Achilles Tendonitis - what sould I do? Please Help

Thanks much for the helpful post. Here are two links I found that demonstrate the heel drops along with explanations.

UPDATE:

Today I did a 14-mile run and my pace was right on. My first few miles were slow and my achilles were a little sore at first. But by mile 6 I felt 100%. I got faster and faster. After mile 14 I felt great and noticed THAT THE BUMP ON MY ACHILLES WAS GONE. Unfortunately, within a few hours it was back. Has anyone seen this before? Any explanation?

The swelling is inflammation, a part of the healing process.

You can use icewater in a bowl with a washcloth to soothe the pain, get rid of the swelling and speed up the healing process.

Nike zoom vomero 10. They still have a stiff back but they have a lot of room with a wide back to them. saved my life

alri

Dude with what you are describing, you need to take of 2-3 months completely from running. Then when you start again, run everyday for 10mins for the 1 month, then run for 20mins for the next 3 months. then 30mins for the next 6 months. Train for a 5-10k.

My brother did the same thing you are doing and one day years later after he stopped running his achilles popped while throwing a ball on the beach. Suffice to say, he didn't run for a year after that.

In case you don't know this, elite runners don't run 90-100mpw year round, in an attempt to avoid what you are going through. And all of the runners that last any length of time, build up slowly. They'll start running in middle school and don't get all the way up to 90-100mpw until they are approximatley 22 years old. I think galen didnt get there till like 25-27 or something. Basically call it 10 years from the day they start until they get to that kind of mileage. The people who last the longest as a runner are 1500m runners, because they temper their bodies by running lower mileage with a slower build in general. Bernard Lagat and nick willis are two runners who increased their mileage slowly and have competed for 15-20 years.

Seriously? I have to stop running?

It's more than likely the shoes. I don't know the Brooks Launch but it's looks better than most from pictures. Does it have a heel cup? If it does, it won't work. Most training shoes are designed to cause achilles issues.

Thanks. So should I stop running for a month or so or can I continue?

Stopping running won't help it to heal.

Don't run if there's injury pain, but otherwise keep doing the things to improve it.

The bump on the heel is the beginning of tendonosis, very bad. It's not just inflammation, it's micro tears in the tendon. You are 3/4 down my path. Stop running for 2 months, do the stretches and therapies or you will be in surgery or out for a year.

The bump is an inch or two above the heel. Same thing? It doesn't hurt when I am running on it. It only hurts when I am at rest. Should I still take 2 months off????

what is the difference between tendinitis and tendonosis?

Since this came up again, I'll share my experience as this is my first post ever on this forum. Although mine is insertional achilles tendonitis, hopefully it will still help. Here's the story: I was deployed as a contractor and spent a year in the middle east running my ass off on treadmills and really flat surfaces in Saucony Kinvaras and theen immediately sitting in a chair in a converted warehouse for 60 hours a week. I trained harder and harder and got slower and slower. Then one day on an uphill treadmill workout I just felt something go in my left achilles insertion and stupidly finished the workout. That was April 2014. Throughout the rest of the year I came back and spent it on and off running, not doing workouts, losing fitness. Long story short, I actually recovered from it after doing the things I'll explain below and then re-injured it and got it again. So here goes everything I've learned and will recommend, in list format...

Active Treatments:

-Go to a Graston/ART specialist and have Graston done. It takes like 6-8 weeks of sessions 1-2 times per week but it works.

-Someone else mentioned it but biomechanics are huge, go get a gait analysis done. As someone mentioned again shoot for 180 steps per minute and shorten your stride.

-I never had success with PT, my Graston guy is a Chiropractor, also of note I never actually had success with doing heel drops/toe raises but to each their own.

Other stuff that is really important:

-Footwear. Can we just stop with the minimalist thing? I mentioned earlier, I thought I was fully better after a while so I threw my Kinvaras back on and hit a track workout. Bang. Back to square one. I understand it works for some people but I've given up light weight minimal shoes. I run any hard workouts and quality in Mizuno wave inspires (huge heel/toe ratio, 13m or something) and I run easy runs in...I'm finally ok saying this...Hokas. I could no longer ignore stories that they fix injuries and grabbed a pair and honestly, it works. I actually bought a pair for my Dad who isn't even a runner and my Uncle. I'm fully on board the Hoka bandwagon.

-I have certain rules now, no more track workouts, maybe ever, definately no more Kinvaras ever. You can still do 200s, 5k repeats, 800s, whatever on flat roads or dirt paths or treadmills.

-Stretch after every run for just 5 or 10 minutes, every run, for the rest of your life, just do it.

-Warm up slow, maybe do a few pre run glute exercises to activate but first mile, especially in the morning should be pretty slow.

-Get a massage regularly, once a month or so.

-Run varied routes up and down hills and on hilly terrain. I think what did me in was all the flat running for a whole year and no downhills, downhills are really eccentric.

Now, my final note, find your nearest mountain and hike it. Seriously. Then do it again the next day. As a matter of fact do it as much as possible, do it until it not only fixes your achilles but activates your glutes and quads and hamstrings and all those other fantastic muscles that need to work so your achilles doesn't have to do as much. Then start jogging the mountain. Once it is healed run as much as possible on soft surfaces even if it is inconvenient. Run trails a lot and do hard workouts on a soft flat surface or treadmill.

Even now I hesitate to call myself fully recovered but I'm running more mileage injury free than ever before.

Thats my 2 cents, its long but hopefully it helps someone! Good luck!

paul061 wrote:

The bump on the heel is the beginning of tendonosis, very bad. It's not just inflammation, it's micro tears in the tendon.

If that's the case, then why does it disappear, then come back, then go away again.

Mine does the same thing.

I can buy the microtears thing, but the swelling has to be inflammation, and I don't agree with not running. I've had this off and on for more then a couple of decades and it goes away for long periods of time, definitely related to the shoes I've been wearing. I'm interested in this thread, trying the heel drops as shown in the videos, and always keep running and/or hiking on various surfaces. Unfortunately almost everything around here is totally flat.

I've tried the not running for months, and that doesn't help at all, other than if the heel keeps getting worse with typical bad running does then the cause is removed for two months, but if you've eliminated the cause, then keep running.

The gold standard of protocols for any type of tendonitis/tendonosis is eccentric exercises. That's why the poster earlier in the thread recommended heel drops. Good "Achilles tendonosis eccentrics" and you'll come across tons of info.

Having said that, there is a new protocol that is challenging eccentrics. It is called 'heavy slow resistance training". The studies that compare them show they are roughly comparable but people tend to have better luck sticking to HSR than eccentrics and have a higher satisfaction with the protocol.

I personally did not benefit from eccentrics for my patellar tendonosis, but I love HSR and have been improving slowly but steadily.

Make sure you remove the low-grade inflammation. My Achilles problems went away and never have returned after I got rid of it.

Correction, "I've tried the not running for months, and that doesn't help at all, other than if the heel keeps getting worse with typical bad running shoes then the cause is removed for two months, but if you've eliminated the [ shoes with rigid heel cups, ] then keep running."

Another thing is that barefoot running is the easiest on my feet, and shoes with elevated heels are the worst.

The higher the elevated heels, the sharper the angle that the rigid heel cups cut into the heels. I can't run in any shoes that have elevated heels because they cut right into my heels and cause tremendous pain immediately.