Sri Chinmoy AC UK Resources

Sri Chinmoy's writings on Sport & Spirituality

Sri Chinmoy and the concept of Self-Transcendence

Tarit's Tips - Marathon and Half Marathon Training

Multiday Running - an interview with Abichal

Prachar's Marathon Schedules - the Australian approach!

7 Steps to a Successful Marathon - legendary article by Arpan

Sri Chinmoy AC - Ongkar's article on our early years

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

The achilles tendon bridges the gap between the calf muscle and the calcaneus and is the largest tendon in your body. An achilles tendon injury can happen to anyone, whether you’re an athlete or just going about your everyday life.

The range of pain can stretch from a faint pulling pain to a severe burning pain. If the tendon is torn you will hear a loud sound and can dig into the tendon with your fingers without much resistence.

Possible causes of problems:

Cold start
Starting without warming up, in combination with an abrupt acceleration, is very often the cause of a pulled achilles tendon.
Solution: Use a kineo tape and support the tendon. I have found DMSO cream to be exceptionally good in cases of inflamations.

The wrong shoe
The right shoe is very important. Every runner has a different foot. Some are pronating (the foot turns more inward than normal), while others are supinating (foot is rotating outwards), while others have a normal foot. If you are a strong “pronator" or "supinator" and you run for a long time with the wrong shoe, your Achilles gets an extra challenge and you might end up with an irritation.
Solution: Get the right shoe! Some shoes have an enforced medial part of their sole and are made for “pronators”, some have it lateral (“supinators”), while others have just a normal sole. It is also good to have different brands of shoe, so that you are not getting the same pressures on your foot every day. A change of shoe model places a slightly different stress on your foot than what went before.

Heelbox pushing against tendon
If you are running in a multiday race so many small issues can build up over days and weeks, culmninating in a problem. For example the upper end of the heel box can push against your tendon. This small irritation does not have any effect if you run your everyday 10km run, but if you run for 50-100km for few days in a multiday race it can cause a problem.
Solution: cut the upper part of the top heel box, removing the two 'peaks' at the top

Not enough drop in the shoe
Some shoes have a zero drop or a a 2-4mm drop. If you are not used to this kind of drop, this can strain the achilles tendon and can create problems.
Solution: If you feel the pull, put something under the heel to lift it up. You can buy silicon wedges or simply use some cardboard, cut into a 'D' shape to fit the heel and then placed under the insole. You may need to use 2 or 3 pieces of cardboard taped together, of different sizes to create a gradual rise towards the back of the heel.

Calcaneus
The calcaneus can shift during a longer race and can cause an irritation of the tendon. One year, I had Achilles problems for a few days, and I could not figure out what the cause was. One of the other runners asked his chiropractor, who said said that my calceneus was moving and that this was the cause of the irritation of the Achilles.
Solution: Tape your foot starting on top of the foot and continue in a '8' shape around the heel and back to the top. That helps to keep the calcaneus in place.

This is probably the best calf stretch for achilles

Cramps
Ongoing cramps in the calves can create a pull on the tendon and cause problems.
Solution: Find the cause of the cramps (for example a lack of Magnesium) and also elevate your heel.

Tension
As the last point I would like to add a story from one of my 700 mile races.

I was 8 days into the race and doing really good according to my standards. Suddenly my achilles tendon started to swell and nearly doubled in size. I went to the medical tent and luckily there was a kineseologist, who checked me out. Suddenly he said, that the problem comes from my bladder. I have too much tension and I have to let go of that tension. He told me that there is an energetic connection from the bladder to the tendon. He gave me a homeopathic remedy and within a few hours the swelling was gone, despite the fact that I had been running the whole time.

The general point here is that our physical well-being is very much connected with our thoughts...the longer the races get, the more importance you have to give to this aspect.

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Nearly every runner has had the experience of blisters - who really wants to befriend them, but what can you do when they show up? In my years of running I had to deal a lot with liquid filled bubbles on my feet, especially when I embarked into the ultra-running world.

If you run a 10 km race or a Marathon and you get these little or large beasts, you can endure them, rest afterwards and give them time to heal; but once you have embarked into ultra-running, you have to find a way to run on blisters. Some people are very fortunate and they hardly get any blisters, while others are smart and take care of their feet. I had to learn it the hard way; much can be done with prevention. (We discussed how to avoid blisters here.)

Dealing with blisters

The main way of dealing with blisters is draining it, disinfecting it, and dressing it.

Draining: I personally like to pop the blister with a needle and then squeeze it. Pulling the needle with a thread through your blister to drain it is also a very popular solution.

Disinfecting: The traditional way is to use iodine for disinfection, but I prefer tea tree oil. It is natural, is very strong, it dries the blister, plus has a tremendous effect on pus. A blister that is filled with yellow-white liquid is a serious problem, and tea tree oil reacts with pus and heals it. One disadvantage from the oil is its smell, that is very intense and not everybody likes it. Lavender can also be used with the additional benefit of faster healing of the skin and a very pleasant smell. Again there is DMSO cream, a very strong disinfectant that also helps the healing process.

During the 3100 Mile Race in 2017, I had quite a lot of blisters - fortunately I had a helper, Horst, who knows everything there is to know about treating them! Here he is using a combination of ribwort and paper tape.

Dressing:
1) Second Skin: a rather ambivalent solution as far as I am concerned. If it is just for a day it is fine, but if the race goes on for days, it slows down the healing process considerably. Since the broken blister is always kept wet with the second skin, it can hardly heal. If you do use it, it should be fixed with paper tape.

2) Instead of second skin I have also used paper tape, or ribwort and paper tape. Ribwort grows as a weed pretty much everywhere, even in urban areas. You pluck it fresh, wash it and put it with the smooth side on the skin, after a few hours you can change it. This herb is also anti-inflamatory.

3) Special blister sticking-plasters are getting more and more popular. You cut the skin from the blister and stick the plaster on top of it. You keep it on the blister until the skin is healed. Again from my personal experience, I would not recommend it for a multi-day race, since it can create heat through friction and even worsen the problem.

4) If the blister is really painful and not too big, you can cut a hole into a soft material and fix it to your foot with paper tape, placing the hole over the blister (see picture). This might stop the blister from rubbing against the shoe, as the pressure is now on the adjoining areas.

5) Sheep wool is very useful as an extra cushion on top of the paper tape, to take pressure and friction away from the blister. It is also usefull for hot spots or areas where there is pressure in your shoe.

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