Achille's Pain
I woke up this morning and could not put any weight on my right heel/tendon area due to what I believe is achilles tendonitis. I have't suffered an injury in years. This morning I have started R.I.C.E but what else can I do to make this go away? Can/should I continue with swimming and biking? I have a trail run this weekend which probably does not include me 
but more importantly, I have Rev3 in Old Orchard Beach on 8/28.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
0
Comments
The consensus rec is "eccentric exercise". Lots of videos to watch. They are very helpful, but not curative (at least in my case). You will see a lot of time on the stairs. I have not done it, but many get a boot to sleep in. Solid warm ups, ice after runs. But that's about it. I saw a sports doc recently who talked of PHP and hydro dissection procedures, but he made it sound like these are fringe players, not typically used. If you have time and inclination go see a runner-specialist PT for fancy exercises, but be prepared for the long haul.
1. Give your self some time to let the initial issue calm down a bit. A week or two is a good idea.
2. Swimming and biking still are likely ok, but if you feel the Achilles in pain, stop. I found when I did flip turns or tried to hit z4 or higher on the bike, I was starting to engage the calf chain of muscles and was playing with fire. I basically did light turns and no more than z3. You may be in better shape than I am on that front, but be careful.
3. I really like to run, so I tried to start running as soon as I felt I could and ended up right back where I started. Make sure you have healed up before you start running again. And when you do, start SLOW and be methodical with it otherwise you are just playing with fire.
4. eccentric stretches are good after the initial trauma has passed. Some of the issues can be associated with tight calf muscles as well, so some light stretching there can be a good idea. Don't go nuts with the calf stretch by doing too much too soon as it can aggravate the issue.
Basically as Doug said, it is a bit like the vampire bite of plantar fasciitis in that even when you think it is gone, you will feel it again. (I am a lucky one who deals with both). Since you are here at EN I will assume you are fairly type A. It will take all of your will power to not do too much too soon and end up right back where you started. This is a great time to be SMART and not push through the pain.
Thanks for the reminder. During my stretching routine, this is one area a neglect/forget.
Achilles tendonosis/tendinitis is mostly degenerative and it heals slowly.
The magic single exercise for the achilles is eccentric calf "raises". Essentially, you use both feet to stand up to your tippy toes and then come down slowly on the one leg that you're working. This does cause some discomfort with an achilles injury, but don't do it through hard pain. You work up the number of reps and wether you do it down just to the floor or whether you do it on a stair edge so you can drop your heel slightly below the toe. In a couple of weeks, work up to 50-60 of these per day.
Essentially what you need to do is to get everything to heal and scar in the right orientation, and this helps a lot. Also, it helps strengthen all the correct muscles associated with your achilles. It won't correct hip problems or anything like that if those are the underlying cause...but often achilles is just an injury from too much volume or too much speed work and isn't really "caused" by any other issue.
I've been seeing a PT ever since, initially to address the Achilles injury, then the weaknesses in my whole posterior chain of muscles, and now proactively for hip & core stability.
Thanks for all the feedback. It seems for me stretching is key to keeping myself injury free.