I’ve been having issues with my left achilles. I’ve done a lot of rehab eccentrics and now the pain had subsided I need to ease into my GPP.
However, I now face a dilemma. Hills place more strain on the achilles than flat running, infact it seems accelaration mechanics place more striain on it for that matter.
Any ideas on the best plan of action? I’m considering doing tempo on the bike, halving the hills volume and making it up with extra plyo’s.
Or, just run upright sprints during GPP untill I feel the achilles is ready to withstand the hills, however, I’d developing top-end before accelaration mechanics… the wrong way round
Any idea which Muscles are being affected and causing the Achilles pain? It could be the Tibilias Posterior, just underneath your calf muscles??
You need to find which muscles are in spasm, thereby pulling on your Achilles and causing pain. Foam roll, massage etc the muscles and do some strength work for them.
Shoes that are too soft will cause pain too.
Some strengthening exercises done for 2-3weeks on the posture muscles of the lower leg, then a Gpp and you should be fine.
I guess it all depends on the severity of it. You might get away with doing the strength work/massage during the Gpp??
Gives you some options anyway. Hope it helps
It could also be something up higher in the thigh or hip. I had terrible achilles pain that was caused by a non-firing rectus femoris, when the RF isn’t working the achilles takes the brunt of the load during the eccentric after touchdown of the foot strike.
Best to get checked out by a good physiotherapist if you haven’t done so already.
80% of the time, a Non-firing RF is caused from a Frozen Hip Flexor, the RF then takes over the role and it all goes Pear shape, thus leading to over use of the lower leg stabilizers.
Foam rolling is a Must - There should almost be a whole new chapter in Sprint training Periodization (foam rolling)
Thanks for the replies guys. I have indeed seem a physio, who gave me a telling off because I had come back to sprinting without properly rehabilitation after coming out of cast in the spring. My calf wasn’t strong enough and my achilles took to much of the load.
I’ve been doing eccentrics in high volumes for about 8 weeks and dropped all running. My coach massages my calf and soleus every training session, along with mobilising my hips. I’m having acupuncture next week also. The pain seems to have subsided, and I am running using an achilles strap at the moment. However, jumping straight into GPP hills now will probably set it off again.
Charlie has previously suggested to use stairs if hills are too much of a problem for one’s achilles. I’m coming back from an achilles tendinopathy myself at the moment, and have not had any problems doing hill sprints in running shoes on grass, however. I can’t imagine that plyos would put less stress on your achilles than hills, so I doubt that they would be a good alternative.
I would start with just a few easy hill sprints (i.e. 3x10, 3x20m at 85-90%) the first time round and then see how the tendon feels the next day. Also, i would not do more than two high intensity sessions per week for a while. I actually followed a program where I only ran every second day (i.e. 7 times per fortnight) always alternating between hills and tempo. Now I’m doing two hill sessions and two tempo sessions per week and will start running on flat ground (grass) next week. I don’t think I’ll be setting foot on a track for at least another month though.
Good post robin, that type of plan looks similiar to what we have used post achilles problem. The other guys were correct also, I am currently working with one of my athletes who has had a lot of achilles problems, she has trigger points in the shoulder, lower back and at the top of the IT band all down the same side. When the pain in the trigger points get worse, the achilles flares up. Hopefully we will overcome this with regular pressure pre and post training.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Btw, when I said plyo’s I meant hopping on the good leg. But your plan looks good Robin, thanks.
Thats and interesting point about trigger points Phil. If my coach massages the outside of my calf and achilles pain subsides. I’m seeing an acupunture therapist next week then seeing a myofascial release therapist that has dealt with alot of my training group.
The annoying thing is not knowing whether there is actually damage there or whether it’s a neural thing.
Let us know how you get on, the physio who I coach attended an acupuncture course recently, said there are new techniques re injury prevention and core stability using acupuncture.
The acupuncture results were amazing! I’ve had one session and since then have been able to train fully, with little to no pain. Next session is tomorrow.
That’s great, but be carefull as the effects of acupuncture can be temporary and may not be curing the source of the problem. Have you had a diagnosis yet ? If certain pressure points can be identified, your coach can help you in the long term, certainly cheaper option.
I had acupuncture years back to relax the muscles in my kneck and shoulders following a fall (slipped on ice). I felt great afterwards but a lot more work by the physio was needed before the problem was sorted.
