Sigurdd50

My daughter and her boyfriend are out on the Lewis and Clark Adventure Cycling route as I write this. they are about 300+ miles down the road... doing okay for a couple young folks! I spent many years in my youth, bike touring, and now I'm thrilled that she is taking on such a great adventure.

She called today, saying that she is getting some soreness in her left achilles. Just her left. I googled around for symptom relief and suggestions -- which ranged from rest to bike fit to adjusting seat height and others.

Have any of you touring folks run into this and were able to resolve it during the route without it putting an end to the ride. She is really wanting to continue and make it out west as she has been planning this all winter. they are taking a short day tomorrow and then maybe a rest day, and the weather has been such that they have had a couple rest days in their first 9 or so.

any suggestions would be much appreciated!
She has a blog somewhere and I'll link to that soon.

Mark E in Madison, WI

MTBMaven

I have experienced achillies pain issues in the past. After two professional fitting by two different people I have resolved the problem. Two things seemed to make the difference for me. 1) move my cleats all the way towards the heel. 2) move my seat back a few millimeters. My knee was too far forward over the ball of my foot when the pedals were horizontal. Basically I had an over use injury. My problems started around mile 70-80 or 4-5 hours of riding. The problems have gone away for me now. I did my first double in March. That was 13.5 hours of riding.

Good luck with your issues. I recommend a professional fitting. It is worth every penny if it allows you to continue riding and doing what you love.