Achilles injury 3 weeks to go?

Fitbug1

After a successful 20 miles last week I woke up the next day with a sore Achilles. After seeing the physio it's the start of tendonitus. I was advised not to do tomorrow's 22 and drop to 15. After doing 5 in the week and under 1 today it's just too sore to try 15 tomorrow. What the hell do I do? Tapering was supposed to start after 22 but I really don't know what to do next? No shoes means no pain - as soon as the trainers go on my Achilles is sore? I'm totally devastated as the race is manchester on the 19th? Please help as I've never entered race day with an injury?

tricialitt

Personally, I'd say that you should stop running altogether for now if its that sore after less than 1 mile.

If you can recover enough to run your marathon in 3 weeks time, your fitness will still be fine, so your priority is to get well, not to train anymore.

I don't know what is best for achilles problems, hopefully someone will be along to give specific advice.

[Deleted User]

Maybe you increased your mileage too quickly? I find if i increase by too much too soon i get a sore achilles... Perhaps your calf muscles have tightened up which can cause sore achilles, if so its important to stretch your calves everyday.Usually when i get an achilles injury i taper off for a couple of weeks and its fine. Its one of those injuries that you have to be very careful about and ensure it doesnt become a chronic issue.

T Rex

Fitbug1 - With some injuries you can just about nurse yourself around a marathon course but I'm afraid achilles tendonitis in its acute phase isn't one of them.

A little test for you.   Can you lift yourself up onto tiptoes just on the bad foot?  If you can't it will need some serious rehabilitation.

You need to get that injury iced and rested. Symptoms can vary between people but this injury can last for a few weeks or a few months.  I had it for 15 months before finally getting rid of it.

If the achilles area is badly swollen you should not attempt to run on it.  If not swollen careful short runs of very low intensity on smooth and flat surfaces might be possible.  Do no downhill running.

Shoes can be the problem.  Have you been doing a lot of hard downhill work?  Even on the level some shoes have a high heel tab at the back which digs into the achilles tendon and causes it to get irritated.  This is my main theory for why AT happens.  My advice would be to change shoes to ones that have a lower heel tab. With the existing shoes there are a couple of things you can do.  You could cut the v-notch in the heel tab lower with a knife.  You could also put heel inserts (e,g, sorbothane) under the footbed to raise the heel a little.  Doing either or both of these will cause your shoe not to dig in at the same place.

Inserts are not a good long term solution, but may get you round.

Calf stretching is certainly very important but if you are at the beginning, very painful stage it may not be possible.

Give us an update from time to time and I'll see if I can come up with anything helpful.

 

 

2Old

Fit bug - the same happened to me 10 days before VLM 2013 and despite trying everything I didn't get to the start line. I'd be carful doing the heel drop stretches at this time as in the early stages I found it made things worse. Stop running ,get some massages done - often the Achilles goes as it's the weak spot when there is tightness in the leg or back muscles or all of them. A week or so rest may be enough for the inflammation to go and you might be ok. If need be swim or spin- high cadence- to retain fitness.  In the end I had to have non corporeal shock wave therapy to sort mine out. Ironically as soon as I had it I could run again . I'm hoping to get the the start of VLM this year so have regular massages to loosen tightness in my muscles. Fingers crossed. 

T Rex

Good advice. Deep tissue massage is very helpful once the inflammation has gone down a bit.  (Too painful and not much point doing it before.)