That’s one thing I don’t understand.... I do eccentric exercises and I can do them on my bad Achilles without the aid of the other foot.. I do 3 sets every morning followed buy 150 calf raises plus other stuff.... like you say its taking ages to heal !!!!! I don’t no if i should just give up, can’t keep on like this.
Thanks for the input guys xxxx
I always start with fixing form before resorting to strength training or other things for issues like this. So, with that in mind I have a crucial question: are you running unshod or in minimalist shoes?
That's no picky semantic difference. All modern athletic shoes whether they're thick Hokas or super thin Vapor Gloves have two key factors in common:
* Excessive grip with rubber tread
* A snug fit
With minimalist shoes you still run the risk of that combo encouraging your body to over-extend your legs either too far in front or too far/too late out behind. Usually it's both because one over-extention leads to the other. When I took off the Vapor Gloves finally my feet got blisters. After a while the blisters weren't so bad but I stalled out at 3-4 miles unshod because my feet were too tender to keep going. I was foolishly fighting through it, expecting my feet would get magically tougher if I kept going. That just doesn't happen that way, though.
It wasn't until I stopped ignoring that and started responding to it that things changed. I worked on lifting my feet off the ground gently instead of pushing or focusing on "footstrike." I imagined how I'd move running barefoot on hot coals. For other people imagining you're sneaking up on someone cues the body better.
If you're not already unshod it's time. When you're doing a lot of unshod training the question of "how much should I increase my miles?" is easily answered: do your feet hurt? Then you're done. Run again when your feet don't hurt. Want to run longer? Work on how to run without hurting your feet.
By only focusing on that you get much more than less foot pain and, ideally, less achilles pain. You learn how to be a better runner. You end up running with optimal efficiency because you're working to minimize excess ground friction. Rather than over-extending your legs where you're using them at their weakest and most vulnerable you start using them where they're strongest and safest. You end up running
with the ground rather than
against the ground.
My guess is your achilles issues come from a combination of over-striding and trying to force your forefoot to contact first. That happens because the over-stride puts your lower leg at such an angle that a relaxed foot will come down hard on the heel. If you don't fix the over-stride and instead just point your toes you're still slamming on the brakes with every step except now you're using your forefoot to hit the brakes rather than your heel. Your calves and achilles take the abuse of that and injury is almost inevitable.
If you're keeping your feet working the ground directly under your hips you don't need to force any kind of "footstrike." You'll probably land more foreward on the foot because the angle of the lower leg will position the foot that way. Even if you still land a bit rear on the foot it's not a big deal because you're not slamming on the brakes. Your foot is now moving with the ground and you're working to manage friction and braking which are the real problems not vertical impact.