Sounds like pf to me , does it hurt when you wake up in the morning and first step on the foot ? I'd recommend icing the area i put my foot in a bucket of cold water and put a bag of ice on the heel for 20min 2/3 times a day if you can do it more go for it ,amongst all the various stretches they recommend ,one thing that was the most effective for me was wearing a night splint , i used one by a company called ultimate performance (planitar fasia sock) first night sleep took some getting use to but you give it a few days an you'll be good to go again its tempting to dothe sock up as tight as it will go but a gentle lift will suffice

Heel spur, maybe?

tight calf pulling on your heel. roll calf, get ART / dry needling / etc if you can't resolve it yourself

---

NO

You haven't seen improvement because you haven't properly rested/rehabbed/prehabbed it. You need to take longer than a week off. You mentioned that after a week of rest you started seeing some improvement and started running again only to have it flare up again. Here are 3 things I'd suggest doing:

1. Allow it to heal. Rest it longer than a week, during this process identify what your imbalances are and address those imbalances with the proper rehab protocol. This will involve some foam rolling and releasing, stretching and strengthening. Check higher up the chain as well such as the knee in the lateral quad and lateral hamstring area, also check the hip in the glute, piriformis and hip flexor area.
2. Identify what caused this. Take a look at your programming and see if there was something in your training that caused this issue. An increase in mileage, increase in intensity, increase in duration can cause overuse problems. If you can identify when this problem started then you may have an idea of what went wrong in your training.
3. Check your gait. You mentioned you believe you over-pronate on the affected foot but the question is why do you? This is caused by something in the kinetic chain or gait. When it is time to start running again I would seek the advice of an expert on running form. Find out what inefficiencies exist in your running technique/gait. To a trained eye this can help you find other imbalances that you may not have addressed during the restoration process.

Remember there is no time frame on injuries, each one is different and each individual is different. Don't rush back to running from an injury as it can cause more issues further down the road.

Happy recovery.

---

__________________

Louie Frank Cicchino
Accelero Endurance

My PF pain was on the outside of my heel.

After a series of too short rests which did nothing, I finally took about 10 weeks off of running, iced, rolled my foot on an iced water bottle, etc. I've been back running for a couple of weeks now and it doesn't seem to be coming back, knock wood.

Thanks for all the replies. No running, daily icing and rolling/stretching seem to be helping a lot.

That was pretty much my story too in 2014. Had a pronounced pain point on the inside of the right heel. Took 2 months off from running, found a PT that taught me how to take care of it properly and showed me some useful glute strengthening exercise. Have not had it return since.

---

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

It's also possible that this is achilles related as the sides of the heel can indicate insertional achilles issues. There is a thread here with how to treat it and all that. If you look it up in may help.