Diary of a non heel striking heel striker : Day 1
Dear Diary,
I have been a heel striker for TWENTY FIVE years, but thanks to unexplained heel pain that hasn’t changed in two months of not running, I find myself needing to convert to a mid foot strike so that I can run again. The mid foot strike goes against every fiber of my being, and I have to pay attention to every foot fall so as not to switch back to my beloved heel strike.
Now, I have had many people over the past 25 years try to tell me that I should switch to a mid foot strike, but the heel strike was working for me! At one point, I was running sub 1:30 half marathons and winning them with my heel strike. I had no incentive to change. In fact, changing at that point, would have ended my speed and winning streak for quite a while. One cannot simply switch their foot strike and maintain the same mileage and pace!
I waited out the barefoot shoe trend and the mid foot or die trend. Finally the science started coming around and people started admitting that a heel strike is indeed the best foot strike for some people. Even my coaching certification course stated that different foot strikes work for different people, and that it helps to acknowledge that while heel striking is harder on the joints, mid foot striking is harder on the muscles, a/k/a pick your poison.
But then, I developed a mysterious heel pain. It first appeared a week before my 58th half marathon. Naturally, I ignored it, because I had DNFd this race the year before because of back spasms, and I was going to run it this year come hell or high water. I ran a good race, pushed myself so hard I had an asthma attack on the finish line (that hadn’t happened in too many years to count). But after the race, my heel hurt so bad I could barely walk. I went to the doctor, who advised me to massage the crap out of it and keep running. So I did. The pain got worse. It developed into plantar fasciitis and I had to quit running and wear a foot brace at night for a few weeks. The plantar fasciitis went away, but the heel pain remained. After two months of not running, going to physical therapy (even submitting to 3 sessions of dry needling in my desperation - I HATE needles), my heel pain still had not resolved. I could walk mostly pain-free within reason (up to a little over a mile), but every now and then I would feel the pain and know it was still there.
We went on vacation to the beach for a week, and I decided to try a beach run. After all, running barefoot on hard sand forces me not to heel strike. I thought I would run a mile out and a mile back. I started off strong, “hooray, I’m running!” but very quickly started to feel my calves talking, and by the half mile mark my calves were screaming. So I did the smart thing and turned around (but not the smartest thing, which would have been to walk or at least slow down). Hooray I ran a whole mile! But boo, it took my calves 3-4 days to recover.
And that brings us to today. My 3rd and last dry needling appointment was yesterday. I’m pretty sure the needling did absolutely nothing for my heel pain, but I guess it was worth trying everything available to me. I was left with the choice between continuing not to run and hoping that someday my heel would stop hurting, or switching to a mid foot strike and slowly return to running while retraining my running form. Today, I ran one mile with a mid foot strike. It was so annoying having to force myself not to heel strike with every step. But it was nice to be running! I didn’t even care that it was 85 degrees out! My left calf was just starting to complain as I finished up the mile (why only my left calf, when it has been getting the most strength training/physical therapy for TWO MONTHS???) so as tempted as I was to do another mile, I played it smart and stopped. Maybe if I stop before I completely destroy my calves, it won’t take 3-4 days for them to recover.
Did I bribe/reward myself for a mile of mid-foot striking with an iced mocha from Wolf Hills Coffee? Yes, yes I did.
