the Way of the Turtle

Aaargh... Plantar Fasciitis...
Monday, November 21, 2011

For a while now I've had some minor heel pain, usually when I first get up in the morning... initially I thought I'd just bruised it, but the fact that the pain would disappear once I'd walked around a bit suggested that wasn't the case. Instead, it's probably a mild case of plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar fascii, a band of connective tissue that runs along the bottom on the foot. There are all sorts of reasons it might have happened - increased running mileage, decreased flexibility in my lower leg, or even the weight I've gained over the past couple of years. On the plus side, it's been very minor and most of the time I don't even think about it.

Except of course that this weekend I managed to aggravate it more than usual, possibly by pushing hard for the 2nd half of the Lil Rhody or possibly because I've put too many miles too quickly on the new Adidas trail shoes I've been using, after running mostly on Vasques for the last few years. All I know for sure is that it was sore walking around after the race, and really sore when I got up this morning.

Which is more than a bit worrisome, given that I've plunked down the registration fee for the Seashore Nature Trail 50k in mid-December. So no running for me for the next few days at least, while I see how it responds. I'd been planning to do a long (20 or so miles) run Wednesday but clearly that's not a good idea now - also worrisome since my window of opportunity for a last long run is shrinking rapidly. I may have to go into the 50k trusting my previous training (which hasn't been what I'd wanted it to be, but was enough for me to finish Stone Cat with my fastest time yet for a trail marathon.)

Oh, well, nothing to be done for it other than to try to be sensible and hope for the best...

JMH