aborted long run

Zero Apples.

Perfect day to run, really - cool, cloudy, light breeze. Had 7-9 miles planned, but had to abort right after I started.

I seem to have a very tender Achilles right now. I noticed the pain beginning Thursday and Friday, but didn't think much of it. Didn't have any pain this morning, so I put on the shoes to go run. A quarter mile from home, I started having sharp pain in my achilles, where it attaches to the ankle bone, and before another two blocks went by, the pains had become shooting pains. I'm used to running through other kinds of pain - a LOT of other kinds of pain - and so take Tylenol before I run and things are fine. But the Tylenol wasn't helping with this and the pain was the kind that says "stop." The walk home wasn't too pleasant, either.

So now what? Could I have strained this tendon on Wednesday after my run, when stretching? My tendon calms down if there's no weight on it or just standing, but walking or running is causing the pain and if I PINCH it, especially down at the heel - holy shit! I don't know what's wrong - I'm icing it right now as a general precautionary measure, but I really don't know what to do about it. I don't want to go see the doctor.

I will try to get up early and put in five miles before going to work tomorrow and hope that my tendon feels a lot better by then.

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[later]

Okay, a little digging around on the web suggests that my perpetually tight hamstring and calves might be one of the problems here. Yes, this achilles thing is on the left side, where 80% of my injuries happen anyway, and I've been exceptionally tight the whole last week, even though my stretching regimen is the same daily stuff I've been doing all along. Hm.