Achilles pain

[martint235]

I hope someone who's had this problem can advise. I think this dates back about 3 weeks when I was close to the end of a 100 miler and foolishly decided to sprint after a car that had upset me. On my next outing, I felt a twinge of pain in my right achilles. We're not talking excruciating here, it's not something I would take a painkiller for and it only affects me whilst cycling and then only after 5 or 6 miles.

I rested it for the whole of last week but I'm back commuting this week and it's twinging again. I'm going to strap it up and rest it over a 3 day weekend this weekend.

My problem is I've got a long (200+ mile) ride planned for 20/21st June so the advice I'm after is:

1. Should I start taking anti-inflammatories now? Another forum member has kindly recommended some to me. Will these speed up recovery?
2. I've got a 4 day break before the ride when I intend to completely rest it but should I rest it for the whole of next week.
3. If it's still twinging when I start the ride, what is the risk of serious damage or is it more a case of just killing the pain? The ride is important to me and I'm loathe to cancel but once the ride is over I can rest it for as long as I like.

I fully appreciate I may need to go to the docs!!

Thanks in advance

 

[Shadow]

You poor bugger, a difficult one. I'll preface all I have to say by saying I have no medical training/background beyond my own experience!

Achilles are a real pain in the neck because they require time to recover, like torn hamstrings. If you try to work too hard, they will then take even longer to repair. My advice would be to cancel because if it only take 5 miles to start twinging then you could do more serious damage over 100 miles. My feeling is if something starts to cause pain, your body is telling you to ease up and take it easy. However, only you know how much it pains and how much you are prepared to do.

In the meantime, I would try daily gentle stretching exercises, just up to the point of when you feel it pulling.

As you have pointed out, maybe the best starting pint would be your GP. However, I do not have much faith in GPs and would suggest you find someone, a GP or physiotherapist, with specific sports injury interest/background/training.

Good luck and hope it heals quickly.

 

[chris-s]

I strained my achillies a few weeks back, or rather I strained my calf muscle whilst running, which in turn pulled on the achillies and caused it to be a little sore. Fortunately it cleared up after a week of gentle stretching, massaging and being careful.

Chris

 

[martint235]

Thanks both for the advice. There's a part of me saying that I tend to sprint to work and I won't be sprinting on my longer ride. Also cycling is meant to be a good re-habilitation exercise for the achilles.

But then again I agree with you shadow, if it hurts ease off it. I'm going to rest it as much as I can and see doc on Friday. My doc is actually quite good at this stuff I think but I'll be so disappointed if I have to postpone my ride.

 

[slowmotion]

I know nothing about achilles tendons.

I had tendonitis in my wrist when I first got my road bike. The hand position on the brakes/shifters was completely alien to me, and so were the finger/wrist movements. For a couple of weeks, I was in quite a lot of pain which extended up to my forearm. I could barely turn the front door key in the lock.

I phoned a younger member of my family who is an experienced, tough marathon runner, and also a GP, and described the problem. The converation went something like this...

She: "It's just general wear and tear. It will get better"
Me: "It hurts"
She: " Take some ibuprofen then. It will dull a bit of the pain and it's an anti-inflammatory"
Me: "Should I go and see the doctor?"
She: " If you go and see your doctor, he will tell you to stop cycling for a while"
Me: " ....but I want to keep cycling!"
She: " Simple...don't go and see your GP."

I look the drugs and her advice

 

[lejogger]

Hi Martint235

I sprained both achilles tendons when I cycled LEJOG to the point where they were crunching when I walked - and I could barely walk by the way. I didn't cycle for a month afterwards and had to slowly ease my way back in.

I've just got back from a 10 day tour of Ireland and lightly sprained my right achilles again. I think once you get an injury/niggle like that, you'll probably always have problems with it, but I was able to manage it with Deep Relief Ibuprofen gel and a couple of ibuprofen tablets a few times a day. Yes I was taking more than what was recommended, but not hugely.
The biggest problem with managing the injury was that it meant I had to cycle with a stiff right foot, i.e. restricting the up and down movement of the heel which obviously then meant that after a couple of days of this I had pretty chronic knee pain.

The moral of the story is that it's a manageable injury - you can continue and complete your targets with it, but it will be uncomfortable, it will make it worse, and it will probably lead to future problems.

I do only get this injury when I'm pushing hard with weight though. I never get it on my commute or weekend rides. You say you got it when you were pushing hard - as long as you're taking it easy it shouldn't reoccur.

So:

1: Yes - definitely take anti-inflammatories and ice the area
2: Rest as much as you can, but you need to test before your ride to see whether you'll get a reaction
3: It's your judgement call. I had to complete my LEJOG ride. I had thousands of pounds of other people's sponsor money on my back and there was no way I wasn't going to finish. Putting myself through that made me realise that my sprain in Ireland was nothing that I hadn't had before and nothing I hadn't recovered from before either.
But this is definitely no guarantee of how your body will cope and I would never suggest making a risk that could damage your health. Maybe I was lucky? I'm no doctor.

Good luck anyway though, whatever your decision

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

I had this a few months ago, but as I cycle to work (34) I could not just stop cycling. So I wore a ankle support 24 hours a day, and at night I would massage my Achilles, after reading up on a web site dedicated just to the Achilles, and when on the bike I tok it steady, no chasing after commuters etc, and no riding at the weekend.

After a few weeks it went away and is now back to normal.

I think it occurred because I do 170 a week normal cycling, and at this time I was doing 100 mile sportive as well.

 

[martint235]

Thanks again all. At the mo I have more pressing worries with the gout in my feet but I'm sure that will clear up in a couple more days (I flipping well hope so anyway it's agony!!)

To the achilles, @kevin, yeah I also commute so haven't been able to stop cycling (although I have for the last two days thanks to the gout). I'll take it easy until I've completed the Wootton Bassett ride and then see how I go.

 

[lulubel]

If I were you, I would not do the ride. You could do far, far more damage than you have so far. Pain is your body telling you to stop, so if it hurts when you're cycling you stand a very good chance of making it worse.

I slightly strained one of my achilles tendons running 2 weeks ago. It was a very mild strain and I could walk normally (although I affected a limp for the first week because it was uncomfortable to walk normally, which meant it was putting more strain on it), and could have continued to run on it because the pain wasn't that bad, but I'm not that stupid. I don't want to end up laid up for months, and possibly with a ruptured achilles.

Cycling only hurts if I grind big gears, so I've been sticking with low gears and avoiding steep hills. Still, after 20 miles yesterday, it was aching a bit, so I won't go any further on it for now.

What you do is, of course, your choice. But, how important is this ride to you really?

I mean, is it important enough that you'd be prepared to take a few months off afterwards to recover?

 

[Shadow]

I have more pressing worries with the gout in my feet

Now that is something I know about! Get your Gp to prescribe a reelvant anti-inflammatory - which will probably help the achilles - and also Allopurinol. This will help stop the uric acid collecting and solidifying in the feet. you will also need to significantly increase your daily fluid intake.

If you do the ride, then stop the allopurinol to see if the gout returns. If it does, anti-inflammatory again and back on the allopurinol. The bad news is you will then need it forever. if you want more details re this, PM me.

good luck.

 

[martint235]

Now that is something I know about! Get your Gp to prescribe a reelvant anti-inflammatory - which will probably help the achilles - and also Allopurinol. This will help stop the uric acid collecting and solidifying in the feet. you will also need to significantly increase your daily fluid intake.

If you do the ride, then stop the allopurinol to see if the gout returns. If it does, anti-inflammatory again and back on the allopurinol. The bad news is you will then need it forever. if you want more details re this, PM me.

good luck.

Cheers Shadow. Thankfully I only have acute gout (or did last time it occurred) so when it goes it should stay gone until the next time I trigger it.

Thanks to all once again for the advice. I'm hoping that as I'm having to rest because of the gout, the silver lining is that the achilles is recovering.

 

[vorsprung]

No advice from me but here is my recent experience

On the 14th of May I did a 600km event in Wales. On the second day I was getting Achilles pain in my right ankle. I finished the event in the time limit
That week I wore a compression bandage, used ice on my ankle twice a day and slept with my foot propped up
Had a couple of hot baths too, they are good.
By thursday it was good enough to commute on. I live in Devon and my commute is hilly

Unfortunately. my next qualifier was the following weekend so I did another 400km of Wales. The first traverse over Snowdonia was fine but then I had to come back again, against a gale. My ankle hurt much more than before by the end. The next day I couldn't walk on that leg and had to cycle back to get the train one legged

I had a week with no exercise whatsoever, repeating the earlier rest/ice/compression. By the weekend my ankle had sufficiently recovered that I could pretty much walk again. On the monday I started doing eccentric load exercises. I did these twice a day. By the next weekend I could walk/run and went for a couple of short bike rides. The week after that I was back cycle commuting again

Before I do another long event I want to do a full cycle of eccentric load exercises on a "good" ankle, building up to using weights. I have also dropped the saddle on my long distance bike 2mm and I am going to get some Sorbothane shoe insoles

 

[calibanzwei]

I had a slight case of tendinitis a few months after starting jogging... tried all of the above to try and shift it - it is a slow process. Want to know what I believe eventually shifted it? When I started to regularly cycle

 

[martint235]

Update: Managed to commute today for the first time in over a week. It looks like the lay off with gout has done the trick and the achilles seems ok. I didn't push it at all just in case but not even a twinge out of it! Although gout isn't a course of treatment I would recommend!!!

 

[Shadow]

Glad t hear it's improving. Build it up gradually.