Achilles tendonitis

Try zero drop shoes. They worked wonders for me.

I'm really sorry to hear this. Be mentally prepared to take a LONG time off... More often than not, this injury does not heal immediately. Mine personally took ~8 months to heal, with maybe 50 miles total during that time.

I did not find that heel drops were helpful for my injury, but many people think they are. I did a lot of stretching and eventually had to get a PRP injection and take a few weeks off from everything, even cross training.

Elliptical is a good cross training activity that mimics running, but stop immediately if it hurts your achilles. Aqua jogging and swimming are always safe alternatives.

In terms of volume, you can cross train almost as much as you want without danger of overtraining. I would recommend alternating intervals with longer aerobic work.

Mentally, its really tough to cross train through long stretches of injury, especially if you're on a college team. Don't beat yourself up about it if you have to take a few days or a week off just as a mental break.

I kept myself sane by biking/ellipticaling while watching Netflix on my phone once my Achilles could handle it.

Good luck.

injured_tendon wrote:

I'm currently running 60 mpw. Running is my passion but now I have a huge problem. I have Achilles tendonitis (right foot). I don't feel pain while running but and there is no swelling in the back of the heel. However I do feel stiff around the achilles tendon bone area in the morning and after running. Also when I dorsiflex the foot or turning the foot to the right.

What advice do you have?

I need to replace 60 mpw running to cross training (i.e. elliptical machine). Should I do all my normal running workouts on the elliptical machine instead? Long run 2 hours? Or should I do intervals only?

You should be able to run through this with some care. Stay off hills and work in some easy calf raise/heel drops before and after running.

peppermill wrote:

injured_tendon wrote:

I'm currently running 60 mpw. Running is my passion but now I have a huge problem. I have Achilles tendonitis (right foot). I don't feel pain while running but and there is no swelling in the back of the heel. However I do feel stiff around the achilles tendon bone area in the morning and after running. Also when I dorsiflex the foot or turning the foot to the right.

What advice do you have?

I need to replace 60 mpw running to cross training (i.e. elliptical machine). Should I do all my normal running workouts on the elliptical machine instead? Long run 2 hours? Or should I do intervals only?

You should be able to run through this with some care. Stay off hills and work in some easy calf raise/heel drops before and after running.

I agree.

If you have access to a pool then use that as your first tool of cross training. Don't stretch aggressively. Be very gentle and put emphasis on foam rolling your calves. Massage a lot too. Listen to your body. If the cross training hurts then stop. Some small pain is okay for stimulating blood flow. If there's no inflammation don't ice. Heel drops work depending on what's actually injured, as there's a variety of achilles problems. When you start running again be extremely cautious about increasing intensity and mileage. Work on other possible imbalances as well

prettyflacko wrote:

If you have access to a pool then use that as your first tool of cross training. Don't stretch aggressively. Be very gentle and put emphasis on foam rolling your calves. Massage a lot too. Listen to your body. If the cross training hurts then stop. Some small pain is okay for stimulating blood flow. If there's no inflammation don't ice. Heel drops work depending on what's actually injured, as there's a variety of achilles problems. When you start running again be extremely cautious about increasing intensity and mileage. Work on other possible imbalances as well

Good stuff. I found Arnicare and gentle massage helped me a bunch too. You can train through achilles problems, you just have to be very smart about it and listen to your body to avoid creating a long-term issue.

If its truly achilles tendinopathy there is some good evidence that you can continue to run and exercise as long as the pain does not exceed 5/10 on a pain scale (0= no pain, 10= worst pain imaginable). Stretching can be a bad idea,, particularly if the pain is right near the tendon insertion to the heel bone.

Heavy resistance training (heal raises with a straight and bent knee) is also very helpful in order to increase the tendon's load capacity.

It can take a quite a while to resolve completely, but sticking with the strengthening exercises is key

Sometimes a brief period of relative rest can help the symptoms calm down, but complete rest and undertraining can also put you at risk for re-injury if you don't maintain/increase the tendon's ability to tolerate and adapt to exercise loads.

I have battled this numerous times. I dont know how desperate you may be but lets say that you really cant find a way around this injury which is usually the case. I have only and I mean only found any success by getting graston technique done on the injury to the point that it was so significant that all other info was trivial!!! I tried the eccentric heel drops and I just get the feeling that those exercises are not applicable for runners who go long distance. So to get Graston technique done all that you have to do is call around to some good chiropractors. They are the first outlet to search. My guy charges 50$ a session but you will see improvement after 1 with the possibility of 90% recovery after 2 visits. So if you are serious then this is where you will eventually end up trust me. you can google graston technique on achilles and there are legit videos of the process.

Best of luck and remember

GRASTON

If it is achilles tendonitis (you may wish to get it diagnosed by a professional), achilles tendonitis sucks, so sympathies, but if no visible swelling at the pressure point, you will hopefully be able to get out of it relatively quickly and permanently. Suggest you figure out the underlying causes of the injury. You might be landing more on your fore-foot than mid-foot (Did you recently switch from a high drop (10mm+ to a low drop shoe?), increase your mileage by a lot quickly?) which may put too much load on your achilles if your calves are too weak-tight to take it.

Had this and fixed it in 2-3 months by: 3x15-20 eccentric heel drops 2-3x daily (or daily or every other day if your achilles-calves are too sore at first). For insertional (heel) achilles tendonitis, also do bent knee eccentric heel drops (Some rehab programs propose adding weight or increasing number of reps, especially for experienced high-mileage runners for whom 15 reps may be too easy to have an impact). Foam rolling morning and evening (rolling the tendon probably does not do much...work on the muscle). Cross-training on bike and elliptical (don't suggest running for the first 3-4 weeks, maybe longer depending on extent of your injury. You'll have to judge. I remember being afraid of going on my first run, but it worked out fine. You'll get there.).

Over a year and a half since my injury, no recurrence. I still do sets of 3x15-20 heel drops a couple times a week after easy runs for maintenance. Every pre-run warm-up includes heel walks, toe walks, side-foot walks, a few heel drops, ankle rolls in addition to other dynamic movements. I'm not in your mileage range (only 35-50mpw), but I'd say that kind of minimal maintenance is key to stay healthy.

I'd also say don't neglect the rest of your chain. It's all connected and a weakness here, creates and imbalance there,...so do your squats, etc..

Good article here which explains the why, what and how:

http://running.competitor.com/2014/12/injury-prevention/new-exercises-fixing-achilles-injuries_119928

Good luck!

Depend how bad it is and if it is insertional or not. I had non-insertional - listen to your body. I was able to run through it after taking a few days off. I did eccentric drops (as many as I could). After some experimentation, I found what worked best for me was not foam rolling, but pressing pretty hard on my calf/tendon to massage it once per day. It went away after a few weeks. I also upped my core game and from that moment on listened to my body first and foremost, even if it means the short term gains aren't as good. This is all anecdotal advice from a substandard runner, but good luck to you. It all depends on how bad and the type. See a doctor if you're not sure.