Plantar fasciitis

Timing is a funny thing. After my last post I ran 12k recovery on Monday and a 24k medium long on Tuesday. We were due to fly out wed am so i got up early to do a tempo run. About 4k into the tempo I felt a sudden onset pain in my heel, and over the next 2k it got progressively worse such that I couldn't run. I hobbled home and had to pretty much jump straight into the taxi after showering.

I've had mild PF on & off over the years - pain first getting up, pain in the first couple of minutes running, nothing to write home about. Obviously on this occasion I tore my PF acutely

In the airport and in transit, I could barely walk, and this persisted for about 36-48hrs. I had time at home to throw some local anaesthetic and cortisone into my case, so once in maui I injected some steroid into the PF - I wasn't going to let this ruin my holiday (but it was the most painful thing I've done to myself).

With rest & anti-inflams, the pain settled and on the Friday I did some elliptical and stairmaster at the hotel gym, and on sat & sun some painful 5k walk/jogs - not the oceanside morning run's I'd envisaged.

Beyond my foot, maui was incredible - the Four Seasons far eclipsed any other resort style hotel i've ever stayed at - especially the adults only pool area. In further proof of the smallness of the world these days, Henry/Homo - erstwhile running friend in Perth, happened to be staying at the same hotel at the same time, and recognised me from the other side of the aforementioned pool. (in arranging a time to catch up, he simply said he'd be sitting by that pool the entire day - it was that kind of place).

So if one is going to withdraw from running anywhere, that would be the place. I managed to do some (poor) surfing and standing paddle boarding, but walking and running were still very painful.

After 6 nights of heaven, MaiTais and 3 cooked meals a day, we headed back to honolulu. I managed 3x8-10k treadmill runs here, but still pain with every step unfortunately.

Back on Monday I managed 13k, and this morning 12k - pain no better though (and some problems with other parts of the foot due to altered gait)

Not sure how things will go from here - obviously I've done a lot of reading on plantar fasciitis and PF tears in the last couple of weeks. It looks like there are a couple of scenarios. One is that my acute tear heals within weeks and I go back to normal training perhaps within a month. The second is that the injury becomes chronic and this is a scenario I know all too well from patients,work colleagues and family members who still struggle to run 6 months down the track.

Cross the fingers. Either way my Perth training program seems screwed, will just run what I can and make plans once I am running painfree again.

(looking at the net whilst i was away, it seemed like a time for injuries with B'Man and DB going down at a similar time. Good luck recovering guys)