Monday, November 21, 2011

Return to Running

After my last half marathon, I decided to take a break from running for a few weeks to let my body recover from injury. If you read my former posts, you'll know that I was struggling with a hip injury and plantar fasciitis. Now, after three LONG weeks of no running, I'm back! Ok, it wasn't exactly "no" running -- I did a mile with my son once during the break. But, I decided that a mile or less doesn't count.

For my first run after the break, I went to Dreamy Draw with a friend to run part of Trail 100. The plan was to do 6 miles, or so, but it felt so good to run again, we ended up going almost eight miles and only cut it short because of work (I firmly believe that the perfect job would be one where you get paid to run). The next day I went to the Deem Hills recreational area and ran the circumference trail -- approx. 6 miles. Again, I felt great after the run.

It's such a change from a few months ago when I would have to force a run through the pain in my hip. My form suffered, and I started developing other aches and pains.  Now, after many visits to my chiropractor at Valley Spinal Care, I don't feel any pain or discomfort. Dr. Justin is the man!

One other interesting discovery I've made: my plantar fasciitis pain is eased when I run and when I walk barefoot. This after years of family doctors and podiatrists telling me that my feet needed more support. From better shoes to expensive orthotics, nothing helped. The first bout of PF finally vanished only after months of sitting on my butt to keep the weight off my feet. I turned into a couch potato. It seems that all my feet needed was a little bit of exercise! Disclaimer: I'm not saying this will work for everyone -- YMMV (literally).

2 comments:

  1. We should get together and share 'war stories' about our plantar faciitis. I spent 3 years and a ba-gillion dollars trying to get rid of mine. Chiropractic is definitely part of the equation! Glad to see that it's not slowing you down...ultra-marathon man!

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  2. I sure have my share of PF stories, that's for sure. I'm finding that it's much more common an injury than I ever imagined. And I can relate to spending tons of $$$ trying to solve the problem. I still have flare ups of PF, but stretching and ice usually do the trick. It helps that my pool is FREEZING cold right now, so I can stand in it when my feet and legs are really sore.

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