Train to run don't run to train and I think up until that moment
I was running to train when really what if I want to do half marathons and full marathons
It's a different situation. Maybe if you're doing a 5k once or twice a year
But if you want to run long distances, you have to train to run and that I didn't really that had not really kind of
Sunk into me until I heard you say that
If you are constantly worried about getting injured or you don't know how to get faster as a runner
And you want to continue to run for stress relief then this is the podcast for you
Welcome to healthy runner the only place that provides you with training tips injury recovery and prevention tools with
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So you can develop a stronger running body and feel confident that you can overcome any obstacle as a runner
I'm your host dr. Dwayne Scotty avid runner running physical therapist and coach educator
founder of spark healthy runner where we help dedicated runners get stronger run faster and enjoy
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Thanks for joining me now on to the show
Before we get into this episode if you are recovering from an injury and you want to make sure you're maximizing your nutrition
To become a healthy runner you'll want to check out heel from the amino company later on in this episode
I will tell you more about heel and how it can help you with your injuries and overall recovery or you can check out the research yourself at
Amino co comm slash healthy runner
Planner fasciitis can be frustrating for many runners and today I have with me here today
Nicole a client in our healthy runner coaching program
Who's here to really share her story of not being able to run for a year due to a knee injury?
She was going through and then suffering some foot pain
to getting back into running without foot pain and
You know this plan our fasciitis to really you know being able to do six mile long runs on the weekend now
so Nicole thank you very much for agreeing to come on and
Share some of your story with our healthy runner community
Happy to be here
Yeah, and I know this is something that is very common for many runners
and I think it's always nice to kind of set the table if you will and
Do you mind just sharing with the listeners?
You know what you're running look like
prior to us meeting and
Prior to you actually even suffering that knee injury
You know when did you you know how long have you been a runner and you know what types of distances have you run races things like that?
Sure, so I
Started running in college and when I say running in college. I don't mean that I was a collegiate runner
I mean that was the first time I got off the couch
To exercise that he sustained way and this will tell you how old I am is
My friends in college one of my friends got runners world magazine and there was the couch the 5k
Program printed in the magazine and she cut it out and I made us all
sticker charts on
Construction paper and we did this all together as a group. So that was my introduction to running
Was with my sticker chart
And so then so got up to the three miles and I did you know
I really I enjoyed it. I was very slow, but I that didn't really bother me, but I
Did run throughout college
a few times a week and then a
Little bit after college, but then I got married and I had kids and then who has time and so I took about a 12 or 15 year
Break from running and then in 2013
I decided to do my first 5k I had never done a race at that point and I don't really remember
I think I walked it. I don't think I trained at all. I think I just signed up for it and I was instantly hooked on
The idea of doing 5k races and so I started training again about couched 5k with an app this time because it was you know
15 years later actually closer to 20
So that's what that's kind of where I started really after
After having my kids at all that was with 5k in 2013 and then I worked my way up to I joined a running group in 2015
And did my first half marathon
Which was awesome and I'm still with that running group today in fact
I ran with one of my running group friends yesterday, so I
Totally think running groups are great if you can find one it really helps you keep
Consistent and and make good friends and so that's that's kind of my running journey
I think where I started getting plantar fasciitis was around the time I did that first half marathon so sometime after
After that and I think I've had it for separate times now
I was just trying to think about all the different times. I've had it like I remember in 2017
I had it for a little bit and I think 2015 maybe I had it be the first time because I
Had asked my relative who had it what do you do about this and she told me to get two of the same two pairs
The exact same pairs of shoes and wear one inside all the time and one outside all the time
That was all I you know knew to do because I also didn't take time to go see a medical professional
about my plantar fasciitis and so I just you know stopped running every time I had it I would stop running and
So this last year
January of last year I was running with my friends in my running group and I sprained my knee pretty badly and
So had to stop running and I did all of my physical therapy and
You know got back to a point where I felt comfortable that I was gonna not hurt myself again
And then last July I did another 5k which I mostly walked I was on a family vacation to Chicago
And in the vacation because this is what kind of vacations vacationers we are so we do a
5k or a half marathon on vacation and my kind of family
Yeah
So we did the five I did the 5k was great
I ran a little bit of it not most of it
but just a little bit of it was my first time running since or actually my second time running at all since January and then
We were walking around Chicago then the rest of that few days of vacation and I got my plantar fasciitis back
And I was so distressed because I just got no more of my knee injury
And I was ready to start running again and then my foot hurt and I couldn't run or so I thought
So that was July
Yeah, so so even sorry if you don't mind yeah, no go ahead no
Yeah, because you kind of glazed over this
Pretty quickly about the running group and I would just I just want to chime in there because I find that very very beneficial
For many runners from a motivation standpoint accountability standpoint meeting other
You know runners in your community that are just like you and
You know if you if you don't mind sharing, you know with the audience
What type of running do you do you run like really fast every time you go out there or?
No, no, no, no
Actually, I met one of my absolute best friends in the entire world because I joined this running group
And they asked me what my pace was and I said tell put me with the slowest possible people that you have and so they put me with
Deb and
We were very slow together and we have been running together since 2015 and
Also doing all kinds of other things together and the only reason that we met was because we were the two slowest runners in the running group
Yeah, and and you do follow kind of the walk run method right where you're kind of doing a combination of
Walking and running and I think that's just important for you know runners who are out there who are struggling with number one
Accountability motivation or just not finding their people
you know if you haven't tried a local running group that could be very beneficial and
You don't need to be a quote-unquote fast runner to be able to
enjoy running right for an activity for your life and
You don't need to be a quote-unquote fast runner to wind up getting running related injuries either
So so I think that's important context and I
Love that you found that community and and your community is like no joke like you
I don't think you've dropped where you actually live and where you guys actually run in what types of conditions?
Where do you live? I?
Live in Moorhead, Minnesota, which is just across the river from Fargo, North Dakota. We run year-round. I will say
This last weekend we canceled a run we never canceled
but if the wind chill was like 25 below and so that was too cold but normally we'll run in anything I have
icicles on my eyelashes and
Frost all over my hat and it does not matter. We are out there and we are running
Yeah, you guys are no joke out there. You guys are like hardy runners. You make us Connecticut runners look like wimps
You know pretty good about getting out there no matter the conditions
But we get a lot of runners around here. It's like whenever it's blow freezing. I don't go out for run
I'm like and then I see your runs and you're posting and I'm like, you know
We have many people in our program in like the Minnesota area and
Yeah, you guys are no joke out of Minnesota. You guys, you know go out at all elements
I just love it. I love the dedication and the passion
All right, so you had this knee injury, you know, you went to PT
You went for X number of weeks. They told you, you know, no running and then you got back into running did this 5k
Walked around a lot in Chicago. I get this a lot with people go to Disney for vacation, right?
Yeah, you're pretty much walking like all week long
And you had this spike in foot pain and now you were just like
You know distraught from what I'm hearing from you that and then what did you do after that from that point in?
When this pain started I
Did nothing I stopped exercising again. I tried walking it hurt
I tried, you know, I couldn't I wasn't I didn't want to run because the walking hurt and so I didn't do any kind of exercise at all
and I just was waiting it out. I just thought if I just rest it for long enough, it'll go away on its own and then
my husband is a
University professor but his
Parents have a farm and every October he goes out and helps them harvest and he spends 12 hour shifts on
The tractor for about two weeks straight and he needs to occupy his time
And he knew I was suffering the plantar fasciitis and so he looked for podcasts to
Listen to you on the tractor just so he could tell me what to do about the plantar fasciitis
And that is how he found you for me
That's awesome. I love it. I love listening to a podcast while I'm doing things like that
I used to have my lawn on my tractor, but now I don't even have time for that so
I'm glad that your husband listened to the episode that we've covered on plantar fasciitis
and I will certainly link that in the show notes to this training but and
I think this is important because you're not alone in thinking that
Resting not running, you know, just letting it heal letting things calm down is going to be the the solution
And you essentially went from July
until your husband found this episode, right and then you really
You know reached out to me in October
So what really I guess, you know
Caused you to reach out to me in October to begin with
Well because I looked at what you had online for plantar fasciitis and I thought okay
If anybody could help me it's gonna be this guy
But also I just was looking for someone to tell me what to do about this because I had had it so many times and it was
Not going away on its own, you know, I figured there had to be something you could do
Besides just wear shoes all the time inside and out of your house and and between that and the knee injury
I really just wanted to be able to start running again and I knew I needed some help
Yeah, well, I'm glad that you did reach out and
You know when we talked about what it looks like to kind of work together one-on-one with me is like you're running physical therapist and you're run coach
At this point in time really it was essentially
Pretty much nine months that you really weren't running consistently right on a weekly basis
You know, did you have any hesitations about you know signing up for the program? I
Really didn't because I felt like
You sounded like you knew what you were talking about
but also I felt like I just knew I had to do something different than I had been doing and I
Thought I would at least give you a try because I didn't know what else to do at that point
I didn't want to just keep sitting around
Yeah, and yeah, and I remember that call
very vividly because I knew that you were ready to like take action and
We had talked about you know, you had a very busy work
family schedule kind of leading up to that and things were changing a little bit where you have the time to dedicate to you and
Okay, even going back to what you mentioned before
How you took like this 20 years off of running and now your kids were a little older and you're getting back into it
Like I just love I love hearing that and there are so many moms
Especially that that is very common and I just love that you found
You know this love of running again
You know now that your kids are older and that you can dedicate time yourself
But you know this point when you reached out to me
I remember you said, you know, I have the time to dedicate
I'm really you know motivated to do this right and ideally
Honestly, and we probably talked about this on the call. I
Usually don't like to take on clients that haven't run
consistently for that nine month period because I know it is hard to actually get back into
this whole lifestyle change essentially and you know consistently be able to do it but and that's why I always hop on calls with people before
We work together because I want to make sure that like we're the right fit like I'm a good fit for you
You're a good fit for what I do, you know
I can give you all the strategies and the tools
But if you're not going to implement it like there's no point in wasting your time your money my time right like there's no point
And I knew that you were like committed ready
You know you kind of passed even that kind of benchmark in which you know
You hadn't run in so long and I'm like, okay, you know, she is ready
She's ready to commit to this
So I'm so glad that you did make that decision and after we started working together for a couple weeks
Or even the first month or two, you know, what were some of the things that you really noticed that was a little different
With this program or us working together
Well, I had never
First of all in my entire life you had me on six days a week of exercise
In my entire life. I've never exercised that much
ever so that was different and
Then really I think the one thing that really kind of made an impression on me that I hadn't really thought about before is
Somewhere along the way in your materials. It said something about
Train to run don't run to train and I think up until that moment
I was running to train when really what if I want to do half marathons and full marathons
It's a different situation. Maybe if you're doing a 5k once or twice a year
But if you want to run long distances, you have to train to run and that I didn't really that had not really kind of
Sunk into me until I heard you say that so I think that was one thing that really made a difference for me, too
Yeah, and you really embraced that and you were so consistent with the strength exercises that I gave you and
You know exercising six days a week. Yes, that was like new for you
But you know we weren't doing the same thing every day, right?
And you know we were kind of adding variety and balance into your training program and your exercise program as
opposed to just going out there and running for exercise
Yeah, so that that was definitely and
You know good thing and you being really compliant and you were like nailing the consistency
Right off the bat. So I love I love seeing that
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16 weeks, let's kind of fast forward a little bit
You know 16 weeks later, you know, where are you now? And you know now that you have kind of gone through the program
Where are you now?
Well, I think where we started if I remember correctly we had I started with like something like a 10 minute walk and then four minutes of
30 second run 30 second walk and then a 10 minute walk is where we started 16 weeks ago and
Yesterday I ran six miles
Yeah, I love it. That's a huge change. Yep
Yeah, and you've you've now done back-to-back weeks of six mile long runs
This is awesome. I love it. I love it and
Are you having any foot pain at all?
You know, I
Though I am not except for you had told me the last time we talked you're gonna feel it after your long runs
And I did this morning when I woke up I did feel that you know the first couple of steps tightness
But it is so so much better than it was when we first, you know started working together
Yeah, so and did you do the strategies that you need to do when you did feel that tightness? I did
Yes, I did do that. Yes, but I and I have been really working on my fascia stretches
You know, I have I have I have I'm actually I have a footrest and underneath my desk that kind of allows me to do those stretches
While I'm working
So I do those a lot throughout the day
Nice very nice and yeah, I always like to tell
Folks like especially with you like building up from you know, essentially nine months of no running
And now we're bringing you back up to six miles where now it's probably been about a year, right?
Since you've done like a six mile long run
More than a year for sure more than a year
So this is now we're getting into like body hasn't been here in a while like new territory where
You know, you could get some of this discomfort some of this achiness in the morning
Especially with this type of injury other injuries as well like kiddies really all of our tendon type injuries and plantar fasciitis
Which is more the connective tissue
You know, you could start to feel that and especially that's why I mentioned that is the next day after a long run
So I always say that because I want you to freak out and think like oh my goodness
It's back. Let me just stop running for the next, you know a couple of weeks and we prefer to go away
because then then you lose all the fitness, right and your body this whole time has been building up
You know this tissue capacity we call it right and and the ability for your plantar fascia to tolerate the demands of running and
By stopping running then we just go backwards and we're not building up
The ability for those tissues to adapt to those demands
So I'm glad that you did recognize it and you know now, you know
It's nothing to worry about right you're not gonna go back words as long as you maintain what you need to do from a balanced standpoint
Yeah, and what would you say, you know when we get into the
Logistics of kind of working together. Was there anything in particular that you thought was really helpful for you?
You know that really worked well during the program
Yeah, it really was helpful all all the strength training exercises had videos so that I could watch
You know the videos there that was like a PDF with links to the YouTube videos that was super helpful I
Think without that. I have a hard time remembering like how to do all the various
You know movements and things and I had to watch them basically every time
So that was very helpful to be able to have that to refer back to and easily just click from the PDF to see them
Yeah
Yeah, no
And then and that's why I create those you know videos is really take away the guesswork right so you don't have to
worry about how to do something and I know there are other
You know run coaches and I think this is what sets our program apart is
The fact that we do have the you know laid out for you done for you strength plan with different workouts
That really provides you that clarity with the videos of versus just oh, yeah
Do your own strength on your own or you know just YouTube some strength videos for runners?
So I'm glad that was helpful and then I know you also because you are you know
You're a busy person right yet you have work and you got other things going on in your life
And I know you had mentioned you know just having that kind of structure and final surge was helpful
And that's the training platform that we use
Yeah, super helpful just I just would go on there and it would tell me what to do and
Anything where you where I don't have to do the figuring out what to do next because I am so busy
And that's what I do all day long for everybody else is figure out what to do next
Tells me what to do next it makes my life so much easier
Yeah, no absolutely
Is there anything else that you think would be helpful to share for someone who either is going through plan or fasciitis or
Someone who is even you know considering?
Joining our healthy runner coaching program and maybe they had some hesitations
Is there anything else that you would like to share or you think would be helpful for them to know?
Well, I think two things number one
The short foot exercises I think have helped me a lot I
It was super weird when I tried to do it the first time and the second time and the third time
It took a few tries to try to figure out how to do that, but I stuck with it
And now like I like I could lift weights with my my foot muscles underneath there
Whatever those are called I could like I can you know?
Yeah, so I totally have figured that out and I think that has made a big difference in terms of my foot pain
So stick with the short foot exercises. It was so funny one of my running friend was trying to I was she's she was asking me
Like how do you how do you do that? Like what do you do?
What I thought I said I don't even know but I can't explain to you how I do it
You better just go watch the video and maybe Dwayne can explain it better because I figured it out
But I can't tell you how so
That's it if if you watch the video and like stick with it
Even if it doesn't click the first couple of times
Yeah, that's number one numbered. Yeah, sorry. Let me just I just want to add in there is that's just
Such a paradigm shift in how I've in my 20 year careers a PT is treated runners with planter fasciitis and you know
When I first got out of school, that's what I was taught. It was kind of like sticking orthotic under the foot support the arch
So the arch doesn't collapse doesn't put stress on the fascia
or use a brace use tape and and really that's been the biggest paradigm shift
I've seen in success with runners long-term and avoiding the negative consequences of actually just
trying to support the foot because the
strength of that foot and the structure actually gets weaker and I'm just so glad that you
You know gave the time to learn how to do that exercise properly
Because it does take a little bit it takes a while it took me like weeks because I was in custom footer with optics before I tried it
for
You know 15 20 years really so you know think about like the amount of atrophy I had in my feet because I was like always in my
Orthotics and I know you mentioned earlier is like never worked barefoot in the house like where shoes in the house where two different shoes and
Really what that does is it winds up leading to more atrophy of those deep foot muscles
Which actually wind up taking stress off of the fascia for the long term
So being able to actually like find how to activate those muscles and then
Strengthen those muscles when you're doing your other strength exercises
Is super important. So I'm glad that you have found that helpful as well
Because I know that's been like a game changer for me personally and has been a game changer for many clients as well
Yes, definitely and so the other thing is
You know, I had said to you my goal because I'm so slow
I'm not ever going to win my age group in my 40s or my 50s or my 60s or maybe my 70s
But I am pretty sure
That if I stick with it, I can win my age group in my 80s
And the main thing is I have to stay healthy and mobile for that
And so that is one of the reasons why I'm doing this is so that I can just keep running
You know
As long as my feet will carry me and the way to get there
With this program, it's like anything else you get out what you put in and if you you know
No one can do all this work for you. They can give you them road map
But you have to actually go and put the time in for me. It was totally worth
the
the effort and
And and just deciding to focus this is what I'm doing right now
So that I can
Be able to run again, but I also before I made this decision to join this program
I'd already made that decision. I am doing this now. This is what I'm doing with my time
I'm going to set aside other things
I kind of got you know myself out of some other activities that I was in
temporarily so that I would have time to do this
And that is what made I think such a big difference for me is I had already decided I was doing
I was going to focus on this for this period of time
And then I did it and if you do those things you make the decision that you're going to do it and then actually follow through it will
It it can only help
No, absolutely and isn't that true for anything we do in life, right?
I just think about you know big projects that I've had and it's you know
Things that you put off right and then you never gets done or you don't do it right you do it like
Partially, but you don't really get the result that you want right like whenever you kind of focus and have that clarity on what to focus on
That's super helpful. So that is very helpful information
So thank you for sharing that and what's next in your running journey?
Well, I'm super excited. I'm signed up for the Fargo half marathon in may
So I am now back to the mileage that my running group is doing is on for our training plan for this
For that half marathon. So that's what's next and I'm really excited for it
And then I'm also going to do a 10 mile race in Minneapolis in the fall
And I'm certain somewhere in between there. I'll do another five or 10k
Yeah, I love it. I love it getting back to the half marathon distance
In Fargo. I love it. Um, I can't wait to see you crush that half marathon and you know follow your your running journey
So I'm just so proud of you for really executing right? I just guided you along the way
But you were the person who put in the work you did, you know things that you
weren't used to doing right like exercising six times a week and you know trying these new exercises that you really have never done before
So thank you for believing in me believing in the process
But most of all, you know congratulations to you
For putting that focus putting the time and really like saying to yourself like hey
I'm gonna I'm gonna do me
I'm gonna find out how to actually fix this foot pain and you know get back into running and you know
Being able to meet up with your running group and you know go on these long runs and train for far go half marathon
Um, I just I just love hearing stories like that
Well, thank you so much and let's
Meet back here in about 40 years when I have one the 80 year old age group
Yes
Yes, I told you like we're gonna be doing that together. We're gonna have to meet up at a road race in our 80s
You can take the female. I'll take the male uh division and we could be on like the podium together
Let's do that. We'll look forward to it. I love it and guys
If you actually want to get the short foot exercise that nikole mentioned
You can download our free planner fasciitis resource
wherever you're watching this in the show notes and you can actually get that instructional video and
Some of the other kind of resources that I have
Specifically for planner fasciitis
And if you want to get like clarity focused on exactly what you need to do
To get rid of your foot pain, then you know you can work one-on-one with me
Just like nikole did really get back into running without having to worry about you know foot pain
Just like nikole did and described to you here today
You can learn more schedule call with me by just going to learn that spark healthy runner.com forward slash coaching
Thanks again nikole. This has been really fun to
Share your story your running journey and I look forward to seeing your continued success
Thank you so much for all of your help. You really have made a big difference in my life and I really appreciate it
Hey, it's been my pleasure
And thank you all for whoever you are out there listening to this right now whether you're listening on the podcast or you found this on youtube or
On our website. Um, I appreciate you guys for tuning in as always and let's maintain a strong mind a strong body
And let's just keep on running into our eds, right?
Absolutely
Thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you get stronger run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free
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