Y’all, I am struggling physically and mentally with the plantar fasciitis in my feet. It’s not painful, it’s not a sharp stab in my heel, it’s a dull ache in the arch of the foot. One day it’s the right foot yelling at me, the next day it’s the left. Frankly I want to yell at them both.
Back in May, right after I officially signed up for the Santa Barbara International Marathon this coming November, I had a flash of fear. Could I really do it? I’d struggled to run 13.1 miles and meet my goal of a sub-2 half, did I actually want to put myself to the test of 26.2? The more I thought about it the more I realized:
I am less afraid of running 26.2 miles than I am of being injured and not able to run at all.
Now here I am, staring down an injury. I’m halfway through my marathon training plan, with under 10 weeks to go until race day. Maybe the plantar fasciitis will go away in a matter of weeks and never come back. Maybe it will drag on for months. Maybe (heaven forbid) the plantar fascia will rupture. I’ve given myself a few days to worry and research and develop a plan of action for the next couple of weeks. Now it’s time to give myself a pep talk and move forward. What do you think of the following random thoughts in my own mental pep talk? Do you have any words of inspiration to share?
Sometimes the workouts we least want to do end up being the most important ones.
Even the best physical training plan is deficient if you do not pair it with your own mental training plan. How do you juggle training with the rest of life? What do you do to manage injury? How do you deal with pre-race nerves? What will your mantra be on race day? What is going to get you through those last miles?
Train without music in order to listen to your body and mind.
Overcome that “I don’t feel like it today” and you will be rewarded with a huge mental boost that is exponentially greater than the physical workout.
Figure out how to weather an injury without going crazy. Be resilient. Take the downtime to appreciate the gift of fitness. Come back stronger.
Fit Fun Mom 
Good luck with the treatment. I think you are wise to protect yourself from permanent damage. Mentally, your positive attitude is the best–you can and will beat it before any races. Best of luck!
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I probably would put in some rest time and just bike and swim for a bit. Last year with my left foot PF I took 2-3 weeks off right before good to coast. The PF wasn’t gone, but with taping it was tolerable. I ran H2C without problems.
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I’m on day 5 of no running and it’s torture (nothing like the time off you’ve had to take, but I know you understand).
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This is a very common injury for runners. I recently did a blog about this injury if you want to view my thoughts as a physical therapist. http://bit.ly/S7S4Fu .. my wife has struggled with PF and swears by these shoes http://bit.ly/RI4uU3. Best of luck in your training!
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