Got an unexplained pain in my left Achilles tendon at SITS during the night, which got worse as I rode on.

It looks like this today.

That’s the best I could do, crouching down and holding the camera behind me, it looks worse in real life, swollen and bruised.

It seemed to come on after a longish overnight break.
Is it just a case of riding too hard without warming up first ?
I’ve never had anything like this before.

It’s a pain in the arse….

you’ll need 6 weeks rest and you’ll pretty much always be susceptible to it in the future now just to cheer you up.

I got it from quadrupling my commute – looks like I might have to get a proper bike fitting for the road stuff.

Just don’t ignore it, I did and tore my calve muscle too, took 4 months to recover, and I can still feel it a little bit (10 months).

I went to Physio, but RICE & stretches were what helped it recover.

yup been there

i got it from jumping on a bike where the saddle was too high for me and knocking out 100 miles – didnt realise someone else had used it while i was traveling round nz – could have killed the boy – but its my fault for not checking – pretty knocked out my entire season that year.

do you stretch regular ? i eventually got rid of it by regularly stretching out my upper legs and lower back !

Do you suffer from flat feet? I had something similar due to collapsed arches, got carbon footbeds now to support my arches and the problems more or less gone

I had that a few years ago when I tried out jogging/running while off the bike with a shoulder injury, looked exactly the same as yours.

I tried gently ‘walking it off’ for a couple of weeks but it didn’t work so went to minor injuries. Nurse who looked at it (a runner) said 4 weeks or so of not walking on it a lot and the swelling should go down. You can get under heel inserts for your shoe to stop the ankle extending as much as usual while walking and hopefully take some strain off the tendon.

Mine still feels tight two years later, but doesn’t interfere with walking or cyclinbg. I seem to have cured the soreness by not going running again 😉

Oh dear, looks like it could be serious then.
Every time I think I’ll take up running I get some sort of minor injury.
The repeated gentle stretching and movement of cycling always seems to help. This is the first time that cycling its self has caused a problem.

I had a bit of a pain low down in both calves to start with. The right one wasn’t too bad and has gone now, the left one got worse until it was obvious it was the tendon, not the muscle.

No, I don’t stretch regularly. I used to practice yoga at a gym and keep thinking I ought to do something to maintain my flexibility now I’m getting older.
Yes, I have got flat feet, although I’ve never found it a problem. I wouldn’t have thought it would make much difference while cycling as I ride clipless, so the pressure is always on the ball of my foot, directly under the cleat.

My manifested while skiing, but once it flared up it would keep recurring. Tight hamstring don’t help at all – I had seveal weeks off sport (of all kinds) and a course of physio to loosen it all all off before everything was relaxed enough for me to get the footbeds made. Not recurred since I got them

RICE + brufen it see a physio to check what you’ve damaged – and get right rest treatment exercises – I’ve had recurring Achilles injuries now for over twenty years because of ignorance bitd.

How about getting a proper diagnosis?

Yes – in answer to the OP.

Although this leaflet is largely about a different problem – exercises 2 and 3 may be very useful. But seeing a sports physio is a good idea.

And – cheerful bit – sometimes we see this just before someone’s TA goes ping… so if you lose any ability to stand on tiptoe…

And ignore some of the more pessimistic stuff above. Different people have different experiences. I have had TA problems in the past – but don’t now despite no break from skiing or cycling.

Impossible to diagnose over t’web.
Of note – you frequently can still stand on tiptoes even if you have ruptured the Achilles tendon – you have a deeper tendon that can ‘help out’.

I imagine that if it’s very painful, you would have either torn the calf muscle (gastrocnemius) or ruptured the Achilles tendon.

I’d see a doctor/physio personally…..

DrP

i tore my achiles vertically (luckily) and also my calf muscle. go get it xrayed/scanned and get pro advice as it will only get worse if you dont.
i spent 2 months out 😐

Thanks, Stoatsbrother, I’d been doing some of those stretches anyway.
It looks like this now, after a day sitting down doing nothing.

Perhaps it would be best to get some professional advice.

Professional advice without question. Get yourself booked into a local private sports physio quick sharp. A few sessions at £35 a pop, or months and months of re-occuring injury – take your choice! For tonight get some ice on it every couple of hours, ibuprofen and rest the leg.

Forget about doing any stretches until you have seen the physio. They will be able to assess it and give you (and perhaps more importantly show you) the correct ones to do FOR YOUR SPECIFIC INJURY.

Don’t whatever you do Google your injury as you will get a minefield of information coming back some good, some bad, some relavent, some not.

Good Luck :o)

PLEASE see a physio, last year I got the same thing reffing early season rugby,put it down to hard grounds and iced/drugged it. By end of sept I was off bike,running,climbing,even any length of walking till March this year.

Possibly a bit late into this thread, but get it seen to as soon as possible if you haven’t already.

I had a relatively minor off on a ride Wednesday evening, and am now sitting here with a boot thing on my leg and in a lot of pain, after snapping my Achilles in two in said crash.

It hurt like hell for a few minutes when I did it, and my lower leg felt like it had been set in concrete for a while, but I managed to pedal home 6 miles by applying only the heel of my damaged leg on the pedal with the other clipped in.

This is the first of any such injury for me, and I’ll be out months. Wouldn’t like yours to go completely like mine did, so best get it checked to be safe !

Well, it was getting better until this morning.
A bit of gentle exercise (commuting) and stretching every day and the pain and swelling had more or less gone, leaving just a bit of discomfort and stiffness.
A four hour trailquest today in a very hilly area and I’ve probably set it back three or four days.
No more big rides in the near future, so I’m sure the improvement will carry on.

I think it was originally brought on by having the seat to high.
I raised it about a week before SITS to try to get more pedalling efficiency. It seemed OK at the time.
My first ride after SITS, the following Tuesday, the seat just felt too high, like riding the bike was bringing the problem on again.
I dropped it about 5mm and it felt a lot better, like pedalling gently was actually helping with flexibility.

waves* snap

seat to high

get to a physio but it not be all end all my sport physio cost me arm and leg. a sports massuese made more difference but only temporary

SBZs wife came up with the solution for me(a.n.other physio)…..

core/lowerback and hamstring stretches and a calve and thigh roll