Saturday 4 February 2012

Mystery weekend.

  I have been suffering with plantar fasciitis for a good nine months now, plantar fasciitis being a problem with the strong band of tissue that runs along the underside of your feet. Seeing as I could get by and train around the problem I assumed it would eventually fade away over time but even resting it for a few weeks didn't have much effect what so ever so last Saturday I decided enough was enough and it was time to take action. Having read up on the subject I ordered myself a foot night splint that keep your ankle joint at 90 degrees whilst you sleep to stop the calf muscle from tightening up, their was good reviews but on the downside people reported on numbness of the toes and basically just getting used to it. Tight calf muscles or a factor so I have been stretching them four times a day and I'm now up to 5 hours with the night splint as that's about as much as I can tolerate at the moment.

The first few days seemed to make the matter worse but I felt it was just a case of my body adapting to something new then on Thursday and Friday mornings as it says on the tin I could get out of bed without any heel pain so something was working. Finally this morning I went to the gym for an hour of uphill training on the treadmill, there was no need suffer for 10 to 15 minutes whilst my heel warmed up as it was ok from the off, after my training I go for a sauna and after lying down for 15 minutes after a hard training session I usually find that I have to limp my way to the showers but not today, it was as if I hadn't even done any running.
 With the cold weather I have been happily been dodging running sessions and I had only clocked up 7 miles so far this week and with the 10 miles I'm putting down for this morning and hopefully a few more tomorrow a weekly grand total of 27 miles is not what you would call a good week. Not a good week but an excellent week taking everything into account, not only do I feel I'm now winning the battle against the plantar fasciitis but I absolutely flew on the treadmill compared to what fitness level I should of been at, a couple of weeks ago I just about managed a full hour at level 5 and then last week I managed 40 mins at level 5 with 20 minutes at level 6 so the plan was a full hour at level 6.

 A big leap but achievable, so how the hell I knocked out 30 minutes at level 6, 20 minutes at level 7 and to finish off 10 minutes at level 8 is a complete mystery. Maybe it's an age thing were one day you can be flying along and the next crawling with no clues as to which pace you will be going at on any given day.
  I haven't got any ideas yet about any great comebacks and I have also managed to loose another 1/2 pound this week in weight, it might not be much but I'm knocking on the door of getting back under 11 stone.

2 comments:

Andy Pearson's running blog said...

Gary try rolling a golf ball under your foot. Painful at first but really helps PF. Am sure it will be linked to your sprained ankle as well ? Andy

oldrunningfox. said...

I tried the golf ball treatment, as suggested by Andy, but it didn't do any good for me. In the end I'd a cortisone injection which was quite painful as the doctor turned the needle in various directions, but it did the trick. No problems since.