I have had pain in my heel for a very long time; probably 5-6 months now, at first I ignored it, for the fact that I didn’t notice it. The only time I felt it was for like 2-3 minutes when I very first woke up, then it went away for the entire day, so naturally, I just didn’t think it was anything, but slowly and surely, the pain was not just in the morning, but anytime I was inactive, so any length of time I sat, then got up, I felt pain in my heel. Eventually it got worse, I could always train painless, and pretty much not feel it at all. I had classic achilles tendonitis symptoms. I don’t like having any pain, so I stopped any impact training about 2 months ago, anything plyometric, sprinting etc. Now 2 months later, I can still vaguely notice it. Whenever I palpate my heel where the tendon inserts I feel slight pain. I’ve tried ice, heat, stretching, working my calves. It’s probably about 85-90% good, but who wants a kind of good achilles? It just hasn’t been improving at all. Any advice? Anybody had a similar injury? Soon I’ll just go see a professional, and about that, anybody know of good therapists in the Calgary area for this type of problem? Thanks.
Welcome to the club.
Mines been hurting exactly how you say (very low where the achilles inserts into the heel) since May. Nothing helps it. Even took 2 months off just like you. Doesn’t hurt much when I’m up on the balls of my feel just hurts to slow down and such. Also hurts to do any kind of jumping movement esp. box jumps on the take off. I tried rest, Ice, eccentric toe raises, DMSO, Traummel with DMSO, Naproxyn with DMSO, you name it. Lately it has actually been getting worse. Went today actually to see my buddy to get some ART and micocurrent done. He said if that doesn’t fix the problem to see this chinese herbal medicane doctor who does accupuncture in NYC who he is confident will fix it.
Note: Also seen aPodiatrist (sp) who took some x-Rays and ruled out calcification/bone spurs and said it just looks like tendonitis from a lack of ROM aka Enthesis and said to stretch. Well that didn’t seem to help much. This was around 2 months ago.
Hmm, its just a terrible place to get an injury from what I read. Tendons have poor circulation to begin with, and I remember learning the achilles is the poorest of them all, and on top of that, there’s no real way to completely rest your achilles, it’s always in use.
I just finished reading this study http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0031.htm on eccentric raises for rehab, and people have shown success, but you mentioned it didn’t work for you.
Didn’t work. Gave me some temporary relief and sore calfs although maybe the temporary relief was actually the soreness in my calf which made me not notice it as much. I am not doubting that rehab protocol works however with the area of my achilles that is affected (really low right where it inserts into the heel)I think is a different area than done in those studies. The rest of my achilles is fine. Its just that one little spot.
Yep, we have exact same thing then. I can twist and torque my tendon all I want, nothing, it’s just right on the heel itself.
Yea seems like it. Does it hurt a bit when you stand and have your foot flat and bend your knee so it passes over your toe at a extreme ankle and even moreso if you were to push off from that position?
Also how bout if you were to do a vertical jump, box jump or any jump for that matter? Pain during takeoff and landing?
Ya sometimes for all of those, and sometimes not at all, when it’s warmed up and I’m in the middle of a workout, I often don’t feel it, sometimes I do a lot… pretty much why I had to stop sprinting it was getting worse over time very slightly. Sometimes I think it’s getting better, then it starts aching like I did something to aggravate it, but I don’t feel I do anything to aggravate it, I’m very conscience of this injury, and very careful of it, but it’s like anything can hurt it now. My guess is that it’s some sort of micro-tear on the insertion into the calcaneus, and since it’s being used often and it’s not getting good blood supply, it just won’t heal properly.
I don’t see how ice would help it, it’s not inflammed, this is a chronic injury, it needs blood as far as I know. I beleive this is still early stages of something that could be more serious, so I need to create an environment for healing for the tendon. If I knew what to do, I’d be doing it, hah.
Have you done much eccentric work?
I would also find out if it isn’t Achilles bursitis which is common in the insertion area of the calcaneus. That is certainly a nagging problem that doesn’t go away easily. If it is truly insertional Achilles tendonosis, then I would explore the option of shock wave therapy (I believe the Sonocur device is available in the Calgary area). It requires three treatments, but causes something chronic to become acute and heal more effectively.
The podiatrist told me it wasn’t bursitis I supposed judging from the xray he took?
I thought that was the case as well. I will look at shockwave therapy.
Cool just keep us updated quickazhell.
any updates on this?
Has anyone tried EMS or TENS ?
i has achillies tendo last year really struggled for 3 months of the summer, only managed to train/race at the end of aug, tbf my injury meant i intially struggled even walking.
i tried the usual excentric stuff 3 times a day and this aided in pain relief reasonable well. However, the treatment i also used was TENS throughout the day at work and this imo worked very well, but it wasnt until i got hold of a mcdavid strap that it really started to get better, i tried the strap for only a week and all pain seamed to dissapear.
def worth a few quid to acquire one of those straps trust me
is this what you’re talking about? http://www.amazon.com/McDavid-Achilles-Tendon-Support-X-Large/dp/B002DPBGWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1264349617&sr=1-1
yeah thats the one it has 2half cylinder rubber bits on the back next to the achillies (similer to 2 fingers) helps release the pressure but also strtch the tissue similer to excentric excerise.
incidently this also worked for another athlete of mine who has suffered with both achillies since 2005 (we got a new mondo track) he now back up and running.
these just seemed to work really well for us
Wow. This thread is back…
Update for all whom are concerned. Since I last posted on this thread… 2009 indoor season went great running numerous pr’s over 200 and 400 meters finishing with 22.36 and 49.93.
Outdoors not so good which may be due to the fact that once again my training was affected by the pain caused by this reoccurring achilles problem. Fast forward to this indoor pre-season…
After taking off from June until October the Achilles issue seemed to go away at least it seemed. To be safe I decided to make some changes to my workouts this season. This season I was on the track 3 days per week instead of 4-5 days last year. I implemented d longer speed endurance type lactate work as I found successful last year and 2 days sled dragging (walking forward and backwards) which I though could take place of tempo work. I thought the sled work could take place of tempo work due to the fact that A.) It has a strength endurance component for the legs, B.) Cardiovascular benefit C.) Time under tension was close to that of the race itself, and to make things better it would be much lower impact than running. While my Achilles seemed to be fine after a 5 month layoff, 8 weeks into training and putting on spikes seemed to make the problem come right back again. Achilles hurt whenever I put the spikes on even to do warm-up strides and since I was unable to do the speed work necessary to improve and I was stuck doing the longer slower lactate work. I opened up in pedestrian times as did my training partner due perhaps to the “lack of training.” After 4 weeks of making changes he is just now getting back to the times he should have opened up with weeks ago.
After speaking with a friend of mine who is well respected in the track and field community (USATF biomechanics) he had a few interesting things to say about lower leg issues in post-collegaite sprinters. He has noticed these types of issues in the population I mentioned which he thinks may be due to some type of bone shift that occurs over time in the foot which may be due to years and years of training. Because of the bone shift, foot strike may be altered which may cause torsion forces on Achilles (supination of foot?). Even if I treat/get rid of the issue which I actually have the past few years (in the summer before track resumes in the fall) it would probably keep reoccurring unless I somehow fix my foot strike which I believe is near impossible at this point in time.
At this time I am not running and shifting my focus to powerlifting which i was ranked #80 in the USA in Bench Press in 2007. Although I plan to hop in a few 60 meter races this season to see if my lower body training for deadlift actually helps my acceleration my future in track and field has yet to be determined.
A-J thanks I see there are local suppliers so I will try that and see how it goes.
Quikaz, damn that isn’t good. I recall you were doing quite well at 400m so to be where you are is not good. Hope things work out whatever happens.
Sorry to read this, QUIKAZHELL! I hope you get over it or at least keep training at something you enjoy! 
I am also getting achilles issues now (due to more supination and inward rotation of the affected leg). I am almost positive it’s due to footstrike like you said. Historically I always had noticable bilateral external rotation of both legs. I am also pretty sure that hip/sacrum malalignment is a factor and my therapist could greatly improve the situation but it’s a matter of ‘do I want to pay $100 and drive 1hr each way’ when I am not competing much at all anymore? The main idea here is that 90% of therapists don’t seriously look at bony hip alignment with this injury when it is most certainly a factor in a good % of cases.
did you wear it all the time or just for training? 