Injury

I think I know what my heel pain is: Achilles Tendon Bursitis.

This is, of course, after some online self-diagnosis. Maybe not the best way to do things, but from http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cms.depuy.com/display%3FdocId%3D20007&imgrefurl=http://www.allaboutmydoc.com/surgeonweb/clinicId.17281/theme.theme10/country.US/language.en/page.article/docId.20003&h=300&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=ik8awnS9F1bwZM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAchilles%2BTendon%2BBursitis%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN (about 1/4 way down the page) it all becomes clear. Where the sight of inflammation is, that's where my heel hurts.
Here's a closer up image: http://www.eorthopod.com/images/ContentImages/foot/foot_achilles/foot_achilles_tendon_anatomy03.jpg

Now, my heel isn't particularly bad - I'd say in fact that it has gotten better since I first felt the pain. However, I'm happy I know what it is. Honestly, the number of times I've done internet self-diagnosis, found out that I "have" horrific injuries which will prevent me running for weeks, and then consequently put the laptop away and head out for a run to mull over my options from the sheer stress of the situation...I've lost count.

So really, I'm not planning to stop running because of this, but I will try and do less hills. I think the hills are the things which cause the pain to flare up. I often wonder what it'd be like if I spoke to a sports physio...told them about all the injuries I've had and how I could have prevented them. The worst injury I've ever had was in February this year - doing speeds on the treadmill (of all places) - about 30mins into it I remember this horrible, horrible pain in my forefoot making itself known. Normally, I just run through pain and hope it goes away, but this - this was terrible. I stopped running and hobbled to the changing room, got changed for my lecture and the walk there was horrific! I even put off leaving there at the end of the day because it hurt so much to walk. When I self-diagnosed that time, I found out that I had second/third metatarsal problems, so I rested and the pain did go...though not entirely. And I felt so guilty about not running, I got back into it within 2 weeks.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I know what the problem is now. Rockin.