As I navigate the treacherous waters of plantar fasciitis, I try different remedies to see what helps and doesn’t help. It seems to me that plantar fasciitis is a slippery little sucker, and what works for one person does not necessarily work for another. Strassburg sock? Helps. Icing? Helps with pain relief but does not seem to help overall recovery (seems to me that ice tightens up the foot and is counterproductive to all the stretching if you try to walk on it again without warming up and then stretching a little more). Stretching? Helps, especially before I get out of bed in the morning, but if I get too aggressive with the stretching, doing the one everyone seems to recommend (standing on the edge of the stairs and lowering one or both heels), it sets me back. Foam roller for my calves? Helps. Rolling my foot on a tennis ball? Helps. Doing exercises like tracing the alphabet with my toes, or picking up marbles or other small objects? Helps my foot but nearly kills my will to recover. I can barely stand to do those exercises. They’re not painful, they’re just extremely boring and tiring. It’s a little like Kegels (you know what I mean ladies).
KT Tape Pro is the latest remedy I’ve tried. I put it on Tuesday morning and have been wearing it for three full days.
My right foot as KT Tape art sculpture
In that time I did two runs, a speed workout and a tempo run. I must have been delusional, hoping the KT Tape would be a miraculous cure-all. In retrospect the speed workout was a bad idea. The tempo run was fine — a mile easy and five miles at marathon pace. (Side note: when I told my husband about my tempo run at marathon pace, he thought I said, “marathon face.” He thought I was going a little overboard with the marathon obsession if I felt the need to perfect a marathon face. I’m not sure what that would even look like – smiling, grimacing?!) At this point the jury is still out on KT Tape. Let’s see how I feel after the big 18-miler on Saturday.
In the meantime, I continue to distract myself with thoughts of what I should wear for the marathon WHEN I RUN IT. Might as well think positively. For today’s run, I gave in to all the commenters who said it’s no big deal to wear a prior race shirt to run a different race, especially since no one but you cares what you’re wearing. I tried out my beloved OC Half Marathon tee, which is very nearly the perfect technical shirt.
Fitted but not too clingy, light colored, flattering design
I concluded it would be perfect if it just had a v-neck instead of a scoop neck. Ever since my thyroid pooped out on me (Graves’ Disease, burn out, hypothyroidism, long story I’ll tell you sometime), I cannot stand to have anything touch my throat. If you ever see me in a turtleneck, run for the hills because my body will be possessed by alien forces. In fact, be on your best behavior and put on your own turtleneck just in case because hell will surely be freezing over.
Fit Fun Mom 
I ran my first marathon last fall with PF. I tried the tape (for the first time at the expo-dumb but) I think it helped. For me it doesn’t hurt while I run but after. My foot was on fire once I stopped but I’m glad I pushed through. I hope you can too!
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Sarah, congratulations on your first marathon! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me. My feet are exactly the same — they feel fine while I’m running but hurt after. It helps me to hear that you were able to complete the marathon and not regret it.
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A friend of mine is a physical therapist, and she showed me some stretches:
Stand in the lunge stance you would usually stand in to stretch your calf, and then gently roll your ankle outwards. The flat foot still needs to be on the floor, but lifting the arch up.
For the next one you’re on hands and knees, then cross one leg over the other and slide backwards. It’s like child’s pose, but one leg crossed over and straight while the other is tucked.
The last one is called the hooker stance 😉 Stand up cross your feet (so your left is on the right and right on the left), put one arm over your head and push your hips out sideways.
I’m (hopefully) running a 5k today 🙂 Wish me luck!
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Thank you for sharing those stretches with me. I will try them!
Good luck with your 5K today! I’m excited for you!
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I ran across your blog looking for how I taped my foot last. I feel your pain. 3 years ago I was out of running for almost a year trying to heal my foot. Plantar Fasciitis came back this year and although I taped, iced and made sure I wore my custom orthodics I basically ignored it. Now I have some kind of nerve thing and fat pad going on in the foot. SO frustrating. I haven’t run in 3 weeks and I’m dying. Don’t ignore the symptoms and if you have to stop running then do it (easier said then done)! Good luck!
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I’m sorry you are battling plantar fasciitis again! I agree, it’s very frustrating. I have post coming out tomorrow about how I beat it this time, and I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t happen again. For me I think it was a combination of tight calves and spinning on the indoor bike. Once I stopped the indoor bike, taped my feet, and worked on stretching my calves daily, it went away. Your story makes me focus on the fact that I need to keep on top of it if I don’t want it to come back. Injuries humble me and remind me that I have a lot to learn. Good luck to you too! I hope you conquer it again soon.
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