I can’t imagine anything worse than sustaining a running injury that sidelines my running. Nothing makes me more sad than to not be able to run. Unfortunately, I’ve had a few common runner’s injuries over the years. The most painful the IT band issues. The first time I experienced IT band pain was in the middle of a marathon. I tried to run through the pain (a really stupid idea), but it became so painful I couldn’t keep running. I also had extensor tendonitis which started to occur when I began running consistent long runs for the first time in my life. The good news with both the IT band and extensor tendinitis is that they had relatively simple solutions for healing, and the causes were pretty straight forward.

Most recently I started having heel pain. It began as a minor inconvenience that I noticed only in the morning. Eventually, I starting noticing the pain would take longer to go away until it never went away and it became very painful to run. Somewhere in my head I was trying to ignore the pain as any real issue, because that always helps, but I finally accepted that I needed to pull my head out of the sand and figure out what was going on. After making an appointment with Dr. Google, for a quick check in, I came back with a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis.

So Many Potential Causes

I have plantar fasciitis, not only is it one of the most annoying running injuries, the name itself sounds ridiculous. My first step was to read the multitude of articles that could shed light on why I got plantar fasciitis in the first place. Turns out it could be my shoes, increased mileage, running on hard surfaces, tight calves, poor foot structure, bad stride, hill work, speed work, high heels, or basically anything and everything related to feet and running.

So Many Potential Fixes

With so many potential causes of plantar fasciitis, I was given an equally lengthy amount of fixes. Unfortunately, every single potential cause (minus the high heels) was something that could actually be affecting me. I had been way more consistent in running through the winter, I logged my highest amount of mileage, I was doing hills, I was doing stairs, I was only running on pavement and I might have needed a new pair of shoes. Instead of trying to decide on a single cause and a single fix I decided to do everything suggested to rehab and heal my heel. I bought new shoes. I stopped running altogether. I started bicycling to keep up my fitness. I stretched every single related muscle and tendon every day. I even sacrificed old running shoes to the running gods.

Time Will Tell

Maybe the most disheartening thing about having plantar fasciitis was finding out what the “typical” recovery time would be. Most say it should take at least 3-5 weeks, but then there was the fine print, hand-wavy, not everyone recovers, amount of time. Every week that went by, felt like I was going to fall into the indefinite amount of time to recover bucket. Luckily, some time around 3-4 weeks I could tell my heel was feeling better, not fully recovered, but improving drastically. I wanted to test it out, but needed the perfect situation. I needed really soft ground to run on. The only place I could think of was about 15 minutes away, while I didn’t really want to spend 30 minutes just to exercise, I knew the trails were mostly sandy, definitely soft and would be perfect to test out a run.

Bike + Run + Bike = Magic

I really hate wasting time driving somewhere to exercise. It can turn a quick run into an ordeal and almost all the decent trails near me are 15+ minutes away from me. It hit me that I was already biking an hour a day, so what if I sandwiched a trail run into the middle of a shorter ride? Little did I realize what magic I was inadvertently unlocking for myself.

The nearest trails sit within a nature preserve called the Pine Bush. The Pine Bush is a habitat that is unique to Albany, NY and is recognizable by its sand dunes and pine trees. I’ve run on various trails in the Pine Bush a lot, but the trails that I rode my bicycle to were new to me. What I found was a lesser frequented area with amazing views. Not only was I wowed by the views, I realized that the couple miles that I ran didn’t hurt, and better yet, didn’t make my heel feel worse the next day.

Still Recovering

While my heel isn’t 100% better yet, I’m glad I decided to hit every kind of “thing” to aid in recovery. Of the things that I have done, here is a list of what I have found to be the most helpful:

Stretches - There are a lot of recommended stretches, but the stretches that target my calves and Achilles have been the most effective.
Bicycling - This is my go to anytime I’m injured and can’t run. While I don’t love biking as much as running, it helps maintain fitness while in recovery. While anecdotal, I feel like bookending a run with bicycling helps loosen things up and prevent further irritation and injury.
Soft - Soft shoes and soft trails have been critical in easing myself back into running. Running along the grassy edge of sidewalks doesn’t cut it for me, I need a good, soft trail.
Trails - Trails give a soft surface, but they also force a slower pace. A slower pace helps lessen strain, while the uneven nature of trails help strengthen elements of the feet and legs that road running cannot.