Man, just as I say I’ve “tried everything” you bring up the one thing I haven’t tried. I’m familiar with the concept, just avoided it for some reason.

Is there consensus on the “best boot”?

Scott

There was a meta-study where they studied all the studies and concluded the boot was the one thing that universally worked for almost everybody. Cold laser therapy, massage, blah blah blah, all hit or miss or just placebo effect. The best boot seems to be one like this. https://www.sourceortho.net/...B6Ec7ngaApBuEALw_wcB

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

I’ll second the use of a boot at nighttime. The link that zentribrett shared is the boot that I use. Super easy to get used to.

I’m going to look closer at calf muscle trigger points. When my PF is flaring, I always notice hot spots in the lateral head of the calf muscle.

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Not everything is as it seems -Mr. Miyagi

Nothing wrong with getting another opinion. Nothing wrong with "waiting" longer as well, but I'm confident in that your plantar fasciosis (a better term) isn't likely going to resolve at this point.

I like the night splints (used one myself even) and no harm in trying (though I could not quite make it all night).

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Thanks for chiming in! When you say “my plantar fasciosis isn’t going to resolve”, do you mean never, no matter what I do? Or just that it’s not going to fix itself without medical intervention?

In hopes for the latter, why do you say that and what would you recommend?

Scott

Zombie thread comes alive around Halloween, hmmmm..............

Anyway, here is a PF story from a different angle. It might help, it might not. Every situation is different.
Backstory: Fast twitch athlete that did it all from an early age through high school. Played D2 basketball in college. Basically balled 7 days a week from around 12 years old till about 30. Got married/had kids so that went to 3 or 4 days a week. As time went on kept doing things in an attempt to stay in the game. Lots of leg weights, weighted calf raises, etc. Not much else. Developed PF around 38. I tried to get rid of it for about 5 years. It got so bad I would have to slide down the stairs after a night of playing BB. I decided to quit all court sports.I had to do something, so I became a cyclist and started swimming. Still was doing some weight lifting. The PF would not go away. My wife was a runner and wanted me to become one as well. How was I going to do that with the PF? BTW, 5' 8" around 200lbs.

I did lots of reading and thinking. I determined that the 30 years+ of wearing the highly supportive BB/court shoes had weakened the muscles in my feet. The calf raises had made the Achilles too strong/tight and the PF could not cope. All of the connective tissue in the lower leg was way too tight. So, I got rid of all of my stiff soled shoes including the cycling shoes. Work shoes, etc. became cushioned with little support and lots of flexibility. I bought some "transition running shoes" for those moving to the barefoot movement that was happening at the time to start my running career. How did it go?

I headed out of the house for a 3 mile run.(in the evening) The feet were killing me after about a mile! I limped back to the house. I had to sit for the rest of the night. But, and this is a big but, I got up in the morning and the PF pain was reduced. Same thing the next day. After a mile, the feet were screaming, but the PF pain was reduced. After a week of this, the PF pain had gone away and the pain on the runs was getting less and less. After about 3 weeks the pain on the runs had gone away. I was up to running 3-4 miles at a time. The wife and I had signed up for a Christmas time 8k. That is what I had started training for. The event came and went with no issues. That was followed up with a Spring 10K. That was around 7 years ago. I will be doing my 3rd marathon a week from Saturday. In between have been lots of 10ks, halfs, cycling centurys, a few tris, etc. I will not lie to you. Those 3-4 weeks were really painful! But, I stuck it out and saw it through.

The key for me is keeping all of the lower leg/foot stretched and in harmony. I cycle in the running shoes with clips/straps. Climbing out of the saddle with that setup does a great job of keeping the Achilles/PF/arches stretched and balanced. Swimming/leg kicks really helps as does Yoga. I take a Yoga class on Friday evenings before the Saturday morning long runs. This has improved my running as much as anything else. I still have some scar tissue in each foot, but it doesn't hurt. It just has electrical impulses running through it. It talks to me and tells me when I need to roll the area with a golf ball.

That's my story.

I'm convinced that rest isn't the right answer for PF, not for me anyway.

Just like Cmore my PF got better when I started running again and putting a lot of stress on it. I started to walk around the house barefoot or in my vibrams. I also started trail running and in a weeks, it went away. I'm actually scared that if I ever stop running it will come back, but for now it's gone. Good Luck.

Thanks to you and Cmore for sharing your stories. I see runners everywhere. And rroof’s words to the affect that he doesn’t see my condition improving follow me like a little dark cloud. Success stories help.

I’ve made an appointment with the Doc to reassess the foot and where to go from here. In my case, the key detail may be “fasciosis”, which is a degeneration of the tendon that goes beyond the inflammation associated with “fasciitis”.

Regardless, I hear what you are saying about tough love. I reaaaallly abused my foot to finish Norseman and was basically crippled getting into bed that night. Next day comes and it was like nothing happened, maybe even better than normal. That tendon is a sadistic little fucker with a mind of its own.

Scott

You’ll be relieved to know that imaging today showed improvement in my troublesome little plantar fascia. The patience plan is working; albeit slowly.

Curious as to your opinion on nitroglycerin patches as a recovery aid. That came up as a non-invasive option for encouraging blood flow and healing. True?

Alternatively, there is the Tenex fasciotomy. Do you have thoughts on that procedure?

Scott

There are no good studies regarding topical nitro patches for plantar fasciosis/itis. Certainly won't hurt, but neither would rubbing magic dirt on it ;-) I don't employ.

I have utilized Tenex, Topaz and other microdebriders/coblation with mixed results (mostly for achilles tendinosis). Note this is not a "fasciotomy" as you mentioned. I'd like to say my results match some optimistic website claims, but they definitely do not. If you want to "believe" these studies, then why not the endoscopic release studies that are even better?

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

just read some of the thread - and suffered from PF for many years- tried everything on this thread including ESWT- which at the time was not covered by insurance--- eventually had a partial release and it WORKED... woo hoo.

Our plan was if that did not work was to sever the nerve!! Yes desperate but that was up for discussion.

The Surgery worked for me and was certainly efficacious.


Hope this helps G

Good Luck

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.

Seems that time and surgery are the credible choices. Do you have any materials on endoscopic release that are good reading for the layperson?

Surgery scares me, but good advice and ^^success stories^^ are good medicine.

Scott

Hey Mikey,

I resurrected your thread for my own purposes, which leads me to ask........how is your foot?

Scott

Here is a review study link from the NIH to an Ochsner Journal study from 2000. They reviewed Barrett and Day's original study form 1993 and over 1228 cases with overall success rate of 83% (Barrett and Day was 100%, but only 65 cases if I remember). A good place to start and not too heavy reading.

The point is this is peer reviewed, reputable stuff. Going too "layperson" just gets you a forum like this and a bunch of anecdotes (which does not = data).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC3117526/

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Scott,

My feet are doing good. I don't have any PF symptoms.

Since I tore the PF in my right foot, that foot functions a little differently than my left foot. It seems to be a lot stiffer in the morning but it loosens up after a few minutes of walking. The same with running, my right foot feels a little jacked up when I first start running but again it loosens up fairly quickly. Right now I'm running about 25 miles a week and running on all kinds of different surfaces with no issues.

I feel your pain! PF is such a hard thing to recover from. What works for one, doesn't work for all.

I do believe that strengthening my feet was the key to my recovery.

Good Luck,
Mike