I have endured plenty of injuries in my running career, but none greater than the Plantar injury I am currently healing from.
Plantar Fasciitis is a condition that causes heel pain and inflammation of the tissue that runs from the heel to the toes and supports the arch of the foot.
Many factors can cause Plantar Fasciitis, but in my case, over training and adding mileage too soon, combined with wearing shoes that have inadequate support were the main culprits.
Now, it must be stated that I was not diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis, however I did some research and the symptoms matched up perfectly. For the record, I do not advise anyone to self diagnose a medical condition, but many runners, including myself look things up and away we go.
In the beginning, I was dealing with calf tightness and sharp pain in my heel. To counter this, I did standing calf stretches as well as step stretches. Standing calf stretches can be done by placing your hands on a wall and stepping one or both feet backward until you feel a slight stretch in your calf. Step stretches are when you stand on the edge of a box or a step with your heels off and you push yourself up.
Rolling a tennis ball under my foot also helped to relieve tension and reduce pain.
Currently, I am in the beginning stages of my spring marathon training block, and while this injury has indeed sidelined me for a significant amount of time, I learned some valuable lessons.
One, I am getting older, I know I hate to say that but…I am getting older. And I have been running for around 10 years so my body has endured wear and tear throughout the years. So now, I have to take care of my body, because I don’t want to completely stop running so this time off showed me that not only am I getting older, but…
Two, rest is very important. I can’t tell you how many nagging injuries have gone away because I haven’t been able to run. In my rest, I have learned how to care for myself by stretching, foam rolling, using a massage gun and even picking up yoga, which is great by the way.
Three, now I fully understand how important it is to be detailed. What I mean by that is I have never truly keep track of how many miles my training shoes have on them, I just went by feel. If I had been more accurate in my records I would have known without having to “feel” that my shoes were worn out.
Being detailed can honestly trickle down into every aspect of my training. From planning cross training activities, to charting my route and mileage on any specific day. I mean, how many times have I gone out without a “plan” for how many miles I was going to run that day or how fast or where I was going to run? Too many times to count, and I already have a headache.
In fact, Im about to rest right now, in my bed, to get rid of this headache.
