Achilles pain

misssunshine17

Hi ladies, I posted a while back about hating to run. After that, I challenged myself to run one mile and I did it. Since then I've been running 3x a week and adding .25 miles a week and I'm up to 2.5 miles, a big accomplishment for myself. I have had no pain other than some serious side cramps... until now. Last Monday I ran 2.5 and the next day, my calves and Achilles were on fire. I stretch a lot/go to yoga class after always, I never skip stretching. I gave myself an extra few days, then my dog went to the hospital (she's fine, yay!) so I didn't run any more. I need to redo 2.5 this week, so I did it today and I can already feel my Achilles and calves like crazy. Is there something I could be doing wrong? This seems so sudden. 

Giaspo

Ditto @kwitherington. She explained perfectly. The only other thing I'd add is to ice what hurts. Sometimes you have to change the patterns of blood flow and ice can do that.

IMO I think it's your shoes. Go to a specialty running store and get fitted for a good pair of running shoes. Good shoes fix a lot of mechanical stresses from running. 

So glad to hear you are progressing and liking it. Well done!

misssunshine17

Thanks, ladies! I am really liking it so far. I'm slow and don't go very long, but I feel good after. It's definitely sore pain, not shooting. I'm a professional dancer/instructor, so I'm strong otherwise but this is a mind over matter thing for me. I will definitely look into new sneakers!

cnf2013

I second new shoes. This is always my first indicator that my current shoes have hit their life span. 

bwils35

Third the shoes. Once my shoes hit their end, I will have incredibly sore legs, especially my calves/achilles.

misssunshine17

It didn't hurt, really, but I could definitely feel them working. I took two advil and it's much better today, more tight than anything. I was wearing shoes that I've only worn maybe 5 times, but the same brand/style as my last pair. They're Nike with the foam foot bed, which seemed to be working great until now. It just seemed so random that 2.25 didn't make me sore, but 2.5 did.