Pain In the Plantar Fascia part III: Ready to Run

Ready to run has been the feeling itching under my skin since I was injured back in January. My impatience to hit to pavement actually led me to prolong my injury, and we are here in April and I'm still working on my recovery. The journey to get back to running has led to a lot of wasted money spending, because I don't have health insurance I've been looking for other alternatives to help heal my foot. Heel pads, creams, acupuncture, night splint and taping just to name a few.   Honestly, I feel a lot of money was wasted in purchasing all of that stuff. Recovery really just came down to rest, icing, stretching and a swimming pool in order to start feeling better. If you long at my previous post I have some great videos on stretching that have really been beneficial in my recovery. Also, for all of you runners out there who don’t mix up your training, I suggest looking into agua jogging to help you recover faster. It’s a good workout, and helps rest your legs, and reduce overall impact. 
Here is a nice article about agua jogging here. 
Now I am running again, and this time taking it very slowly. I've started running a total of three times a week with swimming or agua jogging on alternating days. This past week I was able to run 4 easy miles along the river and it felt great! I've truly missed running outdoors and taking in the beautiful NM nature. It truly is a blessing.  However, the road to recover is still and progress and I have to be careful not to get carried away. It’s easy to think that I can just get out and run 6 miles no problemo, but that was the attitude that got me in trouble in the first place. Now I’m working on being a more conscious runner and paying attention to how my body feels. I thought this way when I was training for my half marathon and found it to be very beneficial for me.  
During my easy 4 mile run along the river I decided to take my phone with me and was able to snap some photos. However, this didn't work out well because my phone was bouncing around in my jacket and it drove me nuts. I also had my keys, pepper spray, and ipod with me. Most people have a lot of junk in the trunk; I had too much junk in the jacket.  Oh well, lesson learned. At least I know now that I am not capable of running and having my cell phone with me. It just felt all sorts of wrong, but at least I was able to take a few snapshots of my pretty run. It was cloudy out, so excuse the gloom.

They are not the best photos, but I was all sweaty and breathing hard and couldn't really balance the camera in order to get a proper photo.

I hope you are all having a great week and are looking forward to the weekend.
I will be celebrating my last weekend in my 20's with all my good friends. I am truly looking forward to it! 
Espero que tenga un buen fin de semana amigos!

Pain in the Plantar Fascia pt. 2

DAMN YOU PLANTAR FASCIA!!!!

Okay sorry, I had to get that out.

This all to common runner injury has really had my Google search engine working over-time.

When looking back at my search history regarding PF, I found some pretty desperate searches.

--How to heal PF quickly

--Stretches for fast PF relief

--PF cure

--When CAN I RUN with PF?!

Seriously, those were my searches. It's funny how I kept googling the same thing desperately seeking the answer to the instant cure of PF.

So, did I find the fast cure for PF? Nope, I sure didn't.

What did I find?

Within all of my searches, and desperate pleas to Google, I found the same answer to everything.

Stay off your foot. That means no running, and no added stress to the extra foot.

That answer is sufficient enough, right?

Not for this stubborn Chicana.

Bring in my good friend Brian the physical therapy student, who just so happens to be studying my injury in depth. We go through an in-depth analysis of my foot and leg discrepancy, and try to narrow it all down on what may be causing my injury. He takes my arch support inserts that I bought from a local running store, and my Strassburgh sock (pictured here) in to his professor to have them checked out.

Getting an expert opinion from a PT professor sounds promising right? Brian may deliver the insta-cure answer I've been waiting for!

 B then comes back a couple of days later, and he tells me,

-The Strassburgh sock could be helpful, but only a little bit. It puts my foot in a stretch position that could help my PF heal. But that it may put irritating for me to keep my foot in that dorsiflexed position

-It is possible my leg discrepancy could have something to do with my PF, and supportive shoes and a -possible insert could be helpful. 

-The inserts I bought are shit, and I should ask for my money back.  bummer.

-Keep doing my stretches.

-Keep off my foot for as long as I can, and allow my foot to heal. Running on it too soon could set me back further.

Wahhh, wahhh, wahhhhhhhh. 

Basically all of my desperate Google searches, and time spent looking for the PF cure, came back around to what I've known from the beginning, one full order of just rest and other low impact activities, and no running. Period.

So I have enrolled in hot yoga for a month, and I plan on using it all up before I start running again. I figure this activity will keep me from running on my injured foot too soon, and also help me gain some flexibility in my legs. Not having a great range of flexibility could have been a big part of irritating my PF.  Not to mention,  hot yoga is a hell of a workout! I participated in the Hot Vinyasa class yesterday, and felt like I had run 10 miles in the Sahara.

I also ordered some HTP heel seats. I had heard great things about them, and figured I would give them a try. I will give a review on them once I receive them and try them out a bit.

So, this plantar fascia injury has really served me up a side of patience, and even though it's been difficult for me to accept, I am going to think positive healing thoughts.

Lesson learned: Be patient with your body, and be happy that it can heal.

I leave you with this great video about being injured, injured bad.

Pain in the Plantar Fascia!

During Christmas I received a new pair of running shoes from my Godmother,  and I was so excited to try them out, that I ran 11 miles in them...Yeah Uh oh. I felt great up until the 8th mile, and then it really started to hurt. Yep, you can say it out loud, because I did..."Shit, that was dumb."
I had done myself in,  and had acquired one of the most irritating injuries for a runner.
I had injured my plantar fascia. (click here for an anatomy lesson)


Not running has made me a little sad, because I honestly love how I feel when I run.  But I had to make sure I kept off my foot as to not irritate it more, or prolong the injury. After doing several google searches I had discovered that pushing this injury could possibly set me back a few months or up to a year. So, I'm playing it safe and have adjusted my work out routine. Which now includes swimming, free yoga around town, and some free stretching videos that I'll share at the end of this post. I've also incorporated some other wonky things to help heal my injury as quick as I can. Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do.


The quest to recovery begins with me going to my closet and dusting off my old swimming stuff. In this whole dusty process I found my old college racing swimsuit in the pocket of my parka and...

 How the hell did I ever fit into this thing??

Back in the parka pocket that little thing went and I was off to the neighborhood pool. It's funny returning to this particular pool because I actually hold a high school swimming record here and it's a pool I trained at for a good part of my swimming career. I always wonder after a long hiatus if I can actually swim again. Silly, I know.

As I entered the building I inhaled the chlorine as I walked in and prepared for my foot recovery swimming work out. I jumped in and felt the rush of the water surround me. It was a familiarity that you encounter when you walk into your childhood home; it was great to be back. 

I swam for an hour and I made sure to do a lot of kicking to work out my foot. I even did some aqua jogging at the deep end of the pool to get even more out of my workout. I have to tell you, I was pooped.  I think it  really helped my foot to stretch it out a bit in the water and get it moving, I did feel an improvement with pain as early as the next day. It honestly felt great to get back into the pool, and I think It may be something that I add regularly to my training.

 Another form of therapy besides swimming, which I’ve incorporated into my training, is foot and ice massage,  and putting my foot in a funky sling at night. Which when all used together, have proven to be very effective in my recovery. So, without further adieu, I introduce you to the mini foot massager.

 

It sort of looks like a little virus, huh? 

You can usually find these guys at your specialty running store for about $10

Anyways, I use this thing when I wake up in the morning for about 3 minutes and a few times throughout the day for the same amount of time.  It helped massage the injured part of my foot, and it also helped warm it up in order to not create further injury.  You can also use a can of food for this massage, you don't have to buy a fancy virus looking thingy. 

Up next, we have the crazy foot sling.  I would strap my foot in before I would go to sleep at night. It was uhhh..interesting.

It's like silence of the lambs for my foot, right?!

I really don't know too much about this thing, but it helped. That's all that matters right? It basically kept my foot in a flex position all night and it was uncomfortable at first, but it wasn't too bad after the second night. 

With all of this hooplah to help get over my injury,  I've realized that I was most likely running in the wrong shoes. I really overpronate, and the shoes I had were not offering any support at all. So, I went to a local running store called  Heart and Sole, and got some expert help. They put me on a treadmill and watched how I ran closely. I tried on different pairs of shoes and was given a good explanation from the staff on whether the shoe would work, or may cause me problems in the future. It was a great local store and I learned a lot about my actual running style. So, I left a happy customer with my Asics GT-2150, and now  I’m ready to take Guillermo the Garmin and my new Asics out for a run.

I leave you with a video of my new workout plan (he he)  and the stretch videos I promised. 

Keep your plantar fascias happy people! They are such a bitch when they get flared up! 

Thanks to my amigo Dingar for the new workout plan! 

Check it out below.

Now let's get serious.

Stretch videos:
videos are from www.heel-that-pain.com