Achillies

Hi all,

I'm running the London Marathon on Sunday, but having slight trouble with my Achilles. 

I did 22 miles on Monday 1st, went ok with no pain. Did 5 miles on the following Thursday and since then I've been unable to do anything in fear of making it worse. Starting to get a bit worried about Sunday - any tips on how to get through it and keep the Achilles quiet?! I've been icing regularly, taking ibuprofen and applying diclofenac gel. 


Any advice would be greatly appreciate, getting very nervy now! 

Cheers,

Tom

Comments

  • What kind of stretches are you doing? I run in VFF or trail gloves all the time and as such make sure to spend alot of time stretching my achilles out. My favourite stretch is to stand on a step on the balls of your feet and let your heels sink down as far as you can to stretch out the calves and achilles. Often I'll put my phone on the stairs in front of me and watch youtube rubbish for 10 or 15 minutes at a time whilst stretching.

    Works wonders for me and has let me keep running regularly despite the extra work my achilles has to do in the shoes I wear. I'm a prevention over cure person and will only resort to Ibuprofen and gels as a very very last resort.

  • Thank you - I've been doing stretched on the stairs how you suggest, but nowhere 10-15 minutes, more like 30 seconds! Will give this a go. 

    Not sure whether to go down the painkiller route on Sunday just to make sure it doesn't affect my run. The ibuprofen and gels haven't done much to mask the pain when going up or down stairs. 

    If anyone thinks this would be wise could you recommend the best over the counter painkiller I could get at short notice now? 

    Thanks again for your help Yamarashi - off to the stair case now! 

  • The key really is to have something interesting to watch or do whilst stretching, I'm slowly working my way through the current series of masterchef. image

    Personally I wouldn't dose up on painkillers just to let you complete a marathon, it's not worth the possible long term damage to something as important as your achilles. But, each to their own, if this is a massive goal for you then you might consider the risks worthwhile.

    Good luck whatever you do.

  • Hi Tom, I'm in a very similar situation to yourself, have pain in Achilles since the weekend (pushed too hard on a 5k). Tried doing a few miles this morning but stopped and walked as I could feel it and didn't want to do any damage...be very interested to hear if you you managed to do your marathon and if so how it went?

    I'm meant to be doing Manchester Marathon on Sunday image

  • 2Old2Old ✭✭✭
    Tom-did you do VLM? How did it go? I missed VLM on Sunday due to Achilles trouble which started 10 days before. Very disappointed to say the least. I'm not running for a couple of weeks as I've had this injury before and it took months to go. My gp said ibuprofen is not powerful enough and prescribed meloxicam so now the pain has gone and I just feel a dull ache. Whether it fixes it is another thing though - I'm not convinced . I'm just cross training now but will try a run in a week . I'm doing the stair stretches too.

    Andrew- my Achilles went after doing intervals so it seems its not a good idea to do fast stuff in the taper. Hope you get to run your marathon . I did a test run on the Monday before VLM but the pain got so bad after a mile I had to stop. It might be worth making sure you will be ok on Sunday unless you're happy to risk it . Good luck anyway
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