Over the years, nearly all of my running injuries have been foot or ankle related.  I need to pay extra attention to my feet and ankles as I grow older, and to help I bought a wooden slant board.

If I think back to the various injuries I have had over the years, most have been either plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis.  These have been mostly overuse injuries, but at the same time, I never really did much to prevent issues like these.

As an older athlete, I am increasingly focused on injury prevention. That is why I recently bought a slant board.  This device is simply a place to stand, where you can adjust the angle to perform various stretches. 

Just doing a few stretches a day, is helping improve my flexibility.  Standing on the board for just a few minutes, in thirty second intervals, is helping stretch out the muscles in the rear of my legs and also my plantar fascia.  It is also working my Achilles tendon.

I don’t know if it is helping prevent injuries, but I feel it might be.  I am running the biggest weekly mileages that I have done for a long time, and I still feel good .  

I’ll continue to use the slant board right through my marathon in November, and most likely beyond.