Plantar fasciitis in a runner

[JapanRed]

I’ve started with pain in my foot which I think is plantar fasciitis. I run approx 110-130km a month. I haven’t increased speed or distance recently. Any decent treatment options?

[Siggy61]

Sorry to hear about your injury. It depends on how badly you have damaged them but you are certainly going to have to rest up a while. Mine lasted 8 months and that was with home treatment (exercises,golf balls,frozen peas and plantar sock) and a few visits to the physio. Hope yours is less serious and painful.

[sherman]

Bin your trainers.
Go find a proper running shop and get trainers that are the correct shapefor your feet. Your feet will fit better in a certain brand better due to how each manufactuer makes footbeds etc
Also do as the above poster says with ice etc.

[anonymous-user]

Orthotic insoles that raise the heels cured mine a few years ago.

Orthotic Insoles Arch Support Back heel Pain Treatment of Plantar fasciitis (11-13 UK) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MS50LFJ/ref=cm_sw_r...

[JapanRed]

Thanks all,

Hopefully the injury won’t last 8 months
I’m resting it for the time being but will start exercises in a few days. Will go see physio if no improvement in 2 weeks and will look at getting some insoles.

RE the bin your trainers comment. I have several sets of running trainers all of which have been bought from proper running shops and all of which have been selected for my correct foot shape and running style.

[oilslick]

Iwantafusca said:

Orthotic insoles that raise the heels cured mine a few years ago.

Orthotic Insoles Arch Support Back heel Pain Treatment of Plantar fasciitis (11-13 UK) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MS50LFJ/ref=cm_sw_r...

Similar experience to me. I bought about 6 pairs of these and put them in all the shoes I wore regularly. They felt weird for the first couple of weeks, but I soon got used to it.

I also wore these every time I'd be walking any kind of distance.

Around two months later I was right as rain. Every time I've had a twinge since I've gone straight back to the insoles until I was satisfied it wasn't coming back.

[Macneil]

You probably know the drill, poor blood supply, slow to heal etc, I got good results with rolling my foot on a tennis ball, I mean REALLY crushing it out of shape, painful but it helped. Mine wasn't from running, I slipped on the stairs barefoot and landed my arch on the edge of a step. since then I rarely go barefoot, not because of that, but because my feet feel very unsupported.

[UpTheIron]

I'll echo what has been said above. I had problems a few years ago, at the time I was running 50-70 miles a week. I got over it with the following...

- orthotic insoles in my running shoes. Just Scholl ones, nothing special.
- heel inserts in shoes
- decent shoes; Loakes worked for me
- avoided like the plague casual trainers with poor support or flat soles (e.g. Puma Speed cats that I wore a lot at the time)
- Lots of painful "massage" by rolling golf balls under my feet

Good luck!

[davidc1]

I had this. 3 years ago.Physio etc. But was still nagging me.
Then in the feb i got flu. Was in bed for nearly a week. When i got back on my feet it was gone!. Bed rest is the answer.

[PushedDover]

Not a runner but have found lots of cycling or spinning has eased it out for me

[sociopath]

JapanRed said:

Thanks all,

Hopefully the injury won’t last 8 months
I’m resting it for the time being but will start exercises in a few days. Will go see physio if no improvement in 2 weeks and will look at getting some insoles.

RE the bin your trainers comment. I have several sets of running trainers all of which have been bought from proper running shops and all of which have been selected for my correct foot shape and running style.

May need a revisit as your foot shape and running style may have altered.
Orthotic insoles can also help prevent recurrence (they can't make it heal or cure it though)

Also don't do the normal runner thing and start training again too early, give it time to recover, always amazes me why runners think they can get better by running through an injury - for clarity, my wife does this, and my sisters (both ex Olympians) were the same

[MC Bodge]

Tennis ball or hockey ball.

Strength and conditioning. I suffer far fewer running injuries in my 40s than I did in my 20s as a result of being stronger (in various planes of motion).

Skipping is good, along with lunge and squat motions, including dynamic variations. Pushing, rowing, pulling with the upper body, carrying and most importantly -rotation/anti-rotation of the core/entire body using unbalanced loads.

[jdw100]

sociopath said:

JapanRed said:

Thanks all,

Hopefully the injury won’t last 8 months
I’m resting it for the time being but will start exercises in a few days. Will go see physio if no improvement in 2 weeks and will look at getting some insoles.

RE the bin your trainers comment. I have several sets of running trainers all of which have been bought from proper running shops and all of which have been selected for my correct foot shape and running style.

May need a revisit as your foot shape and running style may have altered.
Orthotic insoles can also help prevent recurrence (they can't make it heal or cure it though)

Also don't do the normal runner thing and start training again too early, give it time to recover, always amazes me why runners think they can get better by running through an injury - for clarity, my wife does this, and my sisters (both ex Olympians) were the same

This is superb advice.

I was one of those idiots.

My wife has recently (since Feb) taken up running. Worked her way up from having to walk on parts of a 5K to running 25km+ with me.

Any hint of an injury, pain etc I’ve been telling her to stop until it gets better even if that means a week or two.

Looking back I cant believe how stupid I used to be - running miles with a knee really hurting etc.

The other thing to look at is his strike. I used to be very heavy heel striker. Managed to modify it forward over the years and I think that has helped.

Trainers, absolutely. They rest of your gear can be old and ratty but get the right trainers and change every 400km or so, especially if a lot of running on hard surfaces.

[Greendubber]

I've been written off by it for 9 months now, I have it on both feet!

I tried everything

Rollers
Rolling on a frozen water bottle
K laser therapy
Shockwave therapy
Sports massages

Nothing touched it!

I've just hasld a cortisone injection in my right foot and I'm having the left foot done in a week or so. I'm also staring physio as I have very tight calves and hamstrings.

I feel your pain, I've been crippled by mine!

[MC Bodge]

jdw100 said:

Trainers, absolutely. They rest of your gear can be old and ratty but get the right trainers and change every 400km or so, especially if a lot of running on hard surfaces.

400km? That's quite conservative.

I would suggest that somebody who runs efficiently (through good technique and whole body strength and stability) and doesn't land hard on their heels will get more Km from their shoes...and suffer less injury

[Greendubber]

Jasey_ said:

Greendubber said:

I've been written off by it for 9 months now, I have it on both feet!

I tried everything

Rollers
Rolling on a frozen water bottle
K laser therapy
Shockwave therapy
Sports massages

Nothing touched it!

I've just hasld a cortisone injection in my right foot and I'm having the left foot done in a week or so. I'm also staring physio as I have very tight calves and hamstrings.

I feel your pain, I've been crippled by mine!

You didn't mention insoles.

Sorted mine and I have them in all shoes now. Not come back in 4 years or so.

I've had all sorts of insoles, didnt make any difference at all.

[RobM77]

I run 75-85km a week and started getting PF quite badly whist trialling a different pair of running shoes for a month last winter. Well over 6 months later, I still occasionally get it, even in the new shoes and despite having cutback weeks every month and taking the odd week off. Sadly once running niggles appear they tend to stick around, even if you take time out. The key is to identify the cause (was it a pair of running shoes, a new type of run, etc?), take on the required regular stretches or exercises (I'm in the gym 3 times a week and much of my routine is geared towards known weaknesses), and be patient. Most of the niggles I've had stick around for ages, but with the right response they do eventually go (remove any obvious cause, do the right exercises and stretches, and don't push too much).

Edited by RobM77 on Monday 21st September 16:43

[ben5575]

Greendubber said:

I've been written off by it for 9 months now, I have it on both feet!

I tried everything

Rollers
Rolling on a frozen water bottle
K laser therapy
Shockwave therapy
Sports massages

Nothing touched it!

I've just hasld a cortisone injection in my right foot and I'm having the left foot done in a week or so. I'm also staring physio as I have very tight calves and hamstrings.

I feel your pain, I've been crippled by mine!

I had one foot last year, and another, thankfully not as bad, this year. 9 months as well. I do not exit the bed elegantly in the mornings!

Try some of these: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx2RFb3HW6Y/

A variation of the second video (the sissy squat with heels off the floor) is to stand on the floor in front of a step, place/stretch your toes against the face of the step (so they are pointing upwards and the balls of your feet are against the step), keep your heel on the floor, then sissy squat forward (been the bottom half of your leg forward as per the video but heel on the floor). It gives a really deep stretch. You can do it against a wall, but your knee might touch the wall before you get the full stretch, so over a step give you more room.

[Dave3166]

Ohhh, I had this for nearly 1 year.
Got out of bed one morning, could hardly put any weight on my right foot, bloody painful.

Tried ice, tennis balls, all the usual things people have already mentioned.

I stopped running straight away, because I couldn’t basically, but didn’t want to make it worse.

Just let it take it’s cause.

Towards the end, I started stretching more with that leg, seemed to help.
I believe it’s all connected right down the leg from your back.

Be patient, it will go, but can take a long time.

[anonymous-user]

I had it back in January, purchased the special support sock
I continued to run every day, ran it off after a few weeks
Not a twinge since..