Never had a history of achilles problems. No tight calves. Didn’t run on hills. Didn’t change my shoes. Didn’t sharply increase my training load. Went for a 2.5 hour long run on Sunday and felt fine. 5 minutes after stopping my achilles started hurting. It’s been sore since. I am going to the doctor today for a diagnosis and to get on an aggressive rehab plan. I’ve been RICE’ing and taking anti-inflamatories without much response.
Steelhead is my B race and Ironman Wisconsin is my A race. I have 6 weeks to go for that. I’m so psyched to race this weekend though. I am in the best shape of my life. It has been a breakthrough year IN TRAINING!
I went through this last month, Steelhead is my ‘A’ race of the year. Rest: No more running before Steelhead. Ice: 2-3 times per day for 20 minutes. Pick up a night splint from CVS and don’t sleep without it. Find a good strong sports massage therapist (mine works with a few Olympic T&F runners) and have him really work hard on your legs (especially calves) for at least an hour per week leading up to IMMoo, it should hurt like hell and you should barely be able to stand for a second once you get off the table, trust me this really pays off! That’s what I’ve done and I’m pretty close to 100% with my Achilles.
I’ve got a general icing question. I ice a lot - much more than 2-3x per day. Is it best to only do it 2-3x per day? It seems that if you don’t freeze the skin and allow the tissue to warm back up, you should be able to ice more often. Any thoughts?
It’s fine to ice more frequently than 2-3x per day. Just be careful with the duration, you don’t want to freeze the skin. Also be sure to give enough time for all of the tissues to warm back up to body temperature between ice sessions and you should be fine. Icing post-workout is the most effective from what I’ve read.
For me cycling was fine, I did take it easy initially and just tried to listen very very closely to my body, and stopped doing anything that caused any tightness or pain immediately. That meant when I did start running (short distances at a slow pace) if I ‘felt’ my Achilles or anything at all odd in my lower leg I would stop and walk home. Swimming was also fine for me because I hardly kick anyway and I was just very careful not to push off the wall.
The key to getting back into running for me was starting with baby steps. Running 2 miles at a 9 min pace (slow for me) 2x per day. Splitting my mileage over 2 or more runs per day allowed me to build up my overall mileage without taking too much of a risk of re-injury. Then I did a really slow build of my “long” runs starting at 3 miles then 5, then 7, and so on; finally this weekend I made it back up to 11. I’m feeling like Steelhead will be pushing it but I think that I’ll be able to do alright given the injury.
Skip steelhead, take care of your achillies and focus on Wisconsin. Not worth risking your A race. You may be in great shape but a sore achillies is very tricky and a nagging type injury you really need to pull back for a brief period.
What Zerobars said— Keep your eye on the prize. The last thing you need to do is convert an acute injury into a chronic problem. Your doctor will give you the full scoop, be here are some thoughts: Increase your swimming, cut out your running for a while then be very careful about adding it back in, and be careful about biking, perhaps by riding multiple short loops close to home with plenty of bail-out options. (I can bike with almost any lower leg injury, but I’ve known people who’ve developed Achilles tendinitis from riding, so it is possible to damage it on the bike.)