Better in the End

I was pretty bummed when it dawned on me several weeks ago that I needed to stop running for a little while. My heel pain was getting increasingly worse, and I finally accepted the fact that running every day was the culprit. I reached out to a friend of mine who had recovered from plantar fasciitis a while back, and I mostly followed her advice: I stopped running, started wearing cushioned shoes in the house, and took Aleve twice a day for a few days (I didn’t last the full recommended 10 days of medication because that just seemed like a bit much).

I started doing Orange Theory online home workouts, which have been much easier on my heel but still kicked my butt most of the time. I waited the recommended 10 days of no running (which was really more like 20 because it took me a while to seriously follow all the directions), and that brought me to today.

With a blue sky, billowing trees, and a warm sun, who was I to say no to a run? I laced up my shoes and headed to Crystal Drive, where I got on the trail along the GW Parkway. I did my usual six-mile route: run along the river, almost to the Memorial Bridge, cross the parkway and pass the Pentagon, run through the Pentagon parking lot and through the tunnel to Army Navy Drive (and transition trusty Camp Jefferson buff from a headband to a mask), and cut back through the neighborhood to home. It was a good run; my heel felt fine (well, no worse), and I always had plenty of space to make a wide arc around fellow runners, walkers, and bicyclists.

In the end, I think the heel pain was a good thing. I am not exactly a spring chicken anymore, and I know running too much can cause all sorts of problems. I was lucky to get a wake-up call that didn’t ruin it for me. My new plan is to run several times a week, alternating with Orange Theory. It’s better this way.