though? I wasn’t over training at all, just casually running, with absolutely zero Achilles issues. I switch shoes, and Bam, the next run (an easy one) and I have the pain. I don’t run for a month, go for a warm up a job, and the pain returns the next day. Seems weird that a problem that serious can be caused by two easy runs.
Typically Achilles tendonitis is caused by pronation in the foot which sets up a shear force on the Achilles. My experience is that once the pronation is corrected the pain usually goes away quickly. Get some orthotics and consider running in a motion control shoe. It’s how Rupp and Jorgensen screwed up their Achilles, , too much training in the vaporfly, now both are back to the Nike structure.
Might be worth checking the fore-aft drop on the shoes.
If you are used to running in shoes with a big drop, switching to a lower drop shoe will definitely add load to the achilles and risk a strain if you ramp it up too fast.
The perfect example of this is going from cushy ‘normal’ road shoes (most of which have a substantial drop) to minimalist/barefoot with zero padding, and thus zero drop. The first thing you will learn that will severely limit your run volume right off the bat is achilles overuse/strains if you just try and jump in without a slow buildup.
You can definitely adapt to this style of lower or no drop shoe (might even be good training to do this once in awhile for achilles strengthening) but you definitely have to ease into it slowly.
A reduction in back-to-front drop - similar effect to when changing to forefoot running from being more heal-1st. It puts a lot more strain in the achilles (and calves). The physio / trainer who got me to change to forefoot running a number of years ago absolutely rammed home the message that i needed to transition slowly (like 1 min toes vs 9 mins heal to start, then 2/8 then 3/7 etc changing the ratio every couple of weeks - otherwise i was told in no uncertain terms I blow my achilles it I went straight to toes-all-the-time.