I have been battling achilles tendonitis for the past 6 months. Is my career as an elite(ish) runner over? Is this injury often a career killer as some of my friends have so kindly pointed out? At 25 it just seems to early.
I have been battling achilles tendonitis for the past 6 months. Is my career as an elite(ish) runner over? Is this injury often a career killer as some of my friends have so kindly pointed out? At 25 it just seems to early.
it sucks certainly but is far from a career ender
what rest, treatment and recovery program have you tried and been using? as might be something you have not tried?
I was in your situation 2 years ago. For some strange reason, I was able to still train at a reasonable level on the treadmill, perhaps due to the perfectly flat surface. I did calf exercises too.
The first 6 months I did something like a 1 hour tempo run several times/week with nothing in between; after that I was able to run every day. After about a year I started doing some of the easy runs on the road, and about after 18 months I was able to resume regular training on the road just as before. I lost some fitness during the first 6 months, but after that I was still able to race pretty good, only slightly below normal.
It's completely gone now.
When Ed Whitlock was around 50, he had to switch from track to roads because of AT. That was 25 years ago, and he is still setting lots of records. Maybe he can weigh in on this issue.
Good luck the the OP, I have a bit of the "lower leg plague" myself, no races for me this season :(
the good die young wrote:
I have been battling achilles tendonitis for the past 6 months. Is my career as an elite(ish) runner over? Is this injury often a career killer as some of my friends have so kindly pointed out? At 25 it just seems to early.
I can attest with the multitudes of stubborn distance runners who battled with Achilles Tendonitus and say it certainly won't destroy your running career. It might take a while to get over. I had to take about a month off of running when my right achilles went down to tedonitus, one year after my left went down, but in the four years since my second achilles tendon going down I've never had a major problem with achilles tendonitus. If you handle the problem right and stop running for a while (I worked my core really hard when I was down) I think you tendons will become stronger. Mine certainly are much stronger now.
"(I worked my core really hard when I was down)"
What exactly does working your core do for AT?
googlespy wrote:
"(I worked my core really hard when I was down)"
What exactly does working your core do for AT?
Hater, googlespy, whoever you are--what are your pr's? How about listing some letsrun.com hater/dork hate remarks to go along with some more bogus hate and than list a bunch of fake pr's next to a fake name and then I'll list my real pr's next to my real name and that will be the end of this hate plauged message about overcoming achilles tendonitus
I really didn't mean to dis your advice. I really didn't. It sounds solid, but I was just wondering how exactly the achilles and other injuries are connected to core strength.
Brady Anderson wrote:
googlespy wrote:"(I worked my core really hard when I was down)"
What exactly does working your core do for AT?
Hater, googlespy, whoever you are--what are your pr's? How about listing some letsrun.com hater/dork hate remarks to go along with some more bogus hate and than list a bunch of fake pr's next to a fake name and then I'll list my real pr's next to my real name and that will be the end of this hate plauged message about overcoming achilles tendonitus
Over-react much? He asked a solid question -- "what does working your core do for AT"? There's no hate there.
There is hope, I had it pop up from time to time for the course of 3 years. One semester I just had too much work, had some other illnesses and decided to not run track. Basically took off for about 3 months. Bad news: I was overweight and out of shape. Good news: AT has never bothered me since, 2+ years.
Ok, this is my philosophy on achilles tendonitus. When you have achilles tendonitus, don't overstretch, try to avoid over stressing it with resistance exercises, etc. Because the tendon is inflamed you basically have to leave it alone and not stress it too much. Ice is good. I basically was going crazy during the times I had achilles tedonitus (much like I'm going crazy with a hip injury that has currently left me unable to train, aggghhhhh--so yeah maybe I'm becoming a little letsrun.com dork here being insecure and overreacting on a Saturday afternoon here, but who cares--I don't--why should you--you can f yourself for all I care--just kidding--I just wish I could run now, much like I wish I could have ran when I had achilles tendionitus, but I couldn't then so I worked my core to keep from flipping out too much). Just rest the tendon that's inflamed and you'll be back and running in no time. Tendonitus is frustrating, you never know if it will pop back up from time to time--sometimes people tear their tendons because they can't stay off them and rest them when rest is what is needed. Time off inflamed tendons is key. Again, to keep from going crazy about not running on an f'd up achilles tendon I like to work my core. Peace out letsrun.com dorks--to whom I wouldn't be posting to on this thread if I could just go out and hammer 10 miles out.
Yeah,
Big Thinker wrote:
Brady Anderson wrote:Hater, googlespy, whoever you are--what are your pr's? How about listing some letsrun.com hater/dork hate remarks to go along with some more bogus hate and than list a bunch of fake pr's next to a fake name and then I'll list my real pr's next to my real name and that will be the end of this hate plauged message about overcoming achilles tendonitus
Over-react much? He asked a solid question -- "what does working your core do for AT"? There's no hate there.
Oh, and when googlepsy wrote "AT" I took it as some cocky remark towards working your "anerobic threshold"--I didn't realize he was referring to the achilles tendon when he wrote AT. My bad, I hope nobody became overly tramatized about my misinterpretion "AT".
[quote]googlespy wrote:
I really didn't mean to dis your advice. I really didn't. It sounds solid, but I was just wondering how exactly the achilles and other injuries are connected to core strength.[/quote
The buzz word "core", in some people's eyes extends from the neck to the hamstrings. If you have postural issues and you have to forward of a lean when running, it can cause you to overstride putting extra stress and/or rotation on the AT and or posterior tibual tendon. This idea only scratches the surface.
[quote]milepost 1 wrote:
When Ed Whitlock was around 50, he had to switch from track to roads because of AT. That was 25 years ago, and he is still setting lots of records. Maybe he can weigh in on this issue.
I found that track interval training aggravated my achilles. Long slow distance with a little speed work (not on the track) and a fair number of races seemed to avoid the problem and allowed me to run well at distance races and tolerably well at distances as short as 1500m. Therapy never seemed to do much for me. Stopping running until better was the cure, cycling seemed to help cure it.
I definitely agree that cycling helps cure AT. If you get a stiff carbon-soled shoe you should be golden. Pulling up on the pedal and pushing down at a high cadence (90-110 rpm) with the flat, stiff shoe should help lengthen and strengthen the tendon.
Be careful though, remember that high cadence is key in this. You don't want to push/pull too hard.
The key is to get a proper diagnosis. Get a dopler ultrasound to see if this is neo vascularization. If it is, then get some polydocolone injections.
If it is tendenosis, then you should be doing heel drops off a stair (4 sets of 15 X2/day). Should be better in 2 weeks, but you need to stress it until it hurts a bit. You might even need to use some weights in a knapsack to increase the load on the heel drops.
I got orthotics and have noticed a lot of improvement. I've had chronic achilles pain for nearly a year, but about a month ago, I decided to try orthotics. They have really helped me.
Were they custom ortotics?
it killed my career, tried to run through it but it made the condition worse.