Training & Nutrition - anyone know about achilles tendon injuries?

i jammed my heel pretty bad when i was a kid, sliding down stairs on the railing and caught the last one with my right heel. i guess at the time i didnt think it was that bad, but it limited the amount i can point up my right foot vs my left foot. the real problem is the pain i still have when i jam my heel up by accident. anyone have any ideas about what time of injury this could be?

Well I can't really tell what hurts from your description - I can tell you that I ruptured my achillies and had to have it rebuilt (using another tendon) so if you give me some more description of what hurts then I might be able to give you some insight. But I would start with simple easy streching to help loosen whatever is causing the tighness and pain.

its a dull pain centered directly over my heel when I'm not putting pressure on it, and it is more painful going from the bottom of my heel upwards a few inches when pressure is on it.

"Has a doctor seen this?"

I've also had a ruptured Achilles, but it healed completely in 10 years and was nothing like you describe.

When I pulled and tore (microtears) my achilles tendon, there was no pain in the heel ... the pain went from the achilles tendon all the way up the back of my calf.

achilles tendonitis will hurt when you move, especially walking and running. if you put your fingers on your tendon and move your foot up and down, you will feel a "creaking" feeling. i found that biking really aggravated it and actually developed it from biking a lot. but i don't think that this is your problem because this is an overuse injury

If you use cleats, move them toward the rear of the shoe.

A little thing I wrote concerning the effects of this. (http://apelotonic.blogspot.com/2009/09/cleat-position-part-ii-foreaft.html)