Back of ankle pain

Hey BTers!

I recently got home from work, pressed the back of my right ankle and discovered it was quite tender to the touch. A quick google revealed this to be a symptom of achilles tendonitis, another symptom of which is the tendon being quite sore first thing in the morning (something I have had for at least a month, I just thought it was from being bent the other way all night).

This was about two or three weeks ago, and the ankle tightness in the morning for maybe a month before that, but I didn't pay attention to it. I have embarked on a campaign of lots of stretching and rolling of my calves and around the tendon, and I discovered it is really sore, and really tight. Two weeks of this has meant there is no pain in the morning. My ankle has been fine after runs as well, except yesterday when I pulled up 1km in with in hurting.

I did an Oly tri two weekends ago on no running for two weeks (well, since I read about the problem, so about a week and a half) and had no pain the race, but very sore legs for about 3 days. I have been stretching a lot, and have gone on two very light runs. I have one more Oly this weekend, and then my season is over.

I am a curious person, and I have put the injury down to two things, I would love to hear if it sounds like I am on the right track. First, I bought a new pair of shoes (at the start of the year) and went from my old pair, an 8mm offset, to a 4mm offset pair of almost racing flats. I loved them and they caused no problems at first. I THINK, THINK, what triggered it was an increase in running up hills, as well as going on a few longer runs after missing a run during the week. Followed up by little stretching, does it sound like this could have caused it?

I'd also love to hear about further recovery options! I have marathon booked for October with my brother, and want to be in shape for that, and the tri season that will start just after that! One thing I thought of was to go buy another pair of shoes, maybe another 8mm offset pair, and mix up training in both? I assume resting would be good, but would light running with plenty of recovery and stretching be ok?

Thanks all, sorry for the long winded post, thought I would try to jam in all the info!

Cheers