[pct-l] Plantar Fasciitis and KT Tape

[Tom Holz]

What Shroomer said.  My poison was shin splints and metatarsal pain, and by making changes similar to Shroomer, I avoided them completely on my PCT thru hike in 2010.

Your body adapts to strengthen or atrophy based on the demands placed on it, but too much stress too quickly, or too much accumulated over time increases the chance of an injury.  The buildup of stress is driven by time hiking, your speed, the weight you carry, and the efficiency of your gait.  The rate your body recovers is controlled by nutrition, hydration, and rest.  Some of these variables you minimize before your hike (e.g. total weight on your feet or maximum gait efficiency), but other knobs you can control on a daily or minute-by-minute basis, like speed and rest.  As you become familiar with your body, you can adapt your hiking as needed to make progress without hiking yourself off the trail.

Gear can be swapped out on a hike, your legs cannot.

There's no single approach that works for everybody--shoes, gait, gear, speed.  The goal is to find solutions that work for you when you need them, on your hike, with your gear, using your body--and you get there by learning, thinking, and adapting.

Bigfoot


On Mar 8, 2013, at 1:28 AM, Scott Williams <baidarker at gmail.com> wrote:
> "Born to Run" also introduced me to a completely different way of walking
> and running, a different gait, that keeps my knees, ankles and hips from
> hurting and suffering overuse injuries, and one that will be taught by Big
> Foot at the ADZPCTKO this year.  Big Foot is another person who has
> overcome Ibuprofen addiction by a change in how he walks and runs and what
> shoes he wears.  I've had serious knee injuries 20 years ago, and now I can
> run trail for hours, downhill with a pack with no pain, day after day.
> I've learned to "shuffle" on trail with no heal strike and therefore no
> shock to the ankle, knee or hip, a gait practiced by the Tarahumara in the
> Copper Canyons of Mexico and the Bushmen of South Africa.  Knees slightly
> bent, body straight above my feet and not leaning forward appreciably, my
> feet land on the fat pad on the side of each foot and roll to the balls and
> toes before pushing off.  My heal barely touches.  I kick up a lot of dust,
> but I run and walk pain free.