Plantar Faciitis Prevention
It seems injuries are all over the place this time of year. We’ve all been working out hard during the summer months and are feeling a few aches in pains from striving to over achieve with our workouts. I on the other hand am suffering due to my vanity. I didn’t want to wear sneakers around and risk looking like a dork. Silly me.
Here’s what I’m doing to prevent a full blown case of Plantar Faciitis:
- Reducing my running. Specifically I am only doing 2 mile tests runs every other day to see how the foots feeling over time.
- Replacing my running workouts with more spinning/cycling.
- Continuing with massage (which is extremely painful).
- Ice massage at night.
- Stretching my calves more than normal.
- Ditching the flip flops for the remainder of the year (the hardest prevention method to adhere to).
I’m really hoping that I’ll be back to normal ASAP. When you’re injured or on the verge of injury its really best to take the time off from running or the activity that’s causing the pain. I always ask myself do I want to risk running today and then not be able to run long term?
That being said, if you haven’t guessed already, I won’t be running a marathon this fall. Not because of this, but because I’m simply not where I should be at this point in time. The Husband (who also happens to be a trainer) has suggested that I focus on speed this fall and find a spring/early summer marathon for next year. My next race is the Nike Human Race. Hopefully, this almost injury will be healed in time to get in some speed training.
What’s your next race or fitness challenge?
I always take time off from workout when I’m injured. I don’t want to hurt mysef even more. That’s so cute that both you and your husband are trainers!
Girl timely post. I have plantar fasc and I cannot get rid of it. It’ll subside for a week, then bam, it’s back. It’s to the point that my arch of my right foot vibrates. When I am sitting still 24 hrs since the last time I ran. And it hurts. When I rub the tendon in the middle of my foot, it literally feels like I am popping popcorn b/c all these crunchy’ies come out. Seriously, I’ve got it bad. And no solution. I stretch all the time (daily yoga) and all kinds of rolling foot exercises, and nothing helps. Not sure what I am gonna do. It’s 105F in AZ, I still need my flips. Sigh…LMK if you find something that truly works.
Did I post a comment about this somewhere? Are you in my brain? Because I honest to goodness was going to email you with a question about where you got your roller thingy because I need to stretch out my feet/prevent PF! I’ve only really gotten it pretty badly this week and I think it was lack of serious stretching that made them hurt. So appropriate!
I was also going to email to ask about strength. I want to start seriously strength training – well, making it more of a priority – but I don’t want to be sore enough that I can’t run the next day because running in my 10K is the most important thing to me currently. So the question is how can I do strength that is effective and works well, but one that doesn’t leave me super sore for running?! Riddle me that, Fit Chick!
Ha I am reading this in bed with my night splint on my right foot because of PF lol…btw flip flops are a serious no no if your foot hurts. This was the first thing my doctor made me give up when I was diagnosed with PF. I still wear them but only if I know I won’t be walking a lot =)
I’m so sorry it’s flaring up on you
Chicago Marathon Val just did a really helpful post of PF.
Hey Paige, thanks for the tip. I’ll have to check out her post!
Erin, the husband thinks we got the foot roller at a running store in PA called Aardvark. However, the other roller that I use for my legs, works nicely for rolling out feet also. Its called “The Stick” and can be bought either on their website or at a local running store. I love the stick so much that I have two. One’s a travel version.
I’ll email you about the strength training.
Oh I feel your pain, literally. When you start feeling better, keep up all your prevention measures or it will come back. I’m always careful with footwear and calf strengthening and stretching.
I miss my flipflops so much already…
I was looking for another 5k in NYC for November, December maybe, but I am not sure how it will be to run in the cold. What do you think?
and yeah, I heard flip flops are really bad for your feet.
Good luck on the 24th
Hey Jen – running in the cold’s not so bad esp. i December. It just takes some time to acclimate to the cooler temps. Winter is actually may favorite time of year to run in NYC because in the early mornings you have the park virtually to yourself.