Alex Nichols, the gritty mountain runner who won the 2015 Mount Blanc 80K trail race in Europe, and then followed up with a win in the Pikes Peak Marathon, battled a vexing case of plantar fasciitis through the winter. He spent many days having dry needles placed in his foot while enduring the depressing burdens of cross training.

But he returned to the top of the results sheet last month with an impressive second-place finish at the Speedgoat 50K in Utah. Nichols, 31, of Colorado Springs, is back to his old habits of blasting up and down mountain trails. And he plans to defend his Pikes Peak Marathon title on Aug. 21.

He slowed down just long enough to give us the scoop.

Nice race at Speedgoat. How did that go? I was pretty much just trying to run my own race cause I’m still not 100 percent fit. It starts off with a big climb and I think after the first nine miles I was down four or five minutes to the leaders. That’s not too bad in a race that long. That course … the second half is really difficult, so I was mainly trying to get ready for that and use my experience on the course to try to catch people later.

So sure enough things kind of strung out later on. (Eventual race winner Hayden Hawks) is a really fast dude. I tried to catch up with him, and I actually came really close. I started to see him in front of me, but I basically just ran out of room. If that last downhill would have been a mile longer, I think it probably would have come down to a sprint finish.

Tell us about the injury? Plantar fasciitis. I had a solid six months of almost no running. It’s really good to be running again. That’s the main thing.

How did you maintain your physical fitness during that time? Commuting on bike was pretty much all I was doing. It’s hard to stay motivated cross training for so long. I’d ride about 25 minutes each way. I got pretty out of shape.

So you have confidence in the foot? I can’t say enough good things about Select Physical Therapy. They basically solved the problem for me. It wouldn’t have gone away without them. I tried so many things.

What did they do? Dry needles and just going in every week and doing the physical therapy stuff. It makes a big difference.

Seems like you came back to form pretty quickly. It’s still an ongoing process. I can tell when I go for runs and try to match the stuff I was doing last summer … it’s not quite there yet, but it’s getting there.

You are doing Pikes Peak again. How much conditioning can you gain between now and then? For me personally, I’ve noticed a lot can change in two or three weeks. So If I can get that I should be OK. (This interview was done in late July.)

You were training at altitude (12,000 to 14,000 feet) the other day. We did the legendary 3-2-1. That’s a lot of running at high altitude. I’m a big fan of doing the whole course; run to top, take a little break and run all the way back down. I’ve had mixed success at doing the traditional spending time at high altitude. It’s at least good to know the course, getting to know every rock if you can.

Will you go back to Sky Running when you get in shape?  I think I might skip it this year. I was going to focus on the series, but when you miss one race you kind of miss them all. So I might switch focus and do two more big races here in the states … Pikes Peak and, I’m not 100 percent sure. I’m actually considering the Run Rabbit Run 100-mile race. Try a 100 for the first time this year. Just switch it up, try something new.

Would you go in to Run Rabbit Run with big expectations, or just aiming for a good effort? I think I can be successful at that distance. There are a lot of variables at those longer races so you can never tell for sure.

What are the longest distances you’ve raced? I’ve done a lot of 80Ks (50 Miles) but they’ve ranged … like that Mount Blanc race was 10 ½ hours. So that the way I kind of think of it. Mount Blanc is 10 hours, Run Rabbit Run would be 16-17 hour race. So it is a jump up for sure.

How about the North Face Endurance Challenge? I think I’ll try to do it again, cause I’ll have a nice break after Run Rabbit Run.

So Pikes Peak, Run Rabbit Run and North Face, that’s a healthy schedule. I guess, I don’t know. I know a lot of people are getting away from running multiple ultras. But I think if I have six weeks or so (between races), I can do more than one.