Tag: plantar fasciitis

Running, Running Reads

Injury Updates

Hollie

I have a running blog and have failed to talk about my personal running all week.  I even went for a (painless) run.  This is going to be a giant pile up of everything that has happened to me relating to my foot.  Maybe it will make sense, maybe not…I’m just going to ramble about what I know (and probably what I don’t).

I guess I’ll start from the beginning of the week though because it’s not sunshine and butterflies.  On Monday I got my fourth deep tissue massage.  It was painful and unenjoyable.  It was more painful than my cortisone shot.

I don’t know much about adhesions or weird things that happen in feet and muscles.  I do know how to use the internet to google things though.  I also know that the masseuse found an “adhesion” in my foot.  After poking and prodding, my foot spasmed out and then cramped worse than anything I have ever experienced.  I have a high pain tolerance but I can honestly say this was more painful than both the cortisone shots as well as a spinal tap.

It was brutal.

I took the next day off of working out and then attempted to run on Wednesday.  It felt okay.  My foot pain was not as strong as when I stopped running a few weeks ago.  A few hours later it was a bit more painful. I stretched and went away.  Honestly I was hoping all of my pain was from that adhesion my masseuse had worked out on Monday.

I just remained the same level of sore as previously.  It felt exactly the same whether I had run or not.  I can walk normally, my gait cycle wasn’t effected and after I stretched I felt fine.  There was no sharp pain.  It just felt…sore.

On Thursday I went to the doctor and we discussed everything. 

This is exactly what I told him.  

My foot doesn’t hurt more in the morning.  It doesn’t hurt really at all, it’s just a dull ache in my arch.  It hasn’t gotten any worse in the last month and only a little bit better.  I don’t think it’s plantar fasciitis.  It doesn’t hurt to walk or move.

The boot doesn’t help me and if anything it aggravated a lot more.

The cortisone shot didn’t work.

Resting didn’t make it any worse (obviously) but it didn’t magically cure it either.  Running didn’t make it worse.  For a brief period of time (think 1 hour) it felt a little more sore and then it went back to it’s usual self after I stretched.  It doesn’t alter my gait cycle and I don’t feel it while running.

Where does this leave me?

To be honest, I don’t know.  It’s becoming increasingly clear that I don’t have plantar fasciitis.  (The only reason we suspected PF was because it was in my plantar fascia and arch). I have a problem in the arch but no one can tell me what that problem is.  Is it soft tissue damage still healing from the adhesion?  Are there more adhesions waiting to be flushed out?

In reality, I think only an MRI will be able to tell me my exact problem.  After getting an X-ray from the doctors yesterday I was cleared to schedule an MRI.  My doctor told me what he has told me all along…you can run and do anything that doesn’t hurt.  When it hurts, don’t do it.  To me that is the vaguest most unhelpful advice.  Just give me a yes/no answer.

I guess the cliffnotes version to this post is I really have any really exciting news.  I don’t think it’s plantar fasciitis and my bones aren’t broken.  It’s a muscle issue and I’m fair certain it’s not plantar fasciitis…past that I don’t know.  I’m scheduling an MRI for sometime next week.

Questions for you:

Has anyone ever had an issue in the arch of their foot and plantar fascia that wasn’t plantar fasciitis?

What are you doing this weekend?

Work for me but I have no complaints.

Advertisements
Running, Training, Wineglass

Injury Updates

Hollie

I’ve hit the point where it’s not cute or fun that I’m injured. I’m annoyed and I’ve pretty much made up my mind that racing a full marathon this fall is out of the question. I won’t get the build up I want. Trying to cram in the miles will make me injured with something else.

I go back for a second doctors appointment on Thursday. After believing that a cortisone shot would help me (it completely cleared up my previous issues). It doesn’t seem to be now. 12 days should be plenty of time for cortisone to react. It’s clear this didn’t do what it should (which is really upsetting). That is just me bring whiney. I’m not a doctor and who knows? The only thing I know is I’m excited for my next doctors appointment. Hopefully we can explore other options and put more pieces to my injury puzzle together.

I’m not here to whine or complain, I know staying positive is the key but it doesn’t make it any easier. It stinks. I can walk and cross train with no pain. Running (in any shoe) does not feel like it should.

I’m very close to pulling the plug on a fall marathon. Could I do one long run in September, and probably finish the Wineglass full marathon?

Yes, but it isn’t worth it to me to just finish a race. I want to do well. The amount of stress that a marathon takes on your body isn’t worth it for me to go run it just because I could.

If I do end up pulling the plug, I’ll probably wait another year to run a marathon. I’m getting married next April so I don’t want to worry about running a Spring Full. Although March (Shamrock) is a potential full as well I guess. I would much rather wait until next fall.

Right now while I do have a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, I’m not 100% convinced. Since the diagnosis my calves have loosed up and I don’t feel pain in them. I do still feel my arch.

My “recovery plan” day to day looks like this:
1. Actively stretching a few times daily.
2. Foam rolling and using a golf ball each night to dig at my arch.
3. Cortisone shot (on 7/10) but it seemed to have no effect. My foot is still in pain. I’ve honestly never heard of anyone not having any effect at all. Maybe it’s just reacting how I react at life…always late.

I have another doctors appointment this Thursday to hopefully discuss more possibilities and ideas. I’m upset…but honestly there isn’t much that complaining will do. I’m mentally in a rough spot but there is a marathon every weekend somewhere…I’ll find one when the time is right.

I’m still cross training most days and finding other things to focus on. If I spent hours being sad or whining, it really wouldn’t do much else. There is more life to running and I’ve been enjoying it.

Questions for you?
If you’ve had experience with a cortisone shot, did you experience short term pain relief? Did it work completely?

For my cyst it worked completely and I’ve never looked back.

Wineglass

Wineglass Week 10: Deep Tissue and Cortisone

Hollie

If I’m being honest, while the first week was difficult accepting I was injured, this week was far more difficult.  It didn’t heal in the first or second week of cross training so now I’ll be heading into week 3 of cross training.

I have decided I’m letting go of Wineglass August 1st.  If by August, I don’t feel any better I won’t run the Wineglass Full and defer it until next year.  I’m sad to eve think about this but I know it’s better.  A lot of people can do a full marathon cycle in 2 months but right now I’m not one of them.  It would mean running a 20 miler within a few weeks of coming off an injury and diving into high mileage again.  (Hashtag dumb, hashtag forever injured).

Trying to cram miles in, cram my long runs and be stressed about it would probably lead to me to get injured again.  There are plenty of seasoned marathoners that could do it…but I’m not one of them.   It would be upsetting to defer but there is a marathon (or 100) every year and I would rather run a healthy race versus hobble an injured one.

Training and Recovery: (AMT Post here)

Monday: 1 hour high intensity cardio AMT Nike Training Club Core
Tuesday: 1 hour low intensity cardio AMT Nike Training Club Core
Wednesday: 1 hour high strength AMT  
Thursday: OFF  
Friday: 90 mins medium AMT  
Saturday: 90 mins medium AMT Nike training club core
Sunday: 1 hour low intensity AMT Full body workout at gym

 

Just reading my AMT cross training, I’m happy I got it all done.  Writing it out makes it seem more intense than it was.  Each session went by quickly and I felt like I did enough to suffice but not overdoing it.  I never felt my foot at all (another thing that is frustrating since I only feel it when I run).

Recovery Wise:

I did two things last week that I am hoping will speed up my recovery.

First on Monday I got a deep tissue massage and a trigger point on my foot, calve and leg.  On Monday I went to the most painful massage session I’ve ever had. It was completely focused on my problem areas.  For an hour I thought I might just cry.  The woman was great though and broke up a lot of junk in my foot.

I went to a podiatrist.

Second on Thursday, the podiatrist confirmed I had a case of plantar fascitiis.  Not the worse case since I have no problems walking or moving.  It is a case due to my stride and gait cycle that isn’t going to go away easily.  (I’ll do a post on what I believe caused this problem another day. The long story short is: I ran once in an newly updated model of a shoe and have felt problems since).

The podiatrist did a number of things for me including giving a cortisone shot to reduce inflammation.  To answer the question, yes it is extremely painful.  I know cortisone is a very controversial topic but honestly I had good luck with it.  My case of PF was determined to be an isolated incident from running in a shoe that didn’t work for me.

All of that being said, after getting the shot Thursday, it’s been  72 hours and I don’t feel like it did anything right now.

So at least this week I have answers to what I suspected.  I also hope that cortisone takes longer than 72 hours and it wasn’t useless to point myself in that much pain.  I think it took around 72 hours for my last cortisone shot but that was 2 years ago and also a different injury.

 

I appreciate everyone’s support.  It stinks being out for 2 weeks now but I’ve tried not to whine on the media too much.  There are far worse injuries and things in life to let 2 weeks get the best of me. 

Questions for you:

Have you ever had a cortisone shot?

I had one once prior for my cyst and it completely got rid of it.

What is the shortest amount of time you’ve ever trained for a marathon?

Running, Training

Injury Diaries: Being Proactive

Hollie

It’s really easy to blog when you are in a good spot with training and life.  When you get injured or when you are in a rough patch with life…it gets harder.  I hate to report negative news or be negative on my LOLZ space but I can’t paint a scene of rainbows and butterflies when it’s not.

And right now it’s not.

Last week I posted about needing some time off of running.  It seemed weird for me.  My legs were tight, my muscles were sore and something felt off.  I was right and as I took a few days off I realized my right plantar fascia hurt badly.  Not a good, hard workout bad but an injury bad.   Then on Sunday I logged a 0 mile week and admitted I was injured. While my heel doesn’t hurt, my arch hurts.

It’s Tuesday and I haven’t run in 10 days.  So far I’ve missed a 5k I wanted to do.  I know in another week I’ll begin losing fitness as well as missing the Boilermaker 15k (a race I have wanted to do for years).

Could I run the Boilermaker on July 13th and probably finish with more pain than I have now? 

Yes, but that isn’t worth it to me.  It’s not worth it to me to travel (or run) any race and further injure myself.  Maybe I’ll magically feel better but maybe not.

I would rather let myself heal.  That being said I’m thankful I’ve been able to cross train.  I’m going to do whatever I can to keep my base for a while.

Right now I’ve narrowed down my pain to only hurting when I run.  (I’ve run a few steps and it hurts) but I can walk, I do the elliptical, I could bike (LOL) or I could swim (also LOL).  I will probably stay with the elliptical, the AMT and weight lifting.  The pool is about 10 miles down the road where the gym is a quarter of a mile.  Plus I have no interest to get into the pool.

My goal right now is to go the gym daily and do an hour on the AMT.  On Sunday I’ll probably go longer to simulate long runs.  I want to keep as much fitness as possible but I’m not running until my body is injury free.  If that means eventually letting go of running my marathon this fall, so be it.

So right now my plan is something like this:

Monday: 1 hour AMT (high resistance) Core, strength for legs
Tuesday: 1 hour AMT (low resistance) Core
Wednesday: OFF  

 

I’m honestly playing everything by ear but I’m trying to be as proactive as possible. I’m not doing anything that hurts (which is running) but I am using recovery methods as well as cross training.  You can (and I have before) save a lot of your base by being proactive.  Yesterday I had an hour deep tissue massage focused exclusively on my right leg.  It hurt and I’m bruised.  I hope that is a god sign.   On Thursday I have a doctors appointment.

Oh and I’m attempting to stay positive but some days are obviously easier than others so I really appreciate people (Laura you are the best) dealing with my whining at some points. It’s not the end of the world and I know that but it still stinks.  I’m making the best of the situation right now.

Questions for you:

What is your favorite cross training method?

 

Wineglass

Marathon Training Week 9: Injury

Hollie

This makes two posts this week I’ve started with “I’ve always wanted to be transparent with people”…

Last weekend my foot started to feel stiff.  Stiff enough that I was concerned post race.  It wasn’t a sharp pain but rather a dull pain in the arch.  Cue the mini freakout.  My entire body had been sore so I decided to get a deep tissue massage as well as rest on Sunday.   That didn’t seem to help my body soreness at all.

So I sit here a week later still sore, my arch is throbbing.  At first I thought I had  a minor case of plantar fasciitis.  Although my arch hurt, it didn’t hurt more in the morning.  It didn’t hurt in the back of the heel.  Just the arch.  It was more localized in the actual arch of the foot.  After doing more research, I found myself more related to posterior tibial tendinitis.  It makes sense in my case.  I am a supinator which puts pressure on my inner calves which connect to the muscles in your arch.  My inner calves are something that has always gotten extremely sore.

posteriortibialtendanitis
Where my pain is…

Not admitting I am injured and running through pain won’t get me anywhere.  I am not going to run until I’m healed.  I’m not a runner who can or will run through injuries.  It’s not worth it to me.

Since I’m on the honesty train, Plantar fasciitis (besides being the hardest injury to actually spell) is my most feared injury. You could do everything right as far as promoting healing and being proactive but it still gets worse. I’ve seen people who can’t walk without pain.  Posterior Tibial Tendinitis is essentially very similar so I’m adding this to one of my most feared injuries.

Last Saturday was my last run.

I’ve gotten two deep tissue massages since.

I’m icing, stretching and rolling with a golf ball.

It’s honestly not getting any better and I have yet to see any improvements.

If it still bothers me by Friday I’ll go to the doctor.  I know it’s a muscle related injury and due to the location and other symptoms I’m confident it’s posterior tibial tendinitis.  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty devastated right now.  It’s only been a week of not running but I’m pretty bummed.  I hope it doesn’t interfere with my marathon training (or worst case scenario:  not being ready or still injured to run the marathon).  But it is what it is.

The only thing I can do right now is stay positive and proactive.  It stinks a lot.  Personally, I would rather have a bone break than muscle injury but I was dealt these cards. With a bone injury, you know it takes a certain amount of time to heal.  Who knows with a muscle injury?

Long story short, the only thing I can do is rest and be proactive in recovery.  This is my first injury since October 2012 so hopefully it’s a minor speedbump. It stinks and I’m rather miserable to be around but here is to hoping this week’s better news.  

Question for you: Have you ever had plantar fasciitis or posterior tibial tendinitis? How did you recover?