Becky, Philip, and Spencer have all had to deal with long layoffs due to injury. I've had a couple medium layoffs due to tendonitis in 2010, and peculiar breathing issues in 2006. The breathing doesn't count, because that came on mysteriously and vanished almost as mysteriously. The rest of our injuries can be classified as mechanical overuse injuries. Brought on by our favorite activity -- running. My layoffs, so far have all been a matter of months -- a lost Fall or a lost Spring. I dread the multiyear layoffs that Philip, Spencer and Becky have endured.
Right now, I am in the middle of what I will loosely call a case of "inflamed heel-itis." It might be the achilles, it might be bursitis, and it might just be the back-side of plantar fascitis. It keeps moving around, getting a bit better, and then getting worse again, as soon as I dare to test it. Grumble, grumble.
I can run on it (as my NYC Tri post from last week will attest), but it's not pretty. Walking is almost worse than running, as it seems to pull more on the achilles insertion point. The one thing that seems to be helping is my two new pairs of compression socks. I ran the race in them, and I've been wearing them as much as possible during the day. At the end of a day with the socks, the hot spots are still present, but less acute, and much of the surrounding inflammation seems to have subsided. Anybody else have experience with this? Theories?? I'm looking for a quick miracle cure! Are they it??
The only miracle cure I have experienced is cutting out all running for longer than I wanted--this combined with acupuncture helped me turn the corner on an achilles injury in 2005. There's probably some stuff in my old blog about it...but sadly I just checked and it is no longer online!!!
ReplyDeleteI've gotten three acupuncture treatments, so far. I haven't stopped running entirely, though I haven't run since the Tri. The effect of the acupuncture has been ambiguous. It has actually been tremendously effective at loosening my hip, which is going to make a difference in the long run, but the last treatment actually seemed to increase the inflammation in the heel (at least in the short run). I'm sticking with compression, though, and hoping for signs of improvement.
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