DWIGHT SCHRUTE wrote:
this, except for the night splint - which is retarded & sounds like something some 19th century quack would prescribe along with blood letting.
I disagree completely. The night splint was the onyl thing that got me back on the road and it did it in a goddamn flash too.
PF was my first running injury after about two months of serious training after a lifetime of fatassery and it was a biiiiitch. Felt like someone was sticking a rusty knife into it every time I got up after sitting down for more than about an hour and mornings were even worse. The problem is the fascia gets a very limited supply of nutrients and regenerates very slowly, but you re-injure it every morning when you take your first step. That pain? Night's worth of repair out the window. And so the problem persists, and persists.
What the night splint (or, to be more precise, sock - those moonboot things are stupid) does is allows the fascia to heal in an extended position overnight so when you get up in the morning, you don't reinjure it. It breaks the cycle and got me back to training after two months of constant icing, stretching, strengthening, ultrasounds, prescription antinflammatories you goddamn name it.
That said, stretchign and icing are great ideas, and really getting in there and breaking up the scar tissue is imperative - it sounds hardcore but what worked for me also was to stand wearing socks facing backwards on the edge of a step with my heels near the edge, stand on one leg and with all my weight on the calcaneus, slowly slide the edge of the step over the heel and into the arch. You can feel it crackling away but it clears up pretty quick.
SO all the normal stretching, strengthening, icing stuff (freeze a tin of beans and roll your foot over it), but get a night splint as well. The strassburg sock is the best.