Return of The Bumblebees

The ache in my left medial arch has been a fairly constant niggle since my last post.  It doesn't bother me at all when I'm running - and I even completed a quick(ish) and strong 8 miles before Christmas - but it had begun to ache so much at night that it was keeping me awake.  I decided to take some days off running, but this didn't help and the ache kept getting worse.  Finally, on 30 December, I broke down and texted Adam.

When I saw him a couple of weeks ago, he couldn't really find anything wrong aside from some plantar fascia tightness and was confident that things should resolve themselves fairly quickly; in fact, he was so confident about this that we arranged our next appointment for well into January.  Fortunately, he had a cancellation the afternoon of the 30th and I went along with some trepidation, fearful that he would diagnose plantar fasciitis and tell me to stop running.

Thirty minutes of towel-bitingly painful massage later, I got the good news.  While there is 'plantar fascia involvement,' this has not YET developed into the dreaded PF.  Adam found some scar tissue this time (Adam:  'It feels just like the bubbles in bubble wrap; time to pop the bubbles!'  Me:  'Aaarrrggghhh!') and the usual tightness, but nothing that unduly concerned him and nothing that made him think that I needed to stop running.  There are, however, some adjustments to be made.

I need to diligently use my therapeutic rolling pin to roll out the plantar fascias on both feet on a regular basis.  I need to stretch my calf, achilles, and plantar fascia several times a day.  I need to keep my long runs to single digits for the next couple of weeks.  And I need to break out The Bumblebees, with their 12mm heel-toe drop and better support, at least for the next week or so, to give my foot a bit of a rest.

It's all eminently sensible and I'm happy to comply.  I've been rolling and stretching away the last couple of days, and dug The Bumblebees out from under the stairs for today's 3 mile easy run.  (I was taken aback all over again by how yellow they are but, hey, this is a medical emergency; fashion gives way in the face of not-quite-plantar-fasciitis.)  Everything felt fine, and my legs felt fresh after their 5-day holiday from running. 

Post-run, my arch still feels okay which is a good sign.  Fingers crossed that whatever Adam did has put me on the road to recovery...Here's to staying below the Running Gods' radar in 2014!