ID - I'm sorry to hear about the achilles. I think you're probably right about the pool, if you can find one. I'd also make sure you're getting in the usual small-muscle exercises *if* and only if they don't hurt -- hip abduction / adduction, toe raises to strengthen the tibialis anterior muscle, etc. Again, if it doesn't hurt, the full set of ankle sprain exercises isn't a bad thing to do, if you're not already doing them -- one-leg balancing, drawing the alphabet with your toes, and toe/foot flexion/extension or toe raises, followed by icing afterwords.
But remember that as with any strengthening, doing those too early can make things worse, not better.
The thing I've noticed with the stairmaster and my current injury (currently on its way out, thank goodness!) is how important the angles my ankle goes through are. Again - not for achilles tendonitis - but for this anterior tibial tendonitis, I find that the SM makes the ankle go through a much more limited range of motion than running or the elliptical, which I think has been key for me. But I'm guessing that this is pretty injury specific.
And nice job on that half marathon. 1:18 is awesome from where I'm standing.
PM, congrats on being able to partake in an amazing Boston, and VF, congrats on your new PR!
Me, I discovered this week that I'm not a good 800 runner. Kind of a weird one - my university has a "random distance run" where you don't know until midway through the total distance you're going to have to run, so it's wasn't quite a standard 800. The actual times aren't up yet, but I think I ran about a 2:29 (forgot to hit stop on watch; was too busy trying to remember how to breathe). The running calculators tell me that's about 7 seconds slower than I should have given my other current distance/times. I had no expectations for this one, so I'm not disappointed (nor did I rest going into it, and it was raining), but there might be a lesson in here about my training being *too* LSD-ish. That was the first time I've run sub-5:00 pace other than in little 100m strides in ages, and I'm a bit sore from it.
I've shifted my marathonning plans by one - I skipped the Georgia half, and plan to run the Pittsburgh half instead of the full. Will find some fall marathon instead; perhaps Columbus, maybe Philly.