Intro
About a month ago I took a train to Stamford CT to meet up with some fellow traceurs (parkour practitioners) native to Stamford who I'd be meeting for the first time. It was my first true training session of the season, turned out to be a great day for parkour. After a few hours of training we saw a potential running precision jump. For those who cannot picture exactly what that is, it's basically someone running followed by a jump over a gap and landing on a precise location (picture something similar to a curb for this situation, I'll explain why later). The gap I jumped over was very attemptable, no risky heights to worry about, but it was far enough to wonder if I could pull it off.
The story behind the injury
I took off running, reaching for the edge of the ground I jump hard off my right foot, my eyes now locked onto the landing. My feet stretch out forward at a 45 degree angle looking for the edge of the landing ready to take impact. Now this is where the curb comes to mind, picture a nicely pointed edged curb. Naturally a traceur aims to land on the balls of their feet for the use of those ankles which act as your first shock absorber, followed by your knees.
Ultimately you're looking to land down onto your precise point (not directly into), but I had to run hard and sometimes you end up having much more forward momentum than anything. Was it bad luck, was I tired from training or was I just not focused enough? There's always many factors to consider, but overall my foot placement failed. My left foot slid on top of the Landing while my right heel took all of the impact right on the edge of my landing (yep that's where the curb example comes into play).
It didn't hurt so much in the beginning but I knew it all went bad, so I kept my weight off of it, sat down and checked it out. No visible difference, just some pain, but since I wasn't in the best situation to ice it or rest it I knew was I was done training for the day. I did my best to walk on the ball of my foot to avoid irritating it even more until I got back home.
Over the next couple of days I continued to do my best and not walk on my heal. The pain wasn't there unless I used it (i.e. caused pressure), it was pretty sensitive. There was no visible bruising, just inflammation (I had a fat heel). To me it didn't seem serious enough to have it checked out, I figured it would heal on it's own and a doctor could only do so much. After about a week I was coming down some stairs in my house and banged my heel on the edge of a step. That pain was like nothing I had ever felt in a long time and I'll admit it, I was on the ground, on my back, holding my foot. Doing my best to hold back words that would make a priest throw a cross at my foot making it worse. Anyway, from that point on I figured something might be up and it was time to get this checked out.
A course for cure
I had to wait several more days, but eventually I went to see a doctor who specialized in orthopedics. I explained my situation, he checked my foot, felt confident that there wasn't a fracture but would take an x-ray to be sure. Luckily he was right, the x-ray showed him that my heel was definitely inflamed, just not fracture. He said their really isn't much that I could do (like I had thought), basically give it "tender love and care," stating it should take about 4-6 weeks to heal. What a disappointment, well...alright the no fracture part was good news, but finally warmer weather is here, and after my first day of training I'm out for at least a month.
Just a note, your heel is protected by fatty tissue, there is no muscle below it. This is exactly what was damaged and needed time to heel.
Well after weeks of walking on my tip toe, had shoes filled with half silicone insoles (just for my heels), some surrounding massage (not deep or direct, that would make it worse) my heel is doing much better. I can walk on it without a problem. As a matter of fact I just got back from doing Parkour at Longbrook Park in Stratford and it feels good. Though it's sensitivity lingers, so I'm still careful. Naturally you're not suppose to land directly on your heal during a landing anyway, but walking, jogging and etc, you need your heel. Even upon landing your heel usually at least takes some impact depending on the situation.
Thanks for reading, and traceurs...take care of those heals ;]
Train hard and train safe! (yes it's possible)
- Joe Cannato
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