Nice run Ray.  It's neat the way your wife and son are runners too, you guys are a talented trio.

Today was day 4 of riding the bike for me, 6 miles on the railtrail in 29:49.  These rides are nice in that they get me get a little cardio work, but they're no substitute for running.  The fact this foot is slow to heal makes me think I'm dealing with this... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004438/

The over stretching the article describes probably happened a mile into the 5K I ran last weekend.  It was then that the course changed to railtrail for a 1/4 mile and the footing was real soft.  Trying to push off in that stuff, I felt a burn in my right heel that's been sore to walk on ever since.

Anyway, staying active is the best way to recover from these things and that's what I'm up to...

Dark Horse, I've got all the symptoms, so I'm pretty sure Plantar Faciitis is what I'm dealing with.  At first I thought I'd just bruised my heel and didn't make the connection to the pain I was feeling and the tendon that runs the length of the bottom of my foot.

The good news is it's getting better, but I'm not about to run on it just yet.  I doubt it would help your situation, but I've found that if you can do something that'll increase blood circulation, it helps with recovery.  What you CAN'T do though, is aggravate the injury while you're in the process of getting your heart rate up and that's where riding the bike comes in.  It IS helping, but by their nature tendons are slow to heal and I'm hating it that I can't run, but it's still the best approach.

What a shame having to deal with this for 4 years, you've done well to keep a positive attitude.  With being hobbled with it for the past week or so, I can't imagine 4 years of it.

I've read that icing is good for the first 48 hours after an injury, then apply heat.  Icing reduces swelling and tissue damage while heat increases blood flow to speed up the healing process.

Inflammation is another culprit we need to keep an eye on.  It's your body attacking its own cells and the root cause of some forms of arthritis. 

As far as my foot is concerned, I've iced it a few times and taken Ibuprofen to knock down the inflammation, but haven't applied heat just yet, I've relied on the bike instead to increase blood flow.