My coaching client Dominique Spragg wins his long-term battle against Plantar Fasciitis (PF) and finishes his first ever half marathon completely pain-free.
Above: Dominique, me and Jerry post race.
As someone who suffered from it for two years before I came back to being stronger and faster than before, I can tell you one thing: Plantar Fasciitis really sucks!
However, it was during those two years that I learned a lot about it (and myself…). This enabled me to transform a personal disadvantage into an opportunity to use what I learned in order to help people.
When we started training and Dominique told me about suffering from Plantar Fasciitis, I made it my mission to help him overcome it. I wanted to see him win the battle against this terrible injury that plagues many runners worldwide.
The heel and foot pain that PF sufferers experience is unbearable and super annoying. It removes all the joy from running. If not taken care of, it can potentially lead to other injuries.
What I love the most about working with Dominique is that he is always willing to try new stretches, exercises and training techniques.
Dominique is not afraid to ask questions and he always lets me know how the training is going. This not only makes my job enjoyable but also enables me to deliver exactly what the client is looking for.
When Dominique originally contacted me, he was looking for a “running coach”. He hired me so that he could improve his 10k time, do triathlons and complete longer races. However, the same way that a brick wall stands in the way of a race car, Plantar Fasciitis stood in his way.
I initially told him to stop running for a bit (roughly 6 weeks) so we can work on other things like strength, flexibility and core stability. In that time, he still did biking and swimming in addition to our sessions, which helped him keep up his cardio workouts but took the pressure off his foot while we figured it out.
I knew that running through it would have been a bad idea because instead of 6 weeks, it could have taken him years to get over it if we didn’t nip it in the bud. As with any injury, being told to “take time off” may sound like the worst thing ever. However, it had to be done.
Tight calves often contribute to Plantar Fasciitis, so we worked on stretching them. We also stretched his hamstrings and hip flexors.
Then, we worked on his running form, glute strength, balance and core.
Designing core strengthening exercises is a lot of fun. We worked on everything from obliques, to abdominals to transverse abdominis.
When it comes to glute strength, we primarily worked on the gluteus medius. The gluteus medius prevents the knee from migrating inward. Having a strong gluteus medius helps stabilize the knee joint to prevent other potential running injuries.
We also worked on improving muscle balance around the hips and ankles through a combination of strengthening and balancing exercises.
When I gave Dominique permission to start running again, he had to keep it slow and short. I also instructed him to stop immediately if anything hurts, especially the foot.
As he was building up his running, he told me that there was no more foot pain, which made me extremely happy. Still, I kept holding him back from doing too much too soon, despite the excitement (he is a keener and a doer).
Dominique improved his range of motion and continued to build up mileage and strength. He was becoming more and more confident with every run for the next several months.
However, the most important thing was that Dominique was genuinely having fun and enjoying the process.
In the beginning, it may have been daunting, overwhelming and slightly discouraging (especially when you get a running coach and that coach tells you not to run). The one thing I knew for sure was that if he sticks with it (which he did), then he would do great (which he also did).
It wasn’t long before Dominique was doing 15k runs, then 16k and he continued to add 1 or 2km per week every week to his long run. His weekly mileage continued to progressively increase. Dominique continued his strength workouts with me, which were consistently becoming more and more challenging.
When the big day came, Dominique was happy, healthy and confident that he will conquer the distance. He completed his first half marathon (21.1km) on October 11,2015 in 2:01:13, which equates to a faster pace than his previous 10k.
Dominique never made excuses. Despite having a busy work and travel schedule, he never missed a workout.
This is what Dominique had to say about working with me so far:
“When I first met Yana, I had undertaken to explore triathlons and had spent a year teaching myself to swim. In the process of re-establishing a running routine over 18 months, I had developed a solid case of Plantar Fasciitis which had become painfully debilitating.
Rather that just saying,’ ‘tough it out’, Yana transformed the way I looked at running and for that matter all exercise. Her consistent and progressive method of helping her clients build functional strength, flexibility and capability safely and in a thoughtful way, turned our sessions into the most enjoyable and challenging events of my week.
Yana has the gift of gauging where you are at on any given day and taking you just beyond your expectations, “burning matches” as we started to say. Over time that leads to some pretty impressive results.
A short 6 months later, I ran a 1/2 Marathon, pain free at a pace faster than my previous 10 K pace and had completed 3 triathlons and several more competitive fun runs by the end of the year.
Her encouragement and enthusiasm has taught me how to play again. For this, I am eternally grateful. I will always cherish what I have learned from her as it has spilled over into many other aspects of my life.
Enter the Yana Zone, it lies just beyond your expectations. You won’t regret it.
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU YANA!! I sincerely look forward to your continued inspiration to motivate my perspiration in 2016.”
I’m extremely proud of how far he has come (no pun intended). I want to take this opportunity to thank him for allowing me to be a part of his journey and I look forward to watching him achieve many other goals. I’m proud to not only call him my client, but also a great friend.
His amazing achievement and dedication also puts him in the semi-finals of my Get Fit & Win $1000 Challenge.
If you are serious about achieving your running goals, then contact me. I can help you too, just like Dominique and many people before him.