Jon’s Success Story: Four Years of Plantar Fasciitis

Learn more about Brodie's Research Database & AI Assistant 📄🔍 For MORE Run Smarter Resources 🏃‍♂️📚 - Including Free Injury Prevention Courses 🩹🎓 - The Run Smarter Book 📖 - Access to Research Papers 📄🔍 - & Ways to Work with Brodie 🤝👟 👉 CLICK HERE! 🎉✨ Chronic plantar fasciitis can quietly strip away your confidence, your identity as a runner, and eventually your belief that running is even possible again. In today’s episode, Jon shares his seven-year battle with stubborn plantar fasciitis—and how he went from barely being able to walk in the morning to completing trail marathons at age 59. This is not a story about a magic treatment or a quick fix. It’s about patience, progressive strength, smarter recovery, and changing the way you think about pain. If you’ve tried everything and feel like you’re running out of options, this conversation will resonate deeply. What We Cover in This Episode Jon’s long road with plantar fasciitis How his symptoms started, disappeared, then returned worse than ever Why years of rest, stretching, and passive treatments didn’t solve the problem What “first-step pain” taught him about whether he was improving or regressing Why many plantar fasciitis treatments fail Over-stretching and aggressive rehab that actually delayed healing Why ticking “strength training” off the list too early is a common mistake The difference between doing exercises and loading tissue correctly The turning point The mindset shift that stopped the injury from controlling his life How slow, progressive calf strengthening rebuilt tissue capacity Why learning not to catastrophize flare-ups changed everything Strength training that actually worked The calf exercises that gave the biggest return on investment How he progressed from double-leg to single-leg loading safely Rep ranges, frequency, and why patience mattered more than intensity Recovery beyond rehab How improving sleep quality accelerated his progress Nutrition changes that supported training and recovery Why recovery became non-negotiable as he got older Where Jon is now Running pain-free most days after years of struggle Completing half marathons, mountain runs, and a self-supported trail marathon How he’s approaching goals differently to stay healthy long-term

You can listen to Jon’s Success Story: Four Years of Plantar Fasciitis online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Jon’s Success Story: Four Years of Plantar Fasciitis is an episode from The Run Smarter Podcast by Brodie Sharpe.

This episode is 45:34 long.

This episode was published on Jan 11, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Run Smarter Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.