hello, i enjoy running and alternate it with power/astanga yoga and zumba and just regular walking. i do something in the morning every day, an hour running or walking with the dof and then sometimes zumba or astanga yoga at home.
problem is that when i run, ill run for a couple of months, do a five k or ten k race and then i injure my achilles tendon, or more like the back of the calf just above it and then i cant run for like three months. so i dont run but still walk and i also cycle about an hour almost every day to commute to work.
this has happened for like almost twenty years and i still havent figured out what to do here. i was going to get some of those up to the knee type pressure socks that everyone is wearing but theyre like 40 euros and i researched them on some running sites and theyre to improve blood flow/performance(bunch of bs? dunno).
i went to a special running shop and the expert guy said i was an overpronator and so i got a pair of wonderful, make you run like the wind 100 euro ON SALE brooks.
i am going to try wrapping it in an ice bandage while i run, as im feeling twinges already and its only my second day out running today since the end of NOVEMBER! dying here!
also, my ankle was broken when i was about twelve and i had a screw put in and taken out, but i walk normal and everything, no apparent residual problems there, though maybe i cant see it..
anyone have any other suggestions that i can try? thanks!
I've had calf cramps on and off for years. Sometimes they come and sometimes they don't. That might be different than achilles problems. I have the socks and they are good for recovery but don't seem to stop it. I ran through cramps at a half last spring and had a 1x4x5 CM hematoma and my leg swelled up 2x it's normal size and foot turned disturbingly black and blue.
One thing I played around with at the end of last year was going slower, there was a group doing 10 milers and it was sort of the 9:00-9:30 folks and the 10:30 folks. I'd run w/ the 9:30 group way back in 2011 and can hang with the but I figured "why bother?" and the slower pace seemed a lot more manageable, in terms of aches and pains so I will perhaps keep at it. I have to decide this weekend about this year's big race (1/2 or full!) and then will adjust my pace accordingly.
I also picked up some new, more stability oriented shoes. I've been running in lighter (faster!) shoes for a few years but recall I never had calf problems until I was running in the neutral/ neutral plus shoes. I still have a few weeks of P90X3 left and am not running until I'm done with that, Except a 5K next weekend, for the Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation, a great charity!)
thanks for the info. today and the other day when i ran i made a conscious effort to go slowly. when i felt some little twinges today, i slowed down and i shortened my gait, so im kind of doing a mincing type run here, with dainty little steps. when i do that and really make an effort to flex my foot all the way before it hits the ground it seems to help, though all of that flexing gives me a shin splint! have fun on your 5k. how are you liking the p90x3? you see any difference in your body doing it?
Yup. I tried T25 last summer and was surprised by the results:
. Nothing amazing but it seems to have helped so I figured I'd go for the slightly more ooh-rah X3. I've gone from 1 to 3 pull ups about 7 weeks into it so there's some progress? I'm not doing pics until the end though, LOL. Perhaps interestingly, I trained for a 1/2 while I did T25 (Shaun T in the AM and ran at night...) over the summer. The race went pretty well (one great 12 mile training run but cramps in the race, 2:01, argh...) but then I didn't run for a few weeks, cherry-picked T25 workouts and went out on Thanksgiving and ran a PR 5K, 22:59. I'd flirted w/ the 23:00 barrier for *years* but never quite hit it. I think the stuff works. I'm not a dealer so I don't mind talking about it.
If it were me I wouldn't run anymore until you're completely healed because over time repetitive injury will make it worse. Pain is a sign that something is wrong. But if you want to anyway I would buy those socks. I wore them post dvt and they did help my pain tremendously. They stop blood from pooling in the lower legs. One of my docs told me only to wear the stockings because the socks are too tight at the knees and that can affect the circulation.
I think like me, PW is having the problems constantly. It sounds like she runs a bit, does a thing, hurts and stops. That's sort of been my experience, like the cramps go on and off. I've run some pretty quick long runs (20 miles in 3:10, 12 miles in 1:45...) with no cramps but I've run a lot of runs where my calves blow up. Part of me wonders if I'm too old but there are a lot of older runners blowing me off the road, even when I don't blow up so that can't be it? I will see how the more supportive shoes work. I didn't have as many problems with the heavier shoes but had gone to the lighter ones about when I started running 1/2s.
oh, I thought she had had a more recent injury, but still the repetitive aspect could make it worse. Hopefully the socks will help her then. I stopped running years ago when I had knee and ankle pain, my ankles were always twisting, a doctor told me to stop running and that was the solution for me. I hope your shoes work too!
My experience into the running arena has been sort of similar! I had what I would consider great cardio from lots of mountain bike racing, but hadn't ever really ran much. My friend talked me into a 5K race and ran that no problem at about 22min with no training. I though hey I can do this and jumped head first into the whole running thing....well not long after that I started getting random injuries...IT band, Achilles pain, piriformis syndrome. It seemed that I'd run for a couple weeks and then boom something else was injured. After some reading online and about 2 months off I decided to get back to it. My new training plan has been running much slower 9:00-9:30 pace and only increasing mileage around 10% every week or two. I started with 3 runs at one mile each per week, and am now up to 18 miles per week broken into three runs (5.5,5.5,7miles). Knock on wood everything is going smoothly. I think my major problem was running too fast, and adding distance to quickly! Cardio was there, but I guess my muscles/tendons just wern't ready for that kind of abuse. I hated starting at such a slow pace and short distances, but I think its what my body needed. I'm doing my first half and it's a trail run with lots of elevation gain in April! I think you are on the right track getting a great pair of shoes that have been fitted, maybe try slowing down a bit and ramping up the distance slowly even if you know that you can run faster/longer. I know it's hard not to get sucked into "race mode" and just got at it!
skier, thanks. im going to run more slowly and just do two kilometers a day to start, i guess. thought i might be able to do a 5k by the end of the month but i know ill mangle my leg! ive got the cardio and can go all day on a mountain bike and have a great time, do all the bikram and astanga yoga i want, walk for a gazillion miles. dont know what it is about the running.
what do you guys think re putting an ace bandage on it when i run, like, before an injury? do you think it would help?
I don't think that a wrap, bandage or brace addresses the underlying cause. Is this more like cramps or more, I dunno, maybe linear, like along a tendon or ligament? The local running store (recently picked as #1 in the country by some magazine or organization or something....) has a "running injuries" page that can offer some hints and PT but I'm not quite sure about the exact injury we're talking about here, if that makes sense?
yeah, its more like a tendon or ligament. once it starts, it stays for months, as i said. it will feel ok as i go about my business all day, working and stuff, but do anything that resembles running movements, and its back! im going to just run really slowly and very low mileage. but you know what its like, you start running and it feels good and...
the other day i said to myself, ill run ONE kilometer. i was still running 3 and a half k later-not very long-with twinges starting. they stopped me cuz i dont want to be off with this injury for months again!
i looked at the f25 and a review said something about one armed burpees. that put me RIGHT OFF! youre a soldier!
