ridethecliche

Hey,

Have any of you guys had any achilles issues?

I have a bit of soreness on my right achilles tendon. I've been taking ibuprofen and icing, and will reevaluate whether I should ride on tuesday or not (taking off till then).

I know I hurt it because of ankling (bad technique on an easy ride).

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for quicker 'healing' and if I should do anything to stop it from happening again (lower saddle a hair?). Stretches so you can ride without further injury/or slowing the healing?

Thanks for the help!

aicabsolut

I had a mis-diagnosis of an Achilles injury when I messed up my ankle. The PT for that was 3 sets of 30 seconds calf stretches for each: gastrocs and soleus (straight leg and leaning/on tirangle block or stair, slight knee bend and leaning/block/stair).

Sometimes, my Achilles will get tight when I have too much tightness in the hams or calves. But that's definitely a tension feeling and not soreness post-ride. However, if you are too tight in those muscles, it can cause more strain on the achilles while you're on the bike.

Lowering the saddle may not help, because if you bottom out on the pedal stroke too early, you will get hit with some upward force that might not be comfortable for the tendon (the same force that would push you off the saddle if it was far too low). You might just want to think about riding with a neutral akle, neither over-shortening the tendon with too much toe-down movement nor straining through by pushing your heels down far. Generally, though, heels-down (stretch) would be better than heels-up (contraction).

The best way to get it to heal is to alleive tension through calf stretches (as well as the ice/ibuprofen). Massage of the arch and sides of the heel may also help. (The achilles attaches at the rear of the heel and also laterally, near level with the bursa.)

grolby

Yep, lowering the saddle seems unlikely to be helpful. You should figure out WHY you are ankling so much. It's possible to really hurt yourself if you aren't careful about this. You don't want to be rotating your foot so much. If you figure out why you're doing it, you can take steps so that you stop doing it.

Also, consider moving your cleats further back on your shoes. Just remember that this has a similar effect to moving your saddle forward on your knee position relative to your BB.

Hocam

Slide the cleat forward, towards your toes. That seems to help me.

Lots of stretching too, like after every ride and in the morning after you're up and about.

grolby

Holy conflicting advice, Batman!

+1 on the stretching, I don't think anyone will argue about that.

ridethecliche

Cleats are pretty far back.

Been stretching a bit.

It was a recovery ride and I was just spinning a lot. Turns out I ankle a lot when I'm spinning with low resistance. Now I have an injury to hammer that lesson home...

SushiJoe

Bummer! Hope it heals quickly!

Enthalpic

I don't think that easy spinning caused your problem nor do I think several days of complete rest is the way to deal with it. How is your body going to adapt to stress if you keep removing the stress?

Just stop doing sprints every ride. Moderation brings consistency.

ridethecliche

Yessir.

I'm taking off till tuesday anyway since the weather is crummy here now, but I might go out and ride easy if it improves (which it might tomorrow).

Rest and ice seems to be helping though.

I'm almost 100% certain that ankling caused the problem while I was climbing because that's when i felt it first.