Someone has heel pain from running and asked me for some help:
BTW: they have a 100 mile race coming up in a few weeks.
here’s my response:
Ya I think you’re dealing with the plague: plantar fasciitis
It won’t put you out of a race but it’ll be a battle every single fucking step
You have time and a little focus on this will iron it out in a few days. I’d recommend stretching that planter out, mainly by sitting on your toes – take it easy, try different angles so it doesn’t hurt – go deeper as you loosen it up and hold it for up to a few minutes.
And start doing arch exercises. Take it REAL easy at first. This is to get some blood pumping in and out of that foot. Which I believe promotes healing. Mess around with different reps, sets, tempo, and hold times. My two go to are gripping the floor with my feet or even in the air (crunching the arch) and having all my toes lifted up (bending the arch the other way)
I’d do the stretching and strengthening everyday until the week of race
Now to your text
I’d recommend something similar, a tad different
– strengthen and stretch arches daily
– strengthen legs maybe 3 or 4 x a week: every muscle in your legs too. Here are some I recommend: standing on toes / calf raises, squats/ holds, horse stance, Pilates, bridge. Body weight would be fine
– bike: Do the bike in the meantime until you feel better. Don’t be afraid to throw SLOW SHORT runs in BUT you’ll want to do 3x your running miles. IE 10 miles running means 30 miles biking. It’ll take longer to get done but it’s nowhere near as rough on the body
– feet strengthening and stretching daily, even for a few minutes
Do all that and you should be good to go by race day
Joe DiAndrea 