Thursday, December 22, 2011

Follow Shelly To Her first Half Marathon Part III

Plantar fasciitis it is . . .
I went to a sports medicine doctor today to have my foot evaluated. After reviewing the x-rays, I am pleased to inform you that I do not have a heel spur nor a fracture in my foot. Even though this is great news, I cannot say I am thrilled that I am still battling plantar fasciitis (over 2 months now). However, it is bearable.

The doctor told me that my calves are VERY tight and ranked up there with the tightest calves he has seen. He actually tried to stretch them on several occasions. The tightness in my calves is causing the micro-tearing and inflammation that is plantar fasciitis. He gave me two stretches to do 5 times a day . . . 10 reps each . . . holding for at least 25 seconds each.

I have been doing both of these stretches, however the doctor said that your muscles don't actually start to stretch until they have relaxed at 15-20 seconds into the stretch . . . which would mean that I have basically been doing totally ineffective stretching up to this point.

I was also given a prescription for a daily anti-inflammatory that will (hopefully) help with the swelling. I was also told to continue my icing regime. There was some silver lining in all of this . . . the doctor said it would be okay for me to continue my training and that there is really no further damage that could occur (except for a full rupture of the fascia . . . sounds painful . . . yikes).

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