I’m sorry to hear about your injury prevalence. I’m about a month into rehabbing Achilles Tendinosis—something that was brought on 12 weeks into SSBII and something completely new to me. Never have had tendon related injuries. It’s extremely frustrating to put in so much work only to have it negated by injury. I’m learning the hard way that feeling good for 3-5 days is not a sign that I can return to my normal cycling. I’m naturally impatient and have surely drawn recovery out a week longer than I should have by not slowing down and sticking to a protocol.
In my researching, I’m learning that tendons can take up to 12 months to fully heal depending on how badly injured they are. And all rehab protocols are in the 8-12 week duration and always include maintenance work thereafter. Everyone is different, but if I can boil down the information I’ve read is that tendon rehabilitation is a long process and full recovery takes a lot of time. My guess is that you take time off, your body stops sending the pain response associated with whatever tendon pain you have, and tells you that you feel good. Then you take it as a sign to start back up and get re-injured by going too hard too soon. Your body felt ready, but it really wasn’t.
I think you need to slow it down. I’m in the process of accepting the fact that, in May, my road season is done (before it even started), and that my cyclocross season will be in jeopardy if I don’t force myself to focus and commit on recovery. With that comes the fact that I will detrain, all of the fitness I built from January on will go away, and I will be slow upon return. I’m realizing that this is what has to happen if I want to be healthy long term.
I’m also doing the same Achilles rehab/strength exercises on my healthy side so that I can prevent future injury.
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