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I am currently suffering an ongoing bout of left Achilles pain resulting solely from one bike. The pain originally occurred in May last year following a cross country ride and was resolved through Physio treatment, specific exercises and sports massage (short/tight calf muscles). There were no further flare ups until November, during which time I survived a couple of 24hr races and many long rides.
I have deduced the problem is caused by one bike, I can ride either of my two road bikes or MTB’s for hours on tough rides without a problem (including hilly SS MTB rides). Crank lengths are all 175mm and my positions are pretty similar on all bikes.
The problem seems to be my Planet X London Road which has been used pretty much daily as my commuter since late September, previously a Boardman CX (which was the bike on which I had the original flare up). When they occur a couple of days off the bike, NSAID’s and Ice will stop the flare-up and I can ride again. I can then ride any other bike without a problem but then my short 7-10 mile fairly hilly commute will cause the pain to come back. It don’t get any discomfort when pushing along on the flat or when climbing out of the saddle, only when climbing in the saddle even on relatively light gradients at high cadence. I didn’t really increase my mileage or training load significantly last year with the last few years being fairly consistent.
It doesn’t seem to stop me running though admittedly I tend not to run much during the middle of the year, starting in December I have been running at a purposefully slow pace (10min miles – not pushing as I don’t want to prompt a flare up) on hilly terrain without issue.
Since the flare ups started I have tried cleats back/forward, saddle down/back up again, saddle forward/back, bars up/down, having no idea what triggered it in the first place. I have now effectively ‘reset’ my position by starting setup again with my usual proven rules (knee over pedal axle, knee bend angles, arm bend angles etc etc). The next day this didn’t seem to improve anything with the pain coming back.
The last thing I can think of is my shoes, they are Shimano XC50’s and are getting on a bit now with 4000+ miles in them. I only use them on this bike for commuting so tomorrow I am going to try my newer MTB shoes that I wear without issue on the MTB’s, if this doesn’t help does anyone else have any suggestions? I don’t want to have to stop riding the damn bike.
Would a bike fit help? I can only think if I was doing something wrong with my position then I would have the problem on the other bikes too as they are all similar (drop bar to drop bar, MTB to MTB) and setup in the same way. The physio will help me relieve the flare up but he isn’t really clear what the trigger is.
Quite a few TD riders get issues - the general advice is to dremmel the shoes so the cleat is even further back than the slot currently allows and lower the saddle. It makes your quads work hard for a few days whilst you achilles repairs.
Anything to do with inflammation of the tendons on the back of the leg can be symptomatic of hyper-extension or hyper-flexion. Knocking the seat height down a touch might help, as would avoiding pressing down on your heels through the pedal stroke. Shoes might be a problem if the heel-cup is pressing on the tendon so worth trying others.
I tried dropping the saddle to the extent i was getting knee pain as well. I may try again having now reset my saddle height. Just strange how 940mm pedal to saddle on four other bikes isn't an issue but is on this one. I have brought the bars back up too as i wondered if the low bars were putting strain on the back of my legs, but again even when they were low the saddle-bar drop was less than my other two road bikes.
[i]Sustained hill climbing can cause Achilles issues unless you are used to it. On long climbs we tend to adopt a rearward-seated, leg extended, heal down pedalling style to conserve energy, and this places more stress on the achilles tendon .[/i]
Move your foot forward/ cleat back AND saddle down proportionally.
... or cleats back/ foot forward and saddle forward slightly.
Whatever works best.
Wow - what a great article- thanks for sharing.