Does anyone have any advice or experience to share of returning to cycling after an achilles tendon rupture? Previously a fit, healthy and active 63 year old cyclist, I suffered an achilles tendon rupture in February of this year. I spent 8 weeks in a plastic cast which came off 4 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I had my first cycle ride. First impressions was that I could do it without falling over. But I have three limitations:
One is general loss of fitness after 8 weeks of limited mobility.
Two is muscle wasting of the calf which makes the cycling action feel awkward and lop sided. It feels like one leg is shorter than the other (although it isn't)
Three is stiffness of the ankle joint makes clipping in and out of pedals difficult and painful.
So far, I've managed short town rides and a couple of 30km rides. After these two rides I was exhausted for the rest of the day.
I realise it is early days but I would interested if anyone has any experience of how long it ls likely to take to get back to 'normal'?
Thanks
The first thing you've got to recognise is all that fitness you had before the injury, it's Gone.
The second thing is all those restrictions you've identified, they're either train out able or "life altering" (a term I use loosely here)
Presumably you've been referred to physio to get thing moving as much as you can yeah?
I've now got restricted range in both ankles, so I can't step down as well as I used to, the physio was happy with what I'd recovered range wise.
It's a problem hiking but not when cycling.
Focus on the recovery exercises first, there's no point rushing back on the bike and causing more damage with movements like unclipping or over-extending on the downstroke.
You lose different bits of fitness at different speeds, the endurance is usually still there after a reasonable period off the bike but the speed, you need to rebuild that, and if you've gained weight off the bike that's another thing to deal with.
One of the things my latest physio noticed was that might right calf was considerably smaller than my left, all those years compensating for the weaknesses..., it's getting there with weighted calf raises once a week (originally every day unweighted)