What is the safest distance to race with tendonitis?

safest? 0 meter sprints

yah I was afraid someone would say that

It stinks. Anyone successfull raced through it?

I raced a 10k sorta succesfully on the track with tendonitis. I still am plagued with tendonitis though. I wore trainers and all.

desperate wrote:

It stinks. Anyone successfull raced through it?

I did. Nice 5 mile PR. Then I was out for a while because I damaged it by racing.

If you want to not be out for extended periods with ZERO running, don't race.

I raced a 5k with a sore achilles. In trainers. One of the dumbest things I've ever done.

First of all, you shouldn't be TRAINING through achilles tendinitis, unless you've got a morbid love of surgery. And if you're not training, why race? I tried the same thing, until I couldn't walk anymore. Then I finally took about 4 weeks off with cross training only (arm work, not footwork, like swimming and pedaling a bike with my arms) to get rid of it.

3 yards did it for me.

I have chronic achilles tendonitus (going on for years). I found the longer I race, the better. Short, fast running in training and racing is bad, as is hills. So I now do 90-100 mile weeks gearing up for a marathon, and it actually feels better.

In my case, however, this is with tendonitus that is pretty advanced, and does not get better with rest. I took an entire year off and it actually got worse. That now puts me in what may be an unusual situation in that it can't be fixed without surgery, so there is no harm in just running through the pain, but adjust training and racing to keep from making it worse.

i've raced through it as well. i trained and raced for 15 months until i injured my groin from compensating for my achilles. i raced fairly well, setting a pr in the 5k, but my training suffered some from running in pain a good portion of the time. wearing spikes really did a number on it. it's taken close to 6 months to get rid of this pain. i suggest seeing a specialist and seeing if you have any bio-mechanic issues. long term, i'd say racing is a bad idea unless it's for a key race. the sooner you get examined and determine what's causing the problem, the sooner you can resume pain free training and racing.

I did it but I had help.. I wore the Achilles Healer http://pattstrap.com/product_info.php?products_id=29

Having had surgery on BOTH achilles tendons during my running career (1994 on my right, and 2004 on my left) I can tell you that I dont think you should even think about racing on a bad achilles. I think you should just take the time to let it heal (3 months).

I did race the 2004 Nagano Marathon (2:24:04) on a bad achilles, and it was not a wise choice.

You will be running for many years to come.

Let yourself heal, and just get out and go like hell on the bike for a few months.

Jason

the bike is the worst thing for your achilles. I tried that route when I first started college and was out for the year before I figured out I should ignore the trainers and just take off (oh, and I still have a bump on my achilles). Just take some time off, if you nip it in the bud it can be possible to only take 2-3 days off. Of course you want to be careful with speed, hills (and of course don't ride a bike!) for a little while after that.

Honestly, if I sound adamant it's because I know it's possible to aggravate the achilles by biking -- without even hurtiong it running first!

They put my lower leg in a cast to immobilize it for a month -- after that I figured out what was going on. Don't learn the hard way!