One more year of XC. forever. need PF fixed now.

talk to yout trainer? podiatrist? orthotics?(i know, sounds stupid to a young comp. runner). not sure how severe your case is. i had a case of pf where nothing i tried would help. ended up changing my trainers(hi-arch, narrow foot type)to something with a lower-heel. the pain was always present upon waking, and would hurt like heck for the first 2 miles of a distance run. after the 2 miles though, pain-free. pain would come back a couple of hours after the run. really strange. ran like that for 2 mths before i took a wk. off, changed shoes and poof it was gone. it's a fine line between pushing it to the point of bad injury vs. backing off and living to fight another day. i put up with the 12-15 mins. of initial pain as i was willing to risk injury(and didn't have as much to lose at the time). good luck.

some stuff to try...

on the golf ball, don't use it on the part of the PF that is actually hurt. this only irritates it. roll the rest of your foot on the golf ball to stretch out the area around the sore part.

do the alphabet with your ankle to strengthen the muscles in your foot. also put a towel out while sitting in a chair and try and pull it towards you using your toes.

the PF has a poor blood supply which is why it takes so long to heal so try contrast baths to get the blood flowing to the area. get a bucket of ice water and a bucket of warm water. stick your foot in the icy water one for 10 minutes and then the hot one for 5. go back and forth a few times.

before you do the splint at night, massage it for 10 minutes or so with ben gay. it should absorb enough to be an anti inflam.

good luck

remember, the main damage to your PF is done in the morning, after not moving around all night. Try to wake up earlier, take off the splint, and move it around lightly.

Also, by night splint, do you mean Straussburg Sock? I've heard of people not getting anywhere with the splint but having luck with the sock.

Last time I had PF the sock and trigger point therapy at night helped tremendously, as well as about 20 minutes of calf stretching daily.

Cortisone, if you're desperate, will keep it at bay for a few months. (October through January in my case.)

I'm currently fighting off bout #3. Single legged heel raises seem to work. (Not sure what they're called -- the machine at the gym where you put your shoulders under the pads, hang your heel off the end, and push up & down on your toes.) You could probably do just as much on the stairs. I put it on a light weight and do 2 x 20 reps. Not sure if it does anything, but it seems to be strengthening the foot.

Best of luck. Pf's a bitch!

1) get cortisone shots in the painful spots, then rest a week.

2) get to a recommended, sports oriented podiatrist who knows and has treated pf successfully and get some custom orthotics made. I had a soft pair made that I used in flats and spikes alike. (and I ran 30:12 10k in X-C and a 3:49 1500m AFTER I got the orhtotics). I lost almost 2 years of training and racing off and on while I tried to figure our what the painful problem was in the rear of my arches-(this was in the early 70s when there wasn't much info about this problem, yet available).

the cortisone shots will clear up the inflamation and you will be fine, but, the problem will come back without proper orthotics.

good luck

[quote]It has come to this. wrote:

but I need to train, now. I took a week off, then ran 2 miles yesterday, and it feels the same. Sometimes I think the golf ball does more harm than good too.

of course the golf ball hurts it. You are basically causing more irritation to an already inflamed area.

rest does no good. I rested 2 months when I had pf in both arches and NO improvement. I then got cortisone shots and the pain was gone within a week.

I was running 100 mpw too. If the pf isn't too bad, the cortisone shots and then supportive shoes might get you through the fall; but, for the long run, if you want to keep running you will need orthotics. No big deal.

Golf ball was a waste of time for me.

Many (most?) times, the cause of PF is inflexibility in the calf and lower leg. The pain/tearing in the plantar fascia is the merely symptom. You need to treat the cause.

Stretch those calves. Long and slowly, many times per day. Many times per run even. Massage them, again several times per day. Do ankle rotations (a seriously underrated stretch). Loosen them up. Before a run, try soaking your lower legs for 10-15 minutes in very warm/hot water to loosen up the muscles further.

That (plus more minimal shoes which I will not try to push on you) solved the problem for me.

I second the calf stretching. Did me wonders when nothing else was working

Things that worked for me:

1. heating with a heating pad before running

2. calf stretch and deep tissue massage in calf

3. Alleve regimen

4. Night splint

5. Running on varied terrain (Avoiding flat pavement), but not too bumpy.

6. Never wear flip flops.

Good luck!

tape holder wrote:

before you do the splint at night, massage it for 10 minutes or so with ben gay. it should absorb enough to be an anti inflam.

good luck

I may sound like an idiot for saying this, but given that recent news story, don't OD on ben-gay!

Average_Joe wrote:

Golf ball was a waste of time for me.

Many (most?) times, the cause of PF is inflexibility in the calf and lower leg. The pain/tearing in the plantar fascia is the merely symptom. You need to treat the cause.

Stretch those calves. Long and slowly, many times per day. Many times per run even. Massage them, again several times per day. Do ankle rotations (a seriously underrated stretch). Loosen them up. Before a run, try soaking your lower legs for 10-15 minutes in very warm/hot water to loosen up the muscles further.

That (plus more minimal shoes which I will not try to push on you) solved the problem for me.

my calves and achilles were well-stretched...my problem was high arches. I even wore Earth Shoes which had a sloping toe to heel sole, to keep the achilles and calf stretched.

I did everything you mentioned and more. Ultimately, it took custom-made orthotics and the problem (after cortisone shots) went away and I was able to return to 100+ mile weeks and serious competition for many more years. (and I was about to retire at age 20 due to this horribly painful problem). Thank God for Dr. Richard Schuster, Queens, NY. Podiatrist.

I use orthotics in my running shoes ever since i had PF when I was little...no pain anymore and i have very sensitive feet...

Ultramiler wrote:

tape holder wrote:

before you do the splint at night, massage it for 10 minutes or so with ben gay. it should absorb enough to be an anti inflam.

good luck

I may sound like an idiot for saying this, but given that recent news story, don't OD on ben-gay!

Don't feel stupid, I thought the same.

resident dumba$$ wrote:

Ultramiler wrote:

I may sound like an idiot for saying this, but given that recent news story, don't OD on ben-gay!

Don't feel stupid, I thought the same.

the weird thing about that story is that i can't believe that it didn't happen sooner. think of all the races you are at where the smell of the stuff is wafting through the air at the starting line. in ben gay's long history, i can't believe that girl is the only person to ever die from using too much!

The night splint actually helps a decent amount. For some strange reason though, the past two nights I've woken up around 3 am and the splint has somehow miraculously come off. I think there's a ghost in the room. But I digress.

I ran 3 miles and it felt decent, I iced and stretched a lot after (especially calves). Then, before I went to bed, I rolled my foot over a frozen water bottle, then put it into the splint (not the sock). Wasn't bad this morning, and isn't acting up. I think I'm just going to do all recommended things to calm it down. I appreciate the feedback.

Any other advice would be great. Thanks

PS I also thought of that girl when you said bengay. The thought of dousing my foot in that stuff made me cringe after hearing about her unfortunate death. I'll stay away, thank you.

get custom soft orthotics and put them in flats -- I recommend the Brooks T4. Do all of your training in the flats. That has worked for me.

There's good advice in here. There are also more exercises for PF than I think anything else. For my part, the things I do that have helped the most are

1) the towel pull: while sitting, pull a towel across the floor by tugging it forward with your toes. do it on tile. I do it for 3 mins.

2) not walking barefoot! I wear shoes with my orthodics, or, when I want to let my feet air out, I wear my Birks, which offer support.

3) stretching out my feet, do it in the morning before that first step out of bed. makes a big difference.

5) night splint, although I don't even wake up when I take it off anymore. It can't stay on more than a couple of hours a night. Makes a noticible difference, though.

5) I don't know if this is just me, but the ankle/shin exercises I started doing after I had compartment relsease also make a big difference. Helps my keep my foot from pitching over in an awkward position. But I have weirdly built feet, which are a good deal flatter than when I started, accessory naviculars, and some predisposition to weak joints--so this may not be that much help for yourself.

I also got new orthodics for myself, and went to PT for a couple of weeks. Foot massage--feels good and helps loosen everything up, which is important, since with PF you need to both reduce the inflamation and stave off another bout.

PF seems to be a bit like herpes. It never really goes away....

once resolved, flip flops may help your pf issues.

many will scoff at this, but when you have tried "everything" consider this, and this will give you something to do while you have nothing else to do. core strength ... not just situps. go here:

www.ronjones.org

work on the core exercises and flexibility of hips and glutes. also, high rep, multi sets of squats, deadlifts (squeeze the glutes at the top) and kettlebell swings. i know, it is the exact opposite end of where you are feeling the pain but many problems originate from core issues and the feet/pf are the last piece in the chain to compensate for problems elsewhere. in terms of physics, the feet are at the furthest point away on the lever and are subject to the greatest stresses, hence this is why we often have such trouble.

my sophmore year during the fall X-C season, my pf got so bad that when I woke up in the morning, before I could even walk, hardly, I would fill up my waste basket with hot water and epsom salts and soak my feet.

cortisone shots got me through X-C season but the problem came back during the spring with the track-speed work. It got really bad again and I had to shut down after conference track meet, even though I was favored to finish in the top 3 at nationals in the 1500m.

X-C the next fall was wiped out after one arch tore when I was sprinting in at the end of an early season race. Track was wiped out too as it just got worse and wouldn't stay away, despite the cortisone shots which would last for about a month at that point.

I finally got custom made orthotics for training and racing made from leather and some cork-like material which was light. I was able to run my senior year with no more problems.

good luck