Frustrated

woodgob

I've now been off the bike for two months with tendonitis. I can't begin to explain how frustrating it's been. Driving to work is NOT fun. Rainy days + school runs = misery. I look at commuters on their rigs with an enormous amount of envy. It looks as fun as I remember it. Oh...the freedom! The buzz! (sob)

alfablue

Oh, sorry to here it, I had this, very frustrating! Take care, go back to it slowly, you are more prone to a complete tendon rupture (as I am sure you have been told).

woodgob

No...I hadn't been told that. Thanks for the heads-up Alfablue...if you don't minid me asking, where did it affect you and how long were you off the bike? Mine is on the sole of the foot, the rear of the ball (just behind where my cleats are basically)

alfablue

Hi Woo

Oh I had assumed it was achilles tendonitis. What you have is surely much more unusual, and I don't have any knowledge of that (and it seems a strange place to get it - surely a problem with your shoes/cleats/cleat position/bike setup?).

With achilles tendonitis you are much more prone to rupture, it apparently afflicts people as they get older as the tendons become less flexible, so perhaps typically the 30 something squash player.

For me I got it on tour last year, going to hard and fast up welsh hills with a heavily loaded bike. It felt like a tightness and cutting sensation just above my heel at the back, at first I thought it was some sock elastic cutting in! I was off the bike for a month, I did some stretching, and didn't resume until I was symptom free - I was VERY scared of getting a rupture (surgery and / or many weeks in plaster, probably some very dramatic pain too).

I have no idea what the issues would be with what you have, it must be a very small tendon, and it seems funny that you could get it there, I mean normally there wouldn't be a great deal of flexion / use of the muscles there.

woodgob

I'm having physio on it and it's an over-use injury that he's seen before but not commonly. It seems to have come-about after the 6 months training I did when training for an MTB 3-day event. Symptoms crept on about 3 weeks after I finished the event. I don't know why it's happened this year as I did the event last year with no problems. One thing has changed though - I used a shoe with a more rigid sole for improved power transfer. Apart from that, all else - bike set-up, duration and frequency of rides, stretch routine - was the same.

But I think it's more commonly associated with runners as an impact/overuse injury. I don't run though.

It sucks.