Plantar Fasciitis Treatments, Relief, and Cures

Last August, in the middle of training for the NYC Marathon, the bottom of my left foot started to hurt. It was really sore after I ran, and I also felt a weird burning sensation in the same area. I had no idea what it was at first, but it only took a few minutes of research to figure out my symptoms pointed to plantar fasciitis…

Have you had plantar fasciitis before, or do you currently suffer from it? If you have/do, I’m sorry! It’s awful. But the good news is, there are a lot of at-home plantar fasciitis treatments to help manage the pain and ultimately cure the injury.

What is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis occurs when your plantar fascia — a thick band of connective tissue that goes from your heel bone to your toes and supports your arch — gets inflamed. It causes pain in the heel and/or arch of the foot, and for some people, there’s a burning sensation in the heel and arch area.

While it’s a very common condition among runners, it doesn’t only affect runners. I was surprised to learn that most people I talked to about plantar fasciitis had it at some point or currently have it, and most aren’t runners. Factors such as wearing the wrong shoes for your feet, rolling your ankles inward while you walk, standing too long on a hard surface, being flat-footed, and overuse can all lead to plantar fasciitis.

First, the good: I was able to continue training and comfortably run the NYC Marathon by following specific at-home plantar fasciitis treatments.

As for the not-so-good: Unless you’re able to completely stop whatever is causing the plantar fasciitis (running, standing on hard surfaces for long periods, etc.), it can take a long time to heal and requires a lot of attention. I spent hours each week treating my injury last year, but in the end, it was worth it to be able to complete the NYC Marathon!

Here’s everything I did to manage my plantar fasciitis…

Plantar Fasciitis Treatments At Home

Time off & Reduced Mileage

My plantar fasciitis came on so quickly and hurt so much that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to run the marathon at all. So even though I was in the sixth week of a 14-week marathon training program, I stopped running and took two weeks off.

After that break, my heel was still sore, but it was getting better and running was manageable. I decided to move forward with my training, but I cut back from five running days per week to four, giving my foot more recovery time between runs.

New Shoes

I think the biggest contributor to my developing plantar fasciitis was running in “dead” shoes for way too long. The general rule of thumb is to replace your running shoes every 300-500 miles, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I wore my running shoes for 901.7 miles, according to my run tracking app. But once my foot started to hurt, I picked up a new pair of Brooks running shoes and retired my old ones.

New Insoles

To go with my new shoes, I also ordered new insoles. I’ve worn insoles in all my shoes, including my casual shoes, since middle school. (Maybe that’s one reason why I never got plantar fasciitis until now?)

While I’ve worn the same style insole for twenty years, I also got this pair that’s designed for plantar fasciitis relief. I’ve been wearing these in my running shoes for the past six months and they’ve definitely helped. (Heel cups are another popular option.)

Plantar Fasciitis Stretches

There are a bunch of stretches that target the plantar fascia. I focused on these three: Gastrocnemius Muscle Stretch, Soleus Muscle Stretch, and Plantar Fascia Stretch. (I did the Plantar Fascia Stretch first thing in the morning to help with the pain from the first few steps right when you get out of bed.)

Calf Strengthening & Rolling

Having tight calves and skipping calf strengthening exercises were also contributors to my plantar fasciitis. I started doing eccentric calf raises for strength and rolling my calves before and after running with a foam roller. I really noticed a difference in my calves when I rolled before running — I’d recommend this as a prerun activation.

For the eccentric calf raises, I did them after each run and anytime my calves felt tight. I’d also recommend adding these to your routine if you aren’t doing them already, even if you don’t have plantar fasciitis they’re a good preventative exercise. Here is a helpful how-to video.

Massage Balls/Lacrosse Ball/Tennis Ball/Golf Ball

I used a lacrosse ball to massage the plantar fascia by rolling it back and forth across the bottom of my arch and heel. I did this on both feet after every run and throughout the day — it was one of my favorite at-home plantar fasciitis treatments.

A tennis ball or golf ball works well for this too, and check out plantar fasciitis massage balls — I’ve heard people love the massage spikes on these.

Icing

Once I was able to start running again, I iced my foot after every single run. I also iced on days that I didn’t run. I used an ace bandaged and wrapped a bag of ice or frozen veggies to the bottom of my foot for at least 20 minutes a day.

Ice Bottle Massage

Sometimes I’d combine icing and massaging by rolling my feet out with a frozen water bottle, which felt really nice after a run on a hot summer day.

No Barefeet!

Walking around barefoot can be painful when you have plantar fasciitis due to a lack of support for your arches. I made sure to have some sort of shoe on as much as possible. I’d recommend getting a pair of houseshoes or recovery sandals (like the ones above by OOFOS) or slippers with arch support so you always have something to throw on at home.

While there are several more at-home plantar fasciitis treatments you can try, the combination of everything here is what helped me continue marathon training, and ultimately, cross the finish line of the NYC Marathon.

After the marathon, I took over a month off, logging only a few miles a week, to fully recover. To prevent my plantar fasciitis from reoccurring, I keep up with all of the stretches and exercises and ice after long runs and tougher workouts. And I’ve been running pain-free since the marathon!

Have you had plantar fasciitis? What treatments worked for you? I’d love to hear…

P.S. How to start a running routine.

(To photo by Tyler Nix. Foot diagram by Upset. Massage ball photo by Gaiam. Ice bottle photo by Louise and Oliver. OOFOS photo by Caroline Keaveney. Plantar fasciitis stretching photos by Julia Hembree Smith, Beith Bischoff, and Ben Goldstein.)