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.
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.
