Friday 18 November 2011

First proper run in a while

So as you may or may not know, my heel has been causing a bit of havoc recently. Not entirely sure what it was, however, after having a look at the general anatomy in a bit more detail, and also asking a couple of people, it was evident that the issue was certainly not Plantar Faciitis, nor was it achillies tendonitis, but it was something that was vaguely attached to the tendon.

It would seem that it was the attachment of the Achillies tendon to the periosteum on the calcaneus (where it connects to the heel bone). It could have been a bit strained or something along those lines.
I completely stopped running, and haven't run since the beginning of October. I haven't stopped walking, and have been out on walks up on the moors, but funnily enough, when I went out in boots it made the heel hurt even more than normal so the recent excursions have been in fell running shoes, but only walking, and only on paths.

The pain in the heel seems to have gone down, and I am progressively stretching the tissues more and more in order to get a little bit more order into them. It should be noted that I am not stretching into a painful stretch, not even so that it feels like it is "tugging", but just a slight stretch.
The other thing that is reall helping is icing it, and then providing friction over the area that was painful.
Although I used to use icecubes and just waited until they melted, I have been experimenting with an ice tube.
Sounds exciting, but really isnt.

You get a small plastic bottle, fill it half full with water and stick it in the freezer. Once the water is frozen, take out the bottle and cut it at the top level of the ice, and hey presto- you have an ice tube with a handy plastic cover so that you don't get frozen hands as you apply it to the afflicted area.
I sit there in the evening and ice and friction it for about 20 mins altogether. Seems to work pretty well.





Hopefully I'll be up and properly running in a couple of weeks, but the key is taking it slowly. I have more ideas than ever about training, and I can't implement them all at the same time... we'll just have to take it day by day and see where it takes us.

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