Plantar What?

After my run in Preston Park, my heel hurt worse than after my 11-mile run. I was starting to become worried and frustrated.

In the days that followed, I would have my moments where the heel felt great and think that I was on the road to recovery. Alas, these would be followed by a bad couple of days where the heel hurt and felt like I was back to square one.

I have dealt with injuries before but this one was really starting to get on my nerves. I could feel my preparation for Lakefront starting to slip away.

Soon after we returned to Wisconsin, I had an appointment with my chiropractor/physical therapist. Since April, I had been going to Wisconsin Family and Sports Chiropractic to treat a sore lower back and a pinched nerve in my left calf. In the three months I had been seeing the doctors (a husband-wife duo), they had alleviated the nerve issue (more on that in another post) and drastically improved my back, more so with therapy rather than adjustments.

During my routine visit, I told Dr. Nick about my heel and he quickly shifted his attention to it. He poked, prodded, and pounded with his massage tool. Based on his assessment, he believed the issue was not a case of the dreaded plantar fasciitis, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is "inflammation of the fibrous tissue (plantar fascia) along the bottom of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes." This inflammation can require a substantial amount of rest to recover.

Instead, Dr. Nick believed the issue was related to one of the tendons that runs under the plantar fascia.

After a couple weeks of only taking Melanie for walks and avoiding my running routine (which I thought was best for speedier recovery), I was floored when Dr. Nick said "it should improve if you run." What? In fact, he expected me to run at least three times before our next appointment the following week.

A few days later, I laced up the runners and went for a jog with little or no expectations for a pain free run or feeling any better afterward. After my 3 miles, the heel felt pretty good. At the very least, the discomfort was not any worse. The real surprise came the next day.

To my amazement the next day, the heel barely hurt at all! Two days later, I ran 5 miles and two days after that, I ran another 4. I was not 100% pain free, but when I was out on the open road, I never thought about my foot.

I have had a couple minor setbacks with discomfort. One of these have been connected to trying to break in a new pair of shoes on a short 4-mile run. The rigidity of the shoes being the primary culprit for not allowing the foot to flex as much as it should.

A few days later, I ran 15 miles and experienced discomfort in my right knee and hip after mile 10 (I did not stop). Fortunately, this pain disappeared once I finished the run. The next day, I met with Dr. Nick and he said that the foot was still not where it needed to be and the knee and hip started to share the load. He sent me home with a couple of exercises to help stretch and strengthen the tendon. The following week, I ran a long-run of 18.6 miles and had only the normal muscle aches and soreness that comes with the distance. My foot did not flare up during or even after the run!

Am I out of the woods? Hardly. There is still some soreness and discomfort lingering but I keep doing my exercises and it seems to slowly be improving. I'll take it compared to how I felt in early July when I was seriously worried that I would have to defer the marathon until next year.

Preston Park

Soon after I completed my early morning 11-mile run, I felt some discomfort in my right heel. No big deal, it was just my achilles being sore, I thought. I did a couple stretches and thought a day or two of rest would allow for sufficient recovery.

A couple days later, the heel still hurt. Every time I stood up and put weight on it, I felt surge of pain. The discomfort would slowly disappear after I walked on it for a bit, but overall, the heel did not feel good.

I took a couple more days off. In the meantime, the only exercise I did were some core exercises each morning and walks with Melanie.

After about a week, the heel started feeling better, so I decided it test it. I was anxious to continue my training. By this time, Jody, Melanie, and I were in western Pennsylvania visiting family. On July 3rd, Jody and I took Melanie to Preston Park in the Butler area simply because we did not know the lay of the land.

Preston Park is an interesting venue, to say the least. According to one website, "the park is a gift of nearly 100 acres from the late Jane and Dr. Frank Preston. Dr. Preston helped found the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy." When we pulled into the parking lot, had an eerie feeling to it. There was not another soul in the park and the previous night's heavy rain gave the wooded area a rain forest feel. There were some old conservatory buildings that had not appeared to be used in some time. I would not want to be here at night. The trails were muddy and the grass was completely saturated.

I started off on what I hoped to be a large loop trail. Less than 2 minutes into my run, I came to a muddy washout. I did my best to cross it via some tree trunks, but eventually slipped off and gave my shoes a nice new coating of mud. It did not take much longer for the rest of my clothes to be completely soaked from brushing up against all the wet branches and grass. At one point, I called Jody and said "This is stupid." My goal at that point was to make my way back to the car. Jody, was somewhere else in the park, pushing Melanie in a little umbrella stroller.

I did my best to follow the trails but eventually got turned around. After a few minutes of walking back and forth and staring at my Strava map, I found concrete and, soon thereafter, Jody. I was able to run a little bit more, but the the excitement of a morning run had since dissipated. I raised the white flag at the 3 mile mark and we drove back to my parent's house.

How did the heel respond to the hike? Not well. Similar to last time, soon after the run, it started to bother me again. I would sit down and after resting for a few minutes, the first couple of steps hurt like crazy. For the rest of the week, I limped around the house. I would not run again for over two weeks.