Life With Plantar Fasciitis

Date: November 17, 2014

Author: astottler

Hey guys! As promised, I’m doing a “real” post today.

As most of you probably know, I’ve been dealing with plantar fasciitis for about a year now. This is a fairly common chronic injury, especially in runners, so I thought I’d go through what my experience with it is, and some ways I manage it. For those that don’t know, plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the plantar fascia, and normally appears as heel or arch pain.I’ll start by going through what I might do with it during a normal day.

Wake up. Remove my night brace. This thing is amazing and helps so much, but I can’t stand to have one on both of my feet at once. Luckily, right now one foot is much better than the other so this is fine. The brace keeps my foot flexed, which keeps everything stretched out so I don’t wake up so stiff.

If it’s bad, I might take some Advil right away, especially if I’m running. I usually don’t have to do this though. If I’m running, I stretch and then head out. I often stop to stretch my calves a little during the run. Besides making it feel a little better, I also do this because the extra stretching keeps my calves looser overall, and calf tightness can make plantar fasciitis worse.

After the run, I really should ice. I generally don’t have a ton of time to before class, but I can usually at least put in a few minutes with the frozen water bottle, which I use to roll out my heels and arches. Just a little bit of icing can go a long way in terms of pain for the rest of the day.

Then, I generally take Advil (if I haven’t already) if I want hope of being able to walk that day. The day of a run is generally the worst. Sometimes the day after is pretty bad, but by 2 days after it is pretty good.

And then in the evening, if it is sore, I’ll ice. If I’m running the next day, I’ll probably take Advil. Honestly, the pain level is WAY better when I’m taking Advil constantly, but I really don’t like to have to do that.

You’re probably seeing a theme-antinflammatories are super important!

So let’s now talk about some things to expect.

1. I don’t run back to back days, in general. If I do, I have to be pretty careful the first day of running to take really good care of my feet post-run. Another thing I’m starting to do is if I run Sunday morning, I’ll push Monday morning’s run to Monday afternoon.

2. I can’t wear any shoes. I am banned from wearing flip flops. In general, if you have plantar fasciitis, you probably need to be prepared to spend some money. Good shoes with good support is crucial. And on top of good shoes, you may need orthopedic inserts. Pretty much all my shoes at this point have some type of insert. Even the boots I just got that have pretty good general support have orthopedic inserts for extra arch support.

3. Replace running shoes often. I just replaced mine, and it made a world of difference.

4. For me, standing around a lot is a pretty surefire way to flare up the pain. While I know sitting generally isn’t good for you, I have to sit when I can.

5. For me, walking is the most painful activity. Period. Running is generally not too bad, but walking is so. awful. Especially if I’m walking somewhere after sitting in class for an hour.

6. Sometimes time off certain exercise is necessary. While this injury has still allowed me to run regularly, I did have to back out of a race and take some time completely off running.

7. It may flare up for no reason. My feet sometimes have a mind of their own, and I could do everything right and they’ll still hurt. Yayy.

8. I almost always do Crossfit in my running shoes now. I really like my Reebok Nanos, but if the workout has any significant amount of running (like more than a 400m warm up), I just can’t wear them. They have very little support, and my feet just aren’t happy with it.

9. Honestly, a chronic injury like this really stinks. It stinks to have to deal with pain on a regular basis. It stinks to be able to run one day, and barely hobble the next. But I’ve gotten pretty used to it, and I’ve learned to manage it so that running doesn’t usually hurt. It’s just unfortunate to have a chronic injury. I’m still optimistic that I can get rid of this, but it takes time and patience. I’ve started doing some exercises that I’m hoping will help, but I think it will be a while before I figure this out.

If you have any questions about plantar fasciitis-let me know and I’ll try to answer them!

Squats on Squats

Date: November 16, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, I think our new squat program is working. After the first day, I couldn’t walk the rest of the week and I did not understand how this was going to work. Well, I’ve been way less sore each time since then. I missed the squats on Thursday, so I did them on my own Saturday morning. The final set called for 8 reps at 80% of your max. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. But guess what-I did it! And it was fine. It even felt easier than 6 reps at 80% the week before. I guess that shows what a dedicated program will do!

So guys…will you excuse the photo dump if I include lots of delicious food photos, and promise a real post tomorrow?

Ok. Let’s roll with it.

Post-speed work breakfast.

My favorite ever quick bread. Long referred to as “mystery bread” on my blog, its true identity is morning glory bread. SO amazing. Fun fact: the green is from a chemical reaction between the sunflower seeds and baking soda.

Saturday morning we had brunch with the resident fellows at my dorm. (The RFs are a family that lives in a house connected to the dorm and they are sort of in charge of us.) They made crepes that I filled with lemon juice, whipped cream, and berries, plus a slice of pumpkin bread.

I finally, FINALLY made it out to my favorite ice cream place this quarter. It was amazing, as was expected.

Today (Sunday) I went home. My family went out to lunch at Whole Foods to sample their Thanksgiving fare. We don’t normally make Thanksgiving dinner ourselves, but this year we are. While I definitely want to make our own sides, I don’t think we have any need to roast our own turkey.

Another part of going home is working on CS homework. If Charlie is on top of my homework, that means I don’t have to do it-right?

My little doggy-so tired!

For dinner, we tried a couple of new recipes. The first was roasted cauliflower from Ina Garten’s cookbook. It had panko and parmesan-It was delicious!

We also made goat cheese and broccoli soufflés. Seriously-souffles aren’t too hard to make! And so beautiful too.

Sadly, the soufflé didn’t have quite as much flavor as I would have liked.

And that’s all I have for today! Have a great week-we’re almost to Thanksgiving!

Preparations for Holiday Racing

Date: November 14, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! We made it! Yay! I actually was able to get my big assignment finished last night, which is a huge load off my shoulders!

This is what I made:

Luckily we didn’t have to do any graphics for this assignment, and I just had to work on game play. I have played enough Yahtzee now to last a lifetime.

Not going to lie, I like days better that include 3 straight meals. It seems simpler and more in order. Which is weird. Either way, yesterday was one of those days. My morning began with an hour of spin on my own, followed by breakfast.

I think the pancake was whole wheat cinnamon? Plus the typical yogurt bowl.

Then I settled in to a coffeeshop to work on the above assignment.

I had coffee Mon-Thurs this week and I think about half of those days it was unnecessary. This was way too strong and I was WIRED.

Lunch before lab was same old, same old. My last freezer meal :'(

After lab, I really wanted to go to Crossfit because it was squat day, and we’re following a specific program, but my feet were bothering me and I had a lot of work so I skipped it.

Dinner was a mix of a whole bunch of things-edamame, potstickers (chicken and veg), butternut squash, barley, and teriyaki chicken. For dessert, I had hot chocolate cake with fudge. With ice cream in a separate bowl so it wouldn’t melt.

I’ve gotten into the bad habit of having dessert at the dining hall more often than not, so something to work on. This was delicious though.

And those were my 3 meals!

Now onto running talk.

I feel like I’m not at all in speed shape, unfortunately. I’m doing a Turkey Trot 10k, and it definitely will not be a PR. On the plus side, I have been running 6 miles a lot lately, so the distance should be fine. In mid-December, I’m doing the Santa Run 5k that I’ve done the past 2 years. Last year I tried to PR this race (spoiler alert-didn’t happen), but this year I know I’m not going to be close because that’s in a month! That being said, some speed work is definitely in order. I’ve been doing Friday morning track workouts, although not super consistently. This morning was 10x400m, and I feel like in the last few repeats I was starting to get in the groove of running faster. I think next week’s track workout will be longer and not as fast, in preparation for the 10k. In addition, I think for now I’m going to make Monday afternoons (I only have 2 more of these of normal classes though) treadmill runs. These will vary somewhat, although for next week I’m thinking I’ll do 2 miles @ 8:00 pace, plus 10 2:00 intervals at 7:30. I did a shorter version of this last Monday, and I think after that I’m ready to kick it up a notch! To be honest, my main PR goal races will be in the winter-probably the same ones I did last year! So I have plenty of time. Right now, my running isn’t super focused, which I’m enjoying, but some speed workouts will be good for me!

What are your upcoming goals?

Korean BBQ

Date: November 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Thursday! I’m popping in quickly here between classes because I don’t have quit enough time to find my bug in my CS homework before my next class. In terms of life, let’s just say I have a lot of CS ahead of me in the next few days!

I’m going to do a quick recap of yesterday. My morning began with a couple of dates and a 6 mile run. I absolutely love the route, and will do a whole other post on running in the near future! It’s also great because it’s slightly downhill on the way back so I can just cruise! Plus, my new running shoes made all the difference with my foot pain. It was night and day.

Breakfast was no different, but with the addition of veggies and fresh persimmons in my yogurt!

After morning classes, I had a classic lunch from the freezer. After today’s lunch I’m all out of frozen meals!

Plus some homemade pumpkin bread to get me through an afternoon of CS. This plate x2.

(Excuse the shape but it was frozen and hard to pull apart!)

That evening, I went to a Korean BBQ place for the first time. It was my friend’s 21st birthday, so we made the trek over there in rush hour traffic. It was such a nice place! If you haven’t had it before, at a Korean BBQ place, you choose a meat (or several) and they cook it on your table. It comes with tons of sides.

The meat we had was pork belly and beef, so I skipped on it (I don’t eat red meat), but there were more than enough sides and appetizers that I left stuffed!

Another favorite was the vegetable pancake.

And we also got a dish with acorn noodles, which I had never had before! They were really chewy and sticky (in a good way).

It was definitely different but a lot of fun! The only thing was that my sweatshirt I wore picked up the Korean BBQ smell!

Afterwards, I got some cookie dough gelato.

That’s all I have today, but expect some more interesting posts in a couple of days when my schoolwork lightens up!

Brain Mush AKA Chem Midterm

Date: November 11, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Wow, my brain is so mushy right now I started to spell “mush” wrong in the title! It’s now 8:45pm and I just got out of a Chem midterm. I’ve been doing chem since 11am today, so my brain is pretty much gone!

My morning started with Crossfit. I had a piece of pumpkin bread beforehand-seriously, this has made the biggest difference in how I feel during my morning weight lifting!

The WOD was a burner. It was sets of 250m row+one exercise for a minute, with the three exercises repeated twice through and rest between sets. The exercises were its ups, kettle bell swings, and burpees. I kept a pretty consistent pace on the rower throughout which was good though!

I was more than ready for some protein when I got back!

I also had a cappuccino because Chem.

After class, I ran back to the dining hall for a veggie filled lunch. Roasted veggies, Greek salad, and bulgar with cranberries.

I also had a small serving of hot chocolate cake. I’ve finally learned how to serve myself a reasonable size!

After an afternoon spent studying, it was dinnertime. Yes, all I did today was Chemistry and eat.

On the menu was chicken, mac n cheese, salad, and roasted broccoli.

In terms of “progress,” one thing I’ve noticed since making more of an effort to eat well and moderately is that my eating from day to day is way more consistent. There aren’t any super calorie spiked days, which seems like a good thing! Consistency is key!

And now I’m off to sleep or start some more homework. Sorry for the lack of coherency today!