Achilles issues?
I guess this is as good of a place as any to discuss it. I've been riding semi-seriously for about a year now. Normal distance is about 20 to 25 miles on any given ride. About a month ago, I did a big group ride of about 50 miles, my first time at that distance.
Somewhere along the ride, my left Achilles started hurting pretty badly. Like an idiot, I just gritted my teeth and rode through it. By the end of the ride, it was flat out screaming at me. By the end of the day, I could barely manage to hobble my way across the room.
I stayed off of the bike for about a week, and it seemed to get better. Rode some, and it seemed fine.
This past weekend, I did Day 1 of the MS Ride here in Kansas City, the "traditional distance" of about 72 miles. Somewhere, about 30 miles into the day, my Achilles was bugging me again. I managed to "favor" that side, and make it through to the end, but it's still kinda bugging me today.
So I guess my question is this. Is the pain a result of simply overdoing it, going further than I'm "trained up to", or is there something more at play? Is it possible that it's a technique problem? I ride a Trek 8000 with SPD-style pedals. I've never done a formal bike fit, but overall the bike to rider interface seems OK to me.
Dunno. I'd like to work up to a century ride by spring/early summer, and I'm hoping to do RAGBRAI in 2013, so it'd be nice to see if I can't get this Achilles thing solved...
Please and thanks.