Plantar Fasciitis
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MamaMollyT
Posts: 197 Member
I am recovering from a wicked case of plantar fasciitis. Why is it bad? Because I was not very smart and kept running on it after it began to bother me. I have not run for 4-5 months now but have been very diligent working out and doing therapy for it: swimming, weight training, walking, rowing machine etc... But really nothing does it for me like running. My question is who else out there has recovered from plantar fasciitis and how long did you take off? How did you handle getting back to distance after recovering? Basically I'm trying to decide if I should get back to it now or if it is worth it to wait a little longer. The pain is gone but I am still stiff in the morning. I just did a two mile run a few days ago and three miles today to test it out. It feels ok right now. I am worried I may push it to hard too fast though. That's what I usually do!
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When I had plantar fasciitis, it was painful in the morning when I first got out of bed, hurt walking and felt better as the day went on. Could not run for months. Mine came from marathon training on an uneven road. Plus, I have high arches. It was my worst running injury and took about a year to get over. This was years ago, but I still keep arch supports in all of my dress shoes. I wear no special inserts in my running shoes, but buy those with good arch supports. My longest runs since then have been the half marathon distance with no problem, but I still stay aware.0
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I ran on mine to the point of it hurting through my run. I now know that was a big mistake but I thought I could just power through race season and then rest. I did buy all new shoes and arch supports for my everyday wear and that is helping a lot. I always spend good money on my running shoes then mess around in flip flops the rest of the time. Trying to change that bad habit. I would be so happy to get back to half marathon distance. I'm trying to hold off a bit longer to heal. I think I developed the problem from running too many hills and lots of pavement. I always ran in sand or dirt until I moved to Japan.0
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About three months to recover?
Are you getting physical therapy? I went to see a sports medicine physician at a teaching hospital. He and all his residents told me that I could run as much as I could tolerate, and that rest did NOT help with healing plantar fasciitis.
I got a regimen of mostly strengthening exercises (glutes, hamstrings, hip area). I also got told to start using a standing desk for a few hours a day.
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i also have it and run on it. Last year i took 8 weeks off hoping i could recover and never did, so i started running again. It doesn't hurt when i run, my longest run has been 13-14 miles, now a few hours after my run is a different story. It hurts in the morning, but it starts to work itself out as i start walking around. I make sure i wear shoes with support, i try to stretch it out as often as i can, but it seems this is going to stay with me. I am sure i can do better with my PT. I am just living with it.0
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About three months to recover?
Are you getting physical therapy? I went to see a sports medicine physician at a teaching hospital. He and all his residents told me that I could run as much as I could tolerate, and that rest did NOT help with healing plantar fasciitis.
I got a regimen of mostly strengthening exercises (glutes, hamstrings, hip area). I also got told to start using a standing desk for a few hours a day.
Same exact thing for me. I had 2 PTs telling me running on it was a matter of pain tolerance. I went from 35 mpw at the time of my injury (June) to peaking at 60 mpw 3 weeks ago and things are actually getting better. Only thing I didn't do was speed work because the higher cadence and my forefoot strike when I run fast was making it hurt much more.
I'm rolling, stretching and doing strengthening exercises. Rest doesn't help PF.
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Yep. You can run on PF if you can tolerate the pain. Rest doesn't help because that tension exists at rest and warming up the surrounding muscles, be it from exercise or just from walking around on it, releases some of the tension on the fascia. The goal is to get enough flexibility in the calf muscle that it doesn't pull on the fascia.
Most PF injuries take about 18 months to fully heal, no matter how much treatment you do...or don't do. Sometimes, it just goes away.
I aggressively treated mine with ART treatements, rolling on a frozen water bottle and stretching my calves like it was my job. I also never put a bare foot on the floor, not even stepping out of bed.
That's what worked for me.0 -
It has taken me 4 months of not running to get to the point of it not hurting through a run. When I first had symptoms I continued running and completed race season. By the end of it my foot hurt all the way through my run. I was worried I might have developed a stress fracture so I took the summer to work on swimming and strength and stretching. I can now tolerate to run but I am worried about going too fast and getting back to where I was. I have been doing therapy stretches every morning/night. lots of plunges in ice buckets, stretching, hot yoga, weights, myofascial release with a lacrosse ball and I have bought good shoes and inserts. It is loads better than 4 months ago. I feel like I'm ready to unleash and run like it's my business but clearly I don't always have the best judgement about when to stop. I am liking what I am hearing- basically it sounds like I can run as long as I maintain good habits.0
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To answer SillyC2's question I am not seeing a PT but I have been to a personal trainer specializing in injuries and he was working with me to strengthen all summer. I have moved twice this year and am in the military health care system. There are PTs available but depending on the duty station they are more or less available. Here I could not get in. I'm moving again in a week and hopefully will get into one at the new place. I did a lot of reading about therapy and kindof did my own therapy regimen at home.0
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I've had PF on and off over the years . One time resulting in an urgent care trip as the pain was so bad I couldn't sleep. 10 weeks ago, I thought I had a stress fracture as the pain was so different. I took 8 weeks off and then went to the doctor(the wait was due to insurance). He diagnosed it as PF and had me tape it and slowly return to running. He also had me take a steroid pack. So far so good. I started with a week of power walking and then transitioned to 3 mile runs with a longer one of 6 miles. However I do intervals because I'm not as in shape as I was. It has not hurt. I think that for me, the rest was good. With my level of pain, it hurt to walk. Tomorrow I'm doing a 10 miler in a road race series(that I had to drop out of). I plan to take it easy. Hopefully I'll do that with no pain.0
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I recently read a Runner's World piece that said five months was the average time a runner has plantar fasciitis. I think the reason it is so hard to heal, in runners, not heavy people, is because we don't stop running so we continue to aggravate it.
Try this stretch: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/ortho/foot-ankle/_documents/plantarfasciitisteachingsheet.pdf
I think it works like a charm -- much better than just standing on a step.0
