mild insertion achilles tendonitis?
I'm doing a bit of self-diagnosis here, but I've got some unusual discomfort in/at/near my heelbone (calcaneus?) near where I think the achilles tendon attaches. It's not serious or debilitating at all, but I notice it in the morning when I get up, particularly the morning after a relatively hard run, and sometimes at the beginning of a run as I warm up. I did a little reading, so I now have the most dangerous of all conditions: internet-self-diagnosis. :-)
Has anyone got any experience with this or suggestions for treatment/management?
I once had achilles tendonitis in the main part of the tendon above the heel (pain and a swollen bump on the tendon), and it got better quickly (2-3 weeks?) from doing eccentric calf exercises on the stairs. I didn't have to moderate my workouts much...just didn't do anything that made it worse. This was a few years ago. I'd like to hope that sort of thing would work again, but I'm open to the wiser input of our crowd.
Thanks in advance!
Comments
I had some bad pain and stiffness in my achilles which started in late June, and was able to follow some treatment several (3 to 4) times a day with a foam roller and a tennis ball. It really did help to streach out the calf area to give enough "slack" in the tendon down to the attachement in the back of my foot, and within a few weeks it gave me no pain on the run at IM Lake Placid. I also went for therapy a couple days a week for a couple weeks, with a local chiropracter who did active release therapy and something called Graston technique, which used this little metal tool to help release the tension between the calf muscles and break up some scaring. Google it, and there are some youtube videos that show what they do with this. It was painful when he did it, but felt much better a few minutes later.
Try http://www.athletestreatingathletes.com/ there was a ton of information, and I had a consult with Leigh through a link in a pulldown at the top of the EN pages. For me, it was worth the time. As you can imagine I was almost in a panic, in the end it all worked out.
Hope it all works out, and good luck.
John
After a workout, not before one, a good stretch, sort of like stretching out the calf position, arms pushing against a wall/ something in front of you. Instead of stretching out your calf, bring the leg in closer to the wall bending the knee a little and apply a good stretch to your heel for 30-45 60 sec as you can stand it.
I have/had this for a while. Eccentric stretches to a flat surface (as opposed to dropping the heel below the toes) really helped.
Lots of information here:
http://www.runningwritings.com/2011...drops.html