I met my physiotherapist last night. She rocks!
She did a full assessment. She believes that I don't have a stress fracture! Hooray! She thinks my core muscles (glutes, piriformis, back etc.) are weak and not firing properly. I actually felt this in my abdomen. Thus it's putting pressure on my sciatic nerve and increasing the load for all the muscles below them (ankles, feet, knees). Running in the snow makes it worse, because my ankles and feet have to work extra hard to keep me balanced.
She thinks that this is why my foot hurts and it's why I keep getting recurring issues such as achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis. And, I believe her. I've known for awhile that I needed to work on my core, but I had no idea it was this bad. I pretty much sucked at all the stuff she did in the assessment, with my left side being worse than the right. Last night was like an epiphany!
The cure? Acupuncture and lots of strengthening exercises.
The best news of all? I should be able to start running in 2-3 weeks. She said I should be back to my old mileage quickly and that I should be able to run the half marathon in May.
Yippee!
2 comments:
Who is your physiotherapist? Mine moved to Australia, so now I'm on the hunt for someone sympathetic to runners.
Erica, I sent you a PM on Runnersworld with the info. :)
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