achilles tightness

Question
John,

First - thanks for being a volunteer on this site.  I strained my achilles a couple of weeks (8/27/11) ago on a Ruckus Run (probably didn't stretch enough beforehand and hurt jumping over obstacles).  I thought it would go away but the tightness remains.  I'm training for a half marathon in mid-October and since I strained it have run 5 miles - 2x, 9 miles, played bball 3 times.  It is still tight.  It doesn't hurt per se but I'm not sure it's a good idea to keep running on it.  Do you have an exercises/stretches that you might recommend or should I really just take it easy or will the straining go away.  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Stratton
First stop with all activities and start training on a up right stationary bike if you expect to run a decent 1/2 marathon and not mess up your tendon further.This is one specific injury you don't want to mess with,because you will lose and possibly be looking at a rupture.Treat this very serious.Forget about stretches it has already been stretched.You want to ice it as often as possible and start adding 500mg vit c 3 times a day with food to strengthen tendons ligaments and collagen.You can do any workout on the bike that you do running,but you just bike for time.If you run 10 miles at 9min pace then you bike for 1hr 30.You won't lose anything this close to the race.If you have any questions just get in touch Stratton.

All the best

John