Are you supposed to run during the eccentric loading regimine for Achilles pain? While the studies all suggest that it is very helpful for midpoint achilles tendonitis, they don't mention what other activities the runners were undertaking. Perhaps then the very high success rate could be partially attributable to the three months of rest from running. Just a thought.
I did.
This is quoted from the original MSSE study:
"During the 12-week training regimen, running
activity was allowed if it could be performed with only
mild discomfort and no pain."
Did the program still work? I mean, did it still clear up your achilles pain?
Ha. I guess the problem is being able correctly to evaluate "mild discomfort" and "no pain."
Also, if you ran through it what was the progession like? Did you feel bad toward the beginning of the 3 months and then better toward the end? Or did you just stop having pain at some point?
Sorry I keep probing it's just it seems to me hard to believe that your chronically sore achilles could get better without actually taking time off from running.
you raise a very good point, and one that I have been thinking about. the studies seem unclear about how much people were running during the 12 week program. it is possible that the healing came from not running, and not the eccentric calf loading.
note this thread i posted with a study that says eccentric calf loading was not found helpful for insertional type achilles tendinosis, which is what I am suffering from now.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2136052&thread=2135836
The good news is insertional pain is not as bad as mid-point (as far as I understand), but the bad news is as you said, the excercizes don't seem to help.
Yeah, I imagine that 3 months completely off from running would cure just about anything. I am currently doing the eccentic program and not running at all and I seem to be seeing progress. In other words, I don't want to take any chances either way.