Coping with Plantar Fasciitis

I haven’t been running for ages and it’s driving me nuts – How can I call myself a triathlete if I can’t run, and how can I train for races. In fact, it make me question the point of training at all because I can’t actually race at the moment anyway, so I’m not really training for anything in particular.

I’m not even 100% sure that it is plantar fasciitis, but after my race in Portland back in April I had a sore foot. The pain felt like sever bruising along the bottom of my foot and made walking painful. it eased a but, but as soon as I tried to run it would hurt after just a few steps. I rested it completely (as far as running was concerned) until my next race at the British Championships in May. It felt OK for the first mile or so of the run here, but then flared up and became the worst it ever has during the second half of the run. So much so that I had to hobble to the finish line and head immediately to the first aid tent.

Ice Rolling

It eased off a little and I went to a sports injury clinic a couple of times for some physio. It is now manageable for everyday duties such as walking, but is still a little sore even when I’m not really doing anything. I have been stretching it and rolling it with a frozen bottle of water. This latter technique not only ices the are but also massages it at the same time. It feels nice after rolling it, but the pain doesn’t ease for long. I have tried running briefly on it, but it hurts straight away and the pain just gets worse the longer I run – I’ve only tried for about 5 minutes so far and I can tell from the pain that it isn’t doing me any good.

I was hoping to race in a Half-Ironman distance race on August 1st, but that is beginning to look quite unlikely. I might have been able to wing it in the British Sprint Championships, but that was only a 5km run, winging it for a 13 mile run just isn’t going to happen at the moment. Just getting around a half-marathon run after a swim and bike was going to be a challenge, so I had hoped to increase my run training between May and August but instead I have done no running at all. Certainly not the best of preparation for my first longer distance triathlon.

At the moment I won;t be able to compete (or even complete), but I’m going to arrange to get some acupuncture treatment to see if that can help – I’m willing to try anything at the moment if I can afford it.

I guess really that I should go to the doctor too to get a proper diagnosis as well. I’m just hoping there is something that somebody can do. If I can get it so that I can run on it I don’t mind entering the race in August even if I haven’t done any run training for it, but if by then I’m still unable to run at all there seems little point in entering.

Tags: InjuryrunningTriathlon