Achilles tendon injury running xc? Should I be worried?
July 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: I started running cross country this year and about a week into it I sprained my right hip. It’s not been about 6 weeks since the injury and it’s not getting any better. I have been seeing the athletic trainer who has been giving me ultra sound treatment and some sort of electrode treatment. That hasn’t been working either so now I’m going to physical therapy for a steroid treatment on top of it. Also, about a week ago the left side of my hip started hurting. The trainer said that’s just because I was favoring my left side. I was told I could run as much as I wanted as long as I could tolerate the pain because I wasn’t doing any damage. The problem is, now all the sudden, starting a few days ago, the achilles tendon in my left leg is sore. Is this something I should bring up with the trainer and/or physical therapist? I have about 3 weeks left of the season. Would it be bad to run until its over?
Thanks.
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One thing that I can tell you for sure, is that it really could be a bad thing for you to finish the last 3 weeks of the season. I can’t say that it WOULD be bad, but let me tell you something… YOU DO NOT WANT TO END UP WITH A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH YOUR ACHILLES!!!! Tendons once they develop a problem, can really turn into something that can be really hard to get rid of. Especially the achilles tendon, it has to bear so much strain by design. In order to use it properly, you have to put enormous amounts of stress on it and it really does have to be in top notch shape if you are planning on doing ANYTHING athletic with it.
Let me tell you, it’s not worth a measly 3 weeks of a running season to screw up your achilles. It’d be one of the worst mistakes of your life if you kept on running and ended up causing a problem that could last a long, long time. The achilles isn’t like pulling a hamstring, or something in the belly of a muscle. You can keep going through those injurys and they usually end up being just fine even if you abuse them some before they heal. But take my word for it, I speak from experience… You don’t want to mess around with that tendon. Achilles’ are notorious for not healing and once they get bad, they can stay that way. And even if a once chronically injured achilles does heal, it won’t be 100% and will always be more susceptible to re-injury when pushed hard and there’s just too many things that you’ll have to use that tendon for. I’ve had problems with my achilles’ for 3 years now and if I had known what I know now back then, I would have treated my initial achilles injury like a LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION, no joke!
If that injury is giving you problems, even if they are small problems, then I would back out of the last part of the season. Don’t worry about a few weeks, worry about the rest of your life. Good luck.