I warn you… this stretch can make you feel queasy!

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This exercise is in the achilles tendon section of this site for a good reason!

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This is a nice early morning and ‘just before bed’ stretch that can be performed to help relieve tight, painful achilles tendons.

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My first sports massage session yesterday seems to have already had a positive effect on my tight achilles tendons.

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Ouch! I’ve just got back from having a sports massage to try and help me get rid of this lingering achilles tendon and calf pain.

Unsurprisingly it hurt quite a bit at times, but the therapist seemed to be very good indeed…

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Although I’ve been very happy with my foam roller and in particular the exercise I do with it for relieving my calf pain and achilles tendonitis, I’ve still been experiencing tight achilles tendons for the first 5 or so minutes each morning. This has probably been exacerbated by my continuing efforts to move to a forefoot/midfoot footstrike.

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Well, after last night’s training run I was really worried that my achilles tendons would be unbearable this morning. Due to the fact I was almost landing toe-heel rather than midfoot on the run my right calf was really quite tight afterwards.

However, when I woke up this morning both achilles tendons probably felt the best they’ve felt for months. So, so far, so good!

This is another exercise that was given to me by my physiotherapist when I first saw her complaining of achilles tendon pain.

First of all, what does eccentric mean?

An eccentric exercise is an exercise that stretches the muscle whilst the muscle is under strain. So, in the case of this exercise, the calf is lengthening, but at the same time it’s working against gravity to control the ankle.

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There’s nothing quite as important when it comes to injury prevention for runners than stretching. Using a foam roller can supplement stretching by providing a deep massage to muscles and fascia. Aiding therefore recovery and injury prevention.

Foam rollers are inexpensive and easy to use at home. And the best thing is, it only takes a couple of minutes to really feel the benefits. Think of it as a cheap sports massage you can do yourself!

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I must admit, I didn’t have the best night’s sleep last night. My daughter was coughing most of night, and when she wasn’t, I was.

This cold has hit me real hard now. Today will definitely be a rest day (apart from work that is!).

My achilles tendons were probably as tight as they’ve been since Christmas this morning. It really feels like I’m recovering at a very slow rate. I guess it could be that the tweaks to my orthotics over the weekend along with the new heel risers have just placed a strain on a different part of the tendons.

I went to the gym yesterday and did my full workout - which included 5 mins walking on the treadmill with an incline of 11%, then 10 mins running at a slow pace with at a 2% incline, and then 5 mins cool down. Maybe this was too much?

Hopefully I’ll wake up a lot better in the morning - either minus the sniffing, minus the coughing, or minus the stiff achilles tendons!

EDIT:
Since writing this post I’ve been doing some achilles tendon stretches and a foam roller exercise for the calf and achilles tendon which have really helped my achilles pain.

I think today was about the 4 time I’ve gone back to see my podiatrist to tweak my running orthotics.

Each time has made a difference, so let’s hope this is the last time I have to see her. She probably hopes that that’s the case, as I paid her £120 up front - which included the initially consultation, the making of the orthotics, and then all the follow ups.

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I’m going back to see my podiatrist tomorrow. I think my orthotics do need looking at again.

I’m kind of happy because my achilles tendons aren’t as stiff in the mornings now, but the are painful just where the tendon joins the heel, and also to each side of the tendon itself. Last time I saw here she said I may need the heels raising slightly so I guess that’s what will happen.

The pain I was getting in the back of the calf has gone now since I last saw her… so I do think she knows what she’s doing! She warned me up front that it could take a few small tweaks to get them just right.

I’ve carried on doing my anti shin splint exercises too, but my shins are still slightly sore if I rub them - so we’ll see what she says about that too.

Well, I hate to say it, but this morning was a first. I decided to turn back home after only about 400 yards in to my run.

I had a pretty good night’s sleep so felt quite good when I woke up this morning. As soon as I got out of bed though I thought that my achilles tendons felt worse than normal. I did a lot of stretches and exercises last night, so I think I may have just overdone it.

Anyway, I loosened up well, doing my normal ligament stretches and so felt OK to go for my normal 2 miler. As soon as I started to run though I had some strange pains in my achilles tendon area - in both feet. The pain really was quite intense so I stopped straight away and started to walk. After a few yards I jogged very, very slowly and the tightness started to subside. I then started to get a strange tight feeling to the left of my achilles tendon in my left leg, so this really did make me think I should turn round and come home.

By the time I got home I was feeling really gutted. I hated having to cut the run short… well to be fair, it never really got started.

As soon as I got i I got an ice pack to both achilles tendons and after a couple of minutes the pan went. I could even walk with no problems.

However, when I was out shopping later in the day it was really hurting to walk again. Each time I placed my heels down they had pain in them. They feel better now, but there’s no way I’m going to stretch tonight.

I’m due to go to the gym tomorrow, but I’ll wait to see what they’re like in the morning. If they’re still bad I’ll go for a swim instead.

It was pretty cold this morning when I went out for my run at about 8:15. My achilles tendons were pretty tight when I woke up - but it’s been strange… the last couple of days they’ve felt different. Almost a pain that feels good - like they’re getting stronger or something.

Anyway, the run didn’t feel too bad - although looking at the stats afterwards it looks like my heart rate was a bit high.

I stopped as normal after a mile to do some calf and achilles tendon stretches, and after that I felt a lot looser.

As soon as I woke up today my right achilles tendon started to tingle. It’s pretty much been doing it all day now. I’ve even been a bot wary of doing any stretches. As I type this I’ve got an ice pack under it. I’ll give it 10 or so minutes and then do some gentle calf and achilles stretches - as well as the exercise to help with shin splints that I posted the other day.

I’m getting worried that it’s my new work shoes that are playing u so badly with my achilles tendons. They just feel so much worse after work. I’ll get a good indication of that tomorrow as I’ll be walking a good couple of miles in London between meetings.

Because I’m going to London tomorrow I wouldn’t have time for an early morning run either - which is kind of good news, because yet again I think I could do with a rest day.

I was in two minds as to whether or not I should go for a run this morning. My right achilles tendon still had ons and needles last night, but this morning it did feel better - so I thought it would be OK if I took it real slow.

I also decided to try a new route - went behind my house where there is a path along a small river, and followed this path for about a mile. This also meant I could run on a grass verge (well, mud verge!) and hopefully reduce the impact on the feet. This was certainly a good idea for the feet - but not so for my new shoes!

Anyway, I felt really breathless for most of the run - but looking at the stats afterwards it wasn’t that bad. My average pace was 3 secs quicker than target for a base run.

I went to the gym afterwards with the intention of taking it easy - but in the end did pretty much my whole routine (without the speed ladder) and plenty of core work. I then had about a 45 minute swim.

So, after all than (and a burger and chips for lunch), I’m shattered!

This is really starting to annoy me now! It seems that every time my achilles pain gets better ti then gets worse again.

I woke up this morning and the pain was probably worse than it’s been for a couple of weeks. I made sure I did a few achilles tendon stretches before leaving for work and this certainly helped, but now I feel like I’ve got a minor shooting pain every now and again in each of the tendons.

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Although my achilles tendons have still been sore today, I’d say they’re no-way near as bad as they were yesterday.

It kind of feels like they’re stronger today - yet still sore. It’s a strange set of pains. On some occasions it’s like pins and needles, whilst on others it’s like a hot dagger into one of them. And then at other times they just feel hot and tight.

A couple of times I’ve had a pins and needle type feeling in the base of my heels - where the achilles tendon meets the bone under the foot I guess.

I’ve kept my orthotics in my shoes all day, as when I took them out for a minute it just felt so wrong. I could feel my feet collapsing and overpronating straight away.

I may wear a different pair of shoes tomorrow to see if that helps. I suppose it may just be different enough to affect a slightly different area of my achilles tendons.

Today has not been a good day!

Started off with real bad pain in my achilles tendons again this morning… and unfortunately the pain hasn’t subsided all day.

It may be down to several things really…

• I stretched my calves/achilles tendons too much yesterday
• I did too many eccentric exercises yesterday
• I wore my ASICS trainers yesterday - still not sure if these were the route cause of my stress fracture
• I ran (yes, ran) for about 15 yards yesterday
• My new custom fitted orthotics are finally starting to ‘argue’ with my body and my achilles tendons are starting to complain about it!

Whatever the reason, I’m not happy. I just want to get training again. Even though it’s about freezing outside I really want to get out and exercise. For some reason I’m sure I’m noticing a lot more people out running at the moment! It really does rub it in.

Well, I expected to wake up this morning with painful knees, a painful back and painful hips… but there was no pain at all. However, this could have been due to the fact I was so tired having got up at 3.30 in the morning to watch the Ricky Hatton/Floyd Mayweather fight. Now I know this is a running blog, but this fight is surely worth a mention. So much so, I think I’ll write a specific article at some point. Anyway, back to the matter in hand… or rather, the orthotic in shoe!

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Getting fitted for running orthotics

The process I went through when I had my running orthotics made for me was really very simple.

I first of all chatted to my podiatrist about what my problem was. In my case this was very easy… I had a stress fracture in my left fibula and my physiotherapist had told me that I was overpronating. It didn’t take my podiatrist long to reiterate this position. She said it was blatantly clear that I was overpronating and that custom made orthotics for running were really the only option.

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I went to see the physio earlier today about my stress fracture - and as I thought they said there was pretty much nothing they could do for me to aid the healing process. As the fracture is bone, it just needs time and rest in order to heal itself.
The best thing I could do for myself in the meantime though is to see a podiatrist in order to get fitted for some custom made orthotics. These would correct my overpronation and hopefully stop me from getting any stress fractures in the future.

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