The FastDay Forum

I think I have plantar fasciitis. I wake up every morning with a sore heel. This has been happening for awhile after every run, but it had been clearing up quickly. This time, it's been sore since the DIY half marathon, over a week now does anyone else suffer from this? Any advice?

My husband suffers from this - properly fitted inner soles can help a lot, there is also a series of massages that you can do. You'll find a link to it from this page http://running.competitor.com/2014/06/photos/new-techniques-treating-plantar-fasciitis_96398

Just poking my head in a few tents I don't usually visit tonight.

I wouldn't really call myself a runner - I couldn't run for toffee at school - I was so fat and unfit I was always plagued by a stitch!

However, in my 20s, when I was quite fit and relatively slim, my firm had paid for several teams to enter the "Chariots of Fire" relay race in Cambridge and wanted a ladies team but the girls weren't very willing so I stuck my neck out and said that I would do it, which shamed enough others into doing it! I can still remember driving a route in the car to measure the distance, then training by running and walking until I could run the whole distance (I wasn't going to be seen walking on race day!) Anyway - after that I then did the 5k Race for Life and then a 10k cross-country, also for Cancer Research.

I gave up running when I reached a certain weight because I could feel that it wasn't doing my knee a lot of good. I'm not back to a weight where I think I could safely run again yet but I'm wondering whether some power walking might be a good way to build back up to it as the weight comes off (I currently exercise 3-4 times a week, mainly weights based/cardio).

Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

slightly similar, I guess. I kept running while overweight, even though my knees were unhappy (never injured per se, but I had to ice them regularly because they would be sore after running). My main motivation for losing weight was to improve my running times and save my knees.

Power walking is good, or perhaps something low impact like the elliptical. In fact, even now my knees feel much better, I tend to only run twice a week even when in half-marathon training. But I do strength training and HIIT on the elliptical to improve my fitness in other, lower impact ways.

Any London parkrunners want to join me at Crane Park, Feltham next weekend (1st October). Or Perth scotland on 8th October?

I think I have plantar fasciitis. I wake up every morning with a sore heel. This has been happening for awhile after every run, but it had been clearing up quickly. This time, it's been sore since the DIY half marathon, over a week now does anyone else suffer from this? Any advice?

FWIW, here's a consolidation of information from three different recent running books and one trigger point therapy book:

SYMPTOMS:

Pain in the bottom of the foot especially at the start of a run.

Pain immediately after getting out of bed in the morning.

"Like a sharp rock in your shoe."


CAUSES:

Heel landing: "...nearly all PF sufferers are heel strikers."

Wearing high heels (shortens both the calf and Achilles).

Running down hill.

Running in sand.

Too long a stride.

Weak/tight calf muscles.

RECOVERY:

Ice it.

While sitting, several times a day roll a tennis ball back and forth under your bare foot to stretch the fascia.

"Walk barefoot on a coarse gravel surface for at least 10 minutes a day. It hurts [intensely] but gets rid of PF faster than anything else."

"Get a foot massage, the deeper the better."

Night splints (which prevent pointing your toes down towards the foot of the bed while sleeping.)

"The best way to stretch this area is to put your toes and the ball of your foot against the top of the vertical edge of a step with your heel on the floor and slowly lean forward, keeping your leg straight, until you feel the stretch at the top of your calf. Repeat this stretch with your knee bent, feeling the stretch farther down the leg near the Achilles tendon. Hold each stretch for 15-20 seconds and repeat several times in each position. Ideally you'll do this daily, before and after exercise."

Massage muscle trigger points. These are exquisitely tender places (you'll know you found it because they hurt when pressed with a thumb or knuckle, for example) - in the center calf muscle just above the top of the Achilles where it meets the calf muscles. Massage firmly (with the knee of your opposite leg is one method, or rolled with a rolling pin, or pressing against a hard ball) several times a day until they release (stop hurting).

Over the counter hard arch supports, sometimes orthotics.

PREVENTION:

Strengthen calves.

Shorten stride.

Don't heel land. Land mid-foot or forefoot instead, ensuring that your heel at least momentarily “kisses the ground” to relieve the strain on calf muscles and Achilles.

Lose weight.

Wear flats.

HTH

[carieoates]

I think I have plantar fasciitis. I wake up every morning with a sore heel. This has been happening for awhile after every run, but it had been clearing up quickly. This time, it's been sore since the DIY half marathon, over a week now does anyone else suffer from this? Any advice?

Doesn't sound like plantar to me. It is a pain in the heel, but every day and not just after exercise. For me exercise used to help no end as it stretched out my tendon. Insoles and steroid injection in my heel sorted it out.

I am going to join yhis tent for the foreseeable as I'm planning to increase my 5k runs with the intention of taking part in the cambridge half marathon in March.
Scared, yes, determined yes.

That's a big step up @carieoats. Make sure that you build slowly towards it. A half marathon in Cambridge sounds idyllic.
Finally got back to doing a Parkrun at the weekend and managed a 25:21 which I am pleased with. the last few that I have done have been terrible. Chasing a sub 25 now; my next attempt will be at the end on November.

Congrats for nearly beating 25 minutes. Since creakypete's earlier post I've been thinking about doing more 5K's to accept that challenge.

Any London parkrunners want to join me at Crane Park, Feltham next weekend (1st October). Or Perth scotland on 8th October?

Do you mean November 1st and 8th @Melanie Cheeks

[carieoates]

http://www.zenlabsfitness.com/5-tips-tr ... asciitis/#
This popped up on my Facebook feed today @MaryAnn

interesting article on carbo loading and consuming gels during a race: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/2 ... rc=me&_r=0

interesting article on carbo loading and consuming gels during a race: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/2 ... rc=me&_r=0

Thanks for the link. Curiously the study doesn't even mention the Hawthorne effect - that there can be noticeable performance improvements by the mere fact that someone (seemingly authoritative) took enough time to care. There are studies that show almost immediate performance improvement by runners swishing a sugary drink around in their mouth then immediately spitting it out, swallowing none. And others that show improvement by ending the race in a dehydrated state. The common factor seems to be that one's brain is often the biggest obstacle to performance. As a self-protection mechanism it'll shut you down long before a dangerous exhaustion. Part of the point of incremental training is to convince it that you aren't out to kill yourself; that you've been here many times before and survived. Ever notice that no matter how tired you are that you can still manage a finish line dash for a photo finish? If you were that tired, how is it that there's still something in the tank? Ever notice that your level of tired after a run is about the same no matter how short or long the run was?

So… I had another half marathon on Sunday. It was awful I feel like I'm going backward. I'm sure it was at least partially due to conditions (hilly course, sudden patch of hot, humid weather after a few weeks of perfect running weather), but I suspect it's also that I've gained some weight and not trained hard enough. My right foot is in bad shape. I hope that dropping back down to goal fixes that. Training on it now, I suspect, is a bad idea. I will continue to do elliptical training, and perhaps try the treadmill once the foot feels a bit better. My time was so bad. I'm really disappointed.

Oh ((@MaryAnn)) - you managed to finish it, didn't you, so well done! But seriously, if I were you I'd stop racing for the moment until your foot has recovered and you've lost the weight you want to. You are just demoralising yourself by continuing to race. I know its hard but you don't want to jeopardize your future running career by running half marathons when you are injured.
I haven't raced since mid September after which I had some health problems. My iron is creeping back up now so I've signed up for the first 10k race I did last year in order to compare if I've improved year on year or not. I need to lose around 3kgs to get back to the weight I was then, to make sure everything is as similar as possible for the comparison.
I've just started reading Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight and it is very interesting. I'm not sure that fasting and training hard really go hand in hand and I'm thinking of starting eating for fitness with resulting weight loss, not just losing weight. It is fat I want to lose, not muscle and his book helps with that.
Matt Fitzgerald has also written a new book on how a spilt of 80/20 low/high intensity training is best for runners, not the HIIT which has been widely advocated over recent years. I'm all for that, not sure what everyone else thinks??
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-traini ... ity-ratio#