A Week To Heal The Heel

Today I ran again after last Friday's injury. I went cycling on Sunday for about 60 km. I kept using the wooden roller and other recommended exercises for plantar fasciitis. Meanwhile I was also exercising my upper body and stretching the lower body. I can now do 6x3 push ups and 4x3 dands (Indian push ups which is similar to surya pranam). The pain on the tricep is ebbing out a bit.

Today I felt confident enough to go out for a run and ran a slow 2 km. I maintained a steady pace of 7 min per kilometer. I am happy with this controlled run. It shows I am maturing as a runner who can control his pace.

During the run the foot was hurting a bit. But I kept at it. It didn't increase significantly after the run. 

Back To Running

After a long hiatus I started running once again a few weeks ago. Started with 1 km of easy runs every alternate evening. Soon it became 2 km. The plantar pain, though was there, didn't cause any major hindrance. Gradually my pace was coming down. Last night I tried to do something differently. Instead of focusing on my pace, I ran with the BPM screen on and every time I would feel out of breadth I would look at the BPM and know that nothing was wrong there. This would give me a mental boost and I would keep running at the same pace instead of slowing down. 

This resulted in a fantastic time (relative to my usual times). Came back home feeling great. But later at night, when I was at the computer, I suddenly realised, while getting up, that there was a sharp pain behind the heel. 

I used the wooden roller continuously. Did the towel pulls with my toes. It came under control but not totally gone. Early morning today, it was pretty bad. Tomorrow I shall go cycling. Let me see where this pain takes me in terms of running. If needed I will once again go on a hiatus for a long time. 

Plantar Fasciitis Nailed

I think I finally got to understand the root cause behind my plantar fasciitis. A few weeks ago I realised that the root cause was the tight inner thigh muscle of my left leg. The foot was coming under unnatural stress to compensate for that. 

While I was doing a lot of stretches for the various thigh muscles, the pain was not really going. It would come back almost every day. Just a little. But you know it's there. Then last week my daughter's school entered the holiday mode and I started commuting to work by my motorcycle instead of the SUV. In two days I realised the early morning pain under the foot was gone. I soon realised there was a link between the pain and driving my Duster. The inner thigh gets strained due to the hard clutch pedal and with a few days' driving rest it was now coming back to  normal. A few things now made sense. I used to feel the maximum pain after the morning's drive when I would drop my daughter to school and wife to her office. It was about a 40/45 minutes' drive every working morning.

Although I long suspected this, it was one of those Archimedes moments. Ever since, I have not driven the car for more than a week now. There is still a little bit of pain on the Achilles. I am hoping it will go soon. I propose to run tonight. Just a kilometre or two perhaps and with proper pre-run stretch and post run nutrition. Let me see what happens.

April 9, 2018

I did run for a kilometer that night. But the pain worsened and I have since stopped running altogether once again. For cardio exercise I would rather go for cycling more often and of course swimming. I have also noticed that at night if I sleep with my feet elevated on two pillows, the pain remains almost muted. However, if I don't - the pain is considerably high the next day. For example, last night (which was a Sunday) I had to apply ice to bring down the pain. But this morning I woke up almost pain free. This is about not using and using a couple of pillows under my feet respectively.

Complete Rest

I ran through January and February 2018 (check out my Garmin Connect data) with a little bit of plantar fasciitis pain. Finally towards the end of February I decided that I must give adequate rest to the foot and completely recover from the pain and then run. Because every time I run the pain gets aggravated a bit. Of course the severity goes away the next morning but it is a never ending cycle. I want to break the cycle. 

Right now I am strength training and stretching. I think I am soon going to come back as a better runner. Recently in Manas National Park, Partha showed me a few exercises for the deltoids. I am doing them with 3 kg weights. Ten reps into 3 sets. I am also doing bicep curls with 5 kg+ weights. 

I am doing some Swiss ball core strengthening and push ups also. Four into 3 sets. This new strength is really reassuring. Even a few days ago I could push up only from the elbows with knees bent on the ground. That's like a child with no strength. From there four reps into three is not bad. Target is to take it to 10x3. 

I guess I am gaining some muscle mass. I eat several meals a day. That should help. 

A 2 km Run With A Bad Plantar Fasciitis

Today I went for a 2-km run. A gingerly 13 minute activity. My neutral shoes are helping. I can now understand that the tight hip adductor in the left thigh caused the problem in the first place. I am working on it. Let's hope it is repaired soon and that my footstrike becomes more balanced. It was tinkered due to the tight inner thigh muscle. It will take time for it to free up. But I am working on it.

My footstrike with the new UA Gemini is more silent now. I love the neutrality of the shoes.