I have a new foot tape situation, after having gone to the doctor again after two weeks in the more expansive wrap. This new wrap is one I have to put on each morning and take off each night.

The good news:  I can swim again (which is why my foot is wet and the tape is starting to come off in the picture).  I got in a swim this afternoon, in this beautiful Austin spring weather.  It felt really good to get back in the water after being out a couple of weeks.

The bad news:  I continue to be prohibited from running, riding out of the saddle, squatting, lunges, calf raises, and any sort of activity that will stress the plantar fascia.  So I asked the doc:  “how long are we talking about here before I can run again?”  He says one month — at a minimum!  He goes on to say that it takes about 8 months for the ligaments to completely reattach to the heel bone, assuming no reinjury.  (Grrr. Not a placid moment.)

I have to stretch my calf for 30 seconds before I get up anytime that I have been sitting or lying down for 30 minutes or more.  The expectation is that I should stretch it at least 20 times per day.

It looks like for the indefinite future, I will be swimming, cycling (in the saddle), and doing only upper body strength training.  I think I see a lot of pool time ahead!  April’s Pool Days!

I finally went to the podiatrist for my case of plantar fascitis.  I’ve tried ice, ibuprofen, massage, A.R.T., rolling on a lacrosse ball, positive thinking, etc., and this was the next step.  I probably should have taken this step awhile back, in fact.  It’s been a tricky ailment, not always hurting, but never fully healing.  For example, at the Blue Norther Du I raced recently, it felt all right during the race.  But, it hurt for the next few days afterward.  I knew that I had had enough and it was time to take another approach to this annoying injury.

The doctor said 92% of runners will get plantar fascitis at some point, so I guess I was overdue, given that I’ve never suffered this particular malady until the past few months.

The doc administered a cortisone shot in my heel (fun times!) and wrapped me in heavy-duty kinesiotape.  The tape is supposed to hold the plantar fascia immobile, so that when I step on my foot, the fascia does not pull away from its insertion point on the heel bone.  The problem with plantar fascitis is that, as you rest, for example while sleeping at night, the body tries to heal it by reconnecting to the heel bone; but as soon as you step out of bed in the morning and start walking around, the tissue tears away again from the bone.  It’s a never-ending cycle.

And about the kinesiotape:  I’m not allowed to get it wet for a week.  Then I will go back and get it rewrapped (no shot, though) and wear the wrap for another week!

That’s two weeks of no swimming!  Two weeks of no showering!  Ugh!

But, hey — it’s not the first time I’ve been injured, and won’t be the last (See this post, for example).  So now I have to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t do. The doctor is prohibiting running, cycling out of the saddle, calf-raises, lunges, weighted squats, and obviously any kind of jumping exercises.  But what I can do is cycling (staying in the saddle) and any kind of upper body strength work. (Pull-ups, anyone? )  My next event is a cycling event, so I can still train for it.

Actually, I’m not too bummed about this situation.  Two weeks isn’t that long.

Yes, an athlete-friend is sidelined, just as the spring sun was starting to appear and training was about to begin in earnest. 

Frustration. Disappointment. Anger. Depression.  And let’s not forget Fear – specifically fear of gaining weight and losing fitness!  Any athlete who has experienced an injury knows how easy it is to have all of these feelings when the training plan goes down the toilet. 

The reality is you are injured — and that cannot be changed. Of course it is important to do the icing and the rehab exercises on the schedule recommended by your doctor or physical therapist.  But the real key is to change the way you think about the injury! An injury can be an opportunity.  For example, I decided to learn how to swim when I could not run for more than a month.  I might not be a triathlete at all, if it weren’t for that opportunity. 

Don’t get me wrong, injuries are a pain both literally and figuratively. But, in most cases, there is still training that can be done.  For example, my friend with the ankle injury can still do core and upper body strength training exercises.    This is the positive way to look at this injury.  We can delay swim/bike/run training for a month, and by then, she will have developed a killer core.  And we all know that a killer core is critical to peak triathlon performance, eh?

Let’s get training now, shall we?