Diagnosis of heel pain needed

get insoles for your shoes...you don't have enough support there

search: calcaneous heel bursitis; insertional point achilles; and achilles tendinitis. For starters: shed any shoes w/out a decent lift and those w/ a heel counter; buy a half size bigger and wear loosely.

Is there a bump on the back or side of your heel that is sensitive to the touch? Is the pain directly on the back or sort of to the side?

Try a heel lift for starters, but not any thicker than you need. The over the counter ones usually work fine. I've always used soft ones, but a few days ago I finally made it to a podiatrist to fabricated a pair about half as thick out of dense cork board. He also slanted them away from the inner part of the heel, where the pain was. They have helped me more than $275 orthotics. I like the hard type better than the soft because the soft do tend to most around a bit. Be sure to stretch your calf muscles a lot- both the normal stretch with the straight leg and the soleus stretch with the bent knee. Do that barefoot after you run, and probably once or twice or whenever you stop during an easy run (traffic light or such).

If the pain continues with this, you probably will want to make your way to a podiatrist because it could be a tendon problem. If it goes away, you want to keep emphasizing flexibility of the lower legs because the problem was probably muscular or such that it is not a serious "injury." But don't f*** around with the Achilles area- lingering pain can turn into a worse injury and because seriously chronic and bad. Good luck.

Also, ibuprofen and ice help a lot after harder efforts.

Thanks for the responses. In response to the last poster there is no bump. The pain is directly on the back of the heel, about an inch vertically up from my sole. Interesting stuff about the heel lift. Have recently started wearing (non-running) shoes without a heel lift, which could be the cause.

Exactly where mine is... no heel counter and a good lift. Stretch the fascia only (rolling on the golf ball)this helps.

do u have a high arch foot? probly yes. the tendons and cords that run on the back off your leg are rubbing on your calcenious, which is like a nub if u have a high arch foot. stretch everything on the back of your legs and calfs it helped me. and dont be a pussy its ok to run through it if your stretching it a lot every day.

I agree with monson. Search the message boards on google both for these topics. I started off with a mild case of peroneal tendinitis. By favoring it - I ended up with something called "insertional achilles tendinitis". I've had it for 10 months now; and have had a couple dozen treatments. I've been seeing a physical therapist to eliminate the cause. It healed after the first 4 months; but then after 1 month of running - came back. I've been out 5 months since and have lost virtually all my conditioning.

Read what you can - and don't let it turn into a serious tendon issue!

I had the same thing on both heels last summer and my physio diagnosed it as insertional achilles tendonosis. Nothing seemed to help it for 4 months until I bit the bullet and got a cortizone injection in each heel and have been healthy ever since.