Plantar Fasciitis - the saga continues

It's still there, but I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I should bloody hope so after nearly 2 years. Well, 18 months of PF and another 6 months of other tendon problems.

I still hold that the cause of all this was allowing my feet to move freely after thirty years of being crammed into ill fitting shoes, and I have to admit that I haven't taken the conventional approach to treatment. Normal advice is 'immobilise your foot, stop running, wear orthotics', whereas I have continued running (to much reduced distances) and continued wearing barefoot shoes.

It's feeling a lot better, and has improved dramatically in the last two months. What has made the difference is a) stretching my hamstrings, and b) doing more, shorter runs. I'm now typically doing sub 20km once a week, a parkrun on saturday and maybe another 10-15km somewhere else in the week.

Most important seems to be the stretching. I couldn't get even slightly close to touching my toes, and it is that rather than my calves that restricts my full squat and makes my calves ache. Stretching hamstrings several times daily has hugely improved this, and my PF symptoms have reduced along with it.

I've also taken to standing with the balls of my feet on a foam half roller for prolonged periods - 10 to 20 minutes at a time (while eating breakfast and playing with the cat). That has helped enormously. Stretching seems to be the key, but not just the standard calf stretches.

PF has become more or less normal for me. I'm really looking forward to it going away.

Vivobarefoot Primus SG - update

I ran through most of the winter in the SGs, and they were just the job. Towards the end of Feb, we had a warm spell, and I experimented with running without socks. The result was...bad. In 15km I got blisters that took weeks to heal.

The problem is twofold, the point at which the inner side of the upper creases pokes into the top/side of my foot just behind the ball (on both feet), and the ankle curves back from the heel too sharply, cutting into the skin where the achilles tendon goes.

VB passed the feedback on to their designers & very kindly refunded me shipping on some orders as a goodwill gesture (I like this about VB - they're responsive, and they make gestures like that to keep their customers happy). I hope they will tweak the design a little - I'd really like to be able to do ultra distances in the SGs.

Durability - after maybe 400km there's a little hole in the mesh on top of one of them, and there's a little noticeable wear in the soles. Way better than the Trail Freaks.