Sidelined but trying to ease my way back

Even though my ankle hurt for weeks I didn’t think too much of it. It wasn’t that bad and it didn’t hurt when I ran. But then it got to the point that i couldn’t walk down the stairs in the morning without holding the rail and limping. After searching online I found several articles on Achilles tendonitis that described exactly what I was feeling. The problem was there were different opinions on how to treat it. Although the one thing all the articles said was to stop running. “Not an option” I thought. I’ll just slow a little and take an extra day off each week. I have a half-marathon to run at the end of October. That didn’t work. The tendon was getting worse. So I took 10 days off, icing the tendons almost every day. Then this week I only ran three days, 3.5 miles, 4.5 miles and 6.5 miles. My tendons are not pain-free but they seem better than a couple of weeks ago. My goal is to run enough to stay in shape to have a decent half-marathon Oct. 26 but not over train so that my Achilles gets worse or tears. If it gets bad I’ll skip the half. As much as I hate to do that I’d rather skip one race this fall that miss 8-10 months with a torn Achilles.
Wish me luck.