Old Lady Shoes

Hi. It's Laura.

Happy Friday!

We can't get lucky all the time and I figure I was about due.

During my run on Wednesday, I noticed I had some foot pain. Whatever! I will just run through it. I run through everything else, why not this. Mind you it is not severe pain, just annoying and on the bottom of the foot. A lot of the time pain I have during running disappears once I stop running. Not this time. Once I got home and started my day and I still had the pain in the bottom of my foot. Uh oh.

I had a feeling I knew what it was and I was right, confirmed by the podiatrist.

“Plantar Fasciitis”. I have had this before although last time it was different. The pain in the heel of the foot was excruciating and I could barely walk on my feet first thing in the morning. This time it seems to have come on rather suddenly which really isn't possible. Like shin splints it takes a while to develop.

 What is plantar fasciitis? The plantar fascia is the thick connective tissue on the bottom of your foot that connects the heel bone to the toes and creates the arch of the foot. Plantar fasciitis usually sets in when the foot is over stretched or overused.

Hmmm, training for a race might do it. Log many miles lately?

In addition to overuse, a tight Achilles tendon, flat feet, weight gain and poor shoes are also culprits in bringing on the “oh so painful” condition.

How to fix it? Rest is clearly not an option for me. I have race tomorrow (10K in the Park) and one month from today is the Triathlon (I hear Darth Vader's theme song in my head).

And rest is the number one answer. Of course stretching is very important now (isn’t it always?). If the hamstrings and Achilles were not tight then this probably could have been avoided (a title for the new book: how to tell when your clients are NOT stretching).

The podiatrist suggested I ice the foot by freezing a Poland Spring bottle and rolling the arch on it. This may work but I am dreading putting it on my feet. It is going to be soooo cold.

“Wearing shoes with good arch support?” Yep, you heard it here and this is how it starts.

If you have ever seen my shoe collection you will know that I am not a fan of practical shoes. I like them tall, very tall with platforms and open toes and rhinestones or lace even bows sometimes and a lot of the time lots of straps. The other half of my shoe collection may not be as high but it is just as practical ranging from flip flops (multiple colors) to leather flip flops to ballerina flats. I am guessing these have ZERO arch support and would be the exact opposite of what I am supposed to be wearing. So maybe it is not the overuse but the shoe collection doing most of the damage here.

The best solution I have heard was custom orthotics. I already have a pair of these. I wear them in my running shoes but have been told I need to wear them all the time until my condition clears up. I can live with this. I spend a lot of my day in sneakers so at least I will not have to wear what I had pictured in my mind which was big black chunky shoes that somebody’s grandma used to wear. Although I don't really know how to get the orthotics into my Jimmy Choo's but if I can, I will.

I may have stressed this once or twice before, stretching is very important. Do yourself a favor and don't learn this the hard way (I have already taken care of that for you no need to replicate efforts). Take FIVE minutes to stretch after every workout, I promise you, it’s worth it.

Enjoy the weekend!

Play hard!

Laura