Achilles pain
I believe I may have slightly pulled or strained my left achilles lately. All was good until last week when it felt a little sore after a run. Stretched, rolled my calf with 'the stick', and all was good in the next few days. On Friday went for a run, all was good, stretched and then there was pain! It remained for a few days, on Saturday didn't bother me when seated on the bike but it slightly hurt every time I was standing up. Haven't run since, been icing it, rolling calf with the stick, even taped it.
I'm temporarily replacing my run workouts with biking since it doesn't bother the achilles, and I'm looking at it as in, more bike training will get me in a less fatigued position to start the run at IM Wisconsin so a little running training loss may not be that much of a big deal. At the same time, getting anxious to start running again but having a difficult time deciding what would be the appropriate time before running again. Already considering my first run should probably be on the treadmill (more cushioning) and only short in duration. Really don't want to make things worse but don't want to wait too long either.
THoughts or recommendations? Friday will be 1 week since that strain happened - would it be too soon to start again?
Comments
Had you been running hills just prior to the injury? If so, do you lean into the hill or tall and erect?
I have been having an issue with my Achilles as well after a trip and hard fall I took running almost 3 weeks ago tomorrow. It has totally shut down me running since I am terrified of making it worse, and I also switched to biking in place of running.
It is driving my O.C.D. into overdrive with IMLP just a couple more weeks away.
Patrick recommended I check out athletestreatingathletes.com, and I found a ton of treatment resources on there.
Under the Store Tab at the top of the EN web pages there is a link to "Injury Consult" that I used and got some great advise & self treatment plan from Leigh Boyle yesterday and she recommended a local doctor that I saw this morning for evaluation and he did a few things including Active Release Therapy on my calf and achilles tendon areas. While it was painful when he did it, it feels so much better now than it did just a day ago, and way way better than it has since before I fell. I go back to the doctor on friday morning for more fun and pain, but I feel it is going in the right direction.
For the moment I am doing the roller, the exercises with the tennis ball to isolate the areas in the calf, streching exercises and ice.
Before it gets any worse totally check out that site.
Yes to this. Also, if you can get a referral to someone that does Graston, that worked very well for me. Note: it HURTS. And you can't take ibuprofen for 24 hours or so. But 2 days later, things improve markedly. I had an achilles tendon that was, in the doc's words, "plastic" and could not be touched without me levitating off the table. Now I can run 75 min at a clip.