Injury Advice: Plantar Fasciitis
Screw you, Plantar Fasciitis! You've taken me down too many times! I've sacrificed too many races and too much fun, for your sake!
If you haven't picked up on it yet... I got injured. I was happily training along (ok, fine I was over doing it) and then wham, my persistent Plantar Fasciitis decided to rear it's ugly head.
I know what I did wrong. And in most injury cases, I know what I do wrong.
Too fast, too soon, too quickly.
Years ago, I was introduced to Plantar Fasciitis. I completed a few marathons and was recently breaking into triathlon. My training schedule back then didn't have an "off" button. Luckily I was working part time at Snails Pace, both as a coach and a store employee. So, when the pain in my foot came on, I had plenty of colleagues and friends tell me what was wrong. It took many weeks "off" and a hiatus to my beloved heels in order to minimize the pain. It tooks weeks of taping my foot morning and night to keep it in position for healing. It took weeks of rolling out the feet, whenever I could (my roommate constantly questioned the need for a foot log in the bathroom). It took bags, upon bags, of ice in order to decrease the inflammation and "refresh" my feet... all that, and you'd think I'd learn my lesson.
Nope!
Fast forward to present day. Lessons sometimes take longer to sink in (or perhaps, with old age, I simply forgot what sacrifices I had to make back in the day). So, after the Ironman, I took a hiatus. Then in October, the only thing I could stand to look at was my running shoes. I missed The Ladies and their companionship, so I started running with them... without a schedule (see previous blog entry about the importance of a schedule). Eventually, we all signed up for LA Marathon. Everything was fine... until I had to forfeit the race for a close friend's wedding. Here is where the wheels started to fall off: I continued to push my long running schedule, I added some extra races and I signed up for a type of cross fit program at work. My legs finally called, Uncle.
Plantar Faciitis explained:
In my layman's terms, Plantar Faciitis is basically a build up of scarred tissue in the arch of your foot. In my case, I tend to pronate and that applies more pressure and tearing in my arch, which causes the scarring. The scarring builds up to a small ball of tissue, which pulls under the "drum" of your arch... it's like the "pea in the mattress" children's story where it causes a ton of discomfort every time you step on it.
The pain is usually felt towards the back of your foot/arch. It starts out achy and, if not treated, gets progressively painful. Sometimes, to the extent, where you cannot stand on that particular foot and you "favor" it. Pain is often felt in the morning, right when you step out of bed. (More on that later.) If you have pain radiating up your Achilles... that's a BIG issue!
How I treat my Plantar Faciitis:
I'm certainly NOT saying this will work for everyone... but what worked for me is patience and a lot of discipline.
Patience because you will have to back off, if not, take a break from running. Rest is the number one way to get that foot healed.
Discipline because there's a lot to keep up with to break down that scarred tissue and stretch things out.
However, you can see by the lack of OC Reporting... I did not keep up on my normal regiment... and am cursing Plantar Fasciitis for it!
If you haven't picked up on it yet... I got injured. I was happily training along (ok, fine I was over doing it) and then wham, my persistent Plantar Fasciitis decided to rear it's ugly head.
I know what I did wrong. And in most injury cases, I know what I do wrong.
Too fast, too soon, too quickly.
Years ago, I was introduced to Plantar Fasciitis. I completed a few marathons and was recently breaking into triathlon. My training schedule back then didn't have an "off" button. Luckily I was working part time at Snails Pace, both as a coach and a store employee. So, when the pain in my foot came on, I had plenty of colleagues and friends tell me what was wrong. It took many weeks "off" and a hiatus to my beloved heels in order to minimize the pain. It tooks weeks of taping my foot morning and night to keep it in position for healing. It took weeks of rolling out the feet, whenever I could (my roommate constantly questioned the need for a foot log in the bathroom). It took bags, upon bags, of ice in order to decrease the inflammation and "refresh" my feet... all that, and you'd think I'd learn my lesson.
Nope!
Fast forward to present day. Lessons sometimes take longer to sink in (or perhaps, with old age, I simply forgot what sacrifices I had to make back in the day). So, after the Ironman, I took a hiatus. Then in October, the only thing I could stand to look at was my running shoes. I missed The Ladies and their companionship, so I started running with them... without a schedule (see previous blog entry about the importance of a schedule). Eventually, we all signed up for LA Marathon. Everything was fine... until I had to forfeit the race for a close friend's wedding. Here is where the wheels started to fall off: I continued to push my long running schedule, I added some extra races and I signed up for a type of cross fit program at work. My legs finally called, Uncle.
Plantar Faciitis explained:
In my layman's terms, Plantar Faciitis is basically a build up of scarred tissue in the arch of your foot. In my case, I tend to pronate and that applies more pressure and tearing in my arch, which causes the scarring. The scarring builds up to a small ball of tissue, which pulls under the "drum" of your arch... it's like the "pea in the mattress" children's story where it causes a ton of discomfort every time you step on it.
The pain is usually felt towards the back of your foot/arch. It starts out achy and, if not treated, gets progressively painful. Sometimes, to the extent, where you cannot stand on that particular foot and you "favor" it. Pain is often felt in the morning, right when you step out of bed. (More on that later.) If you have pain radiating up your Achilles... that's a BIG issue!
How I treat my Plantar Faciitis:
I'm certainly NOT saying this will work for everyone... but what worked for me is patience and a lot of discipline.
Patience because you will have to back off, if not, take a break from running. Rest is the number one way to get that foot healed.
Discipline because there's a lot to keep up with to break down that scarred tissue and stretch things out.
- I always "roll out my feet". It helps to break down the scarred tissue that was developed. I've got three levels of toys to do this: a tennis ball, trigger point and my foot log (no longer in the bathroom).
- I always ice my foot after rolling it out. This helps to bring down the inflammation caused by breaking down the scarred tissue and speeds up recovery. Fill a pan with a tray of ice and cold water and soak both feet for 10 minutes.
- If nether of these are improving my situation, then I add a deep tissue massage from a massage therapist. Hopefully they do some type of Active Release to stretch out the calf as well (tight calves are also know to cause issues with the feet)
- Next resort... taping the feet during a run. You can tape the feet to add more support to the arch. This way you don't continually breakdown the foot.
- If it's a pretty aggressive form of Plantar, I have taped my foot at night. When you go to bed at night you relax your feet, and the natural "relaxed" position for your feet is pointed versus flexed. If you can tape your feet in the flexed position then it will heal overnight in the position. If your feet heal in the relaxed position, then as soon as you step out of bed, you tear all the "repairs" (which cases that pain you feel in the AM) and need to start all over again. In a flexed position, there are minimal tears because your foot is in a "ready" position for standing.
- Some folks go the Boot route. That's basically a device you sleep with that accomplishes the same thing as taping.
- Last resort... and the one I do not care for is a cortisone shot. I try to avoid these - and have been successful so far.
However, you can see by the lack of OC Reporting... I did not keep up on my normal regiment... and am cursing Plantar Fasciitis for it!
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