Achilles trouble - any advice ?

arrJimLad

After a long ride of about 100 miles I had an extremely sore achilles, since then it keeps flairing up on shorter rides. The sore bit is pretty much at the top of my shoes so not sure if its just the shoes digging in or whether its to do with the bike set up. Anyone else experienced this or have any advice on achilles treatment and how to avoid getting it in the future ?

Thanks

alfablue

Oh dear!

I got this when touring last year, went too mad on the hills with a heavily loaded bike.

You need to rest it until it heals (if you continue to do significant exercise before it heals it can become a chronic problem as there can be degenerative changes to the tendon). I took about 4 weeks off the bike. I know it's hard but I think ou need a complete rest from cycling till it is resolved. Even if you just get slight or tolerable flare ups when you ride, you really are delaying healing and maybe storing up problems.

I haven't had any trouble since, but when I go touring again in a few weeks I'll be less macho on the hills. It did feel very much like the shoe heel digging in, but there was no external skin abrasion (though the area was visibly red). Heel tabs (sometimes called achilles protectors) on shoes can be problematic if badly designed, but I would guess in your case it was simply overuse.

Put ice on the area, take anti-inflammatory drugs (Ibuprofen).

Take care because this will greatly increase your chance of a complete achilles rupture which then needs surgery or months in plaster.

Unfortunately this is also an age thing, typically as one approaches middle age, starting or continuing sports as flexibility decreases.

I think in the long term some stretching exercises might be worthwhile (standing with front of foot on something, gently dropping heel down).

There are plenty of web resources about this, such as

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/anklepr ... hilles.htm