Foot Pain.

prdavies1949

I just got up to get ready for my Long Run and I can't put my foot on the floor. I have no idea what I have done to it. Yesterday I ran a steady 5k trail run with no problems and felt really good. In the afternoon and evening I watched a lot of sport on the TV. Late evening I had a bit of an ache in the foot as though I had been sitting awkwardly, but I didn't think too much of it.

I woke up with a sore foot, but when I put my weight on it Wow, agony. I can now stand and put the ball of my foot down but if my heel goes down as well I get pain down the length of my foot mainly on the outside/top of the foot. There are no sore areas and if I sit with no weight on the foot it feels fine.

As today is Sunday there is no way I can get to see my doctor and tomorrow I am off on a trip to France for 3 weeks so can't get a medical check up there.

Has anyone any idea what I have might have done and what the outlook may be for my training. I am entered for a 10K race in 4 weeks time. any suggestions welcome.

trail_rnr

PF? Stress fracture?

Classic symptom of PF is that it hurts like heck first thing in the morning when you get out of bed and try to walk. It feels better as the foot "warms up". But it sounds like your pain is more top of foot, which can be indicative of a metatarsal stress fracture.

Maybe it's been sneaking up on you?

ATT949

I just got up to get ready for my Long Run and I can't put my foot on the floor. I have no idea what I have done to it. Yesterday I ran a steady 5k trail run with no problems and felt really good. In the afternoon and evening I watched a lot of sport on the TV. Late evening I had a bit of an ache in the foot as though I had been sitting awkwardly, but I didn't think too much of it.

I woke up with a sore foot, but when I put my weight on it Wow, agony. I can now stand and put the ball of my foot down but if my heel goes down as well I get pain down the length of my foot mainly on the outside/top of the foot. There are no sore areas and if I sit with no weight on the foot it feels fine.

As today is Sunday there is no way I can get to see my doctor and tomorrow I am off on a trip to France for 3 weeks so can't get a medical check up there.

Has anyone any idea what I have might have done and what the outlook may be for my training. I am entered for a 10K race in 4 weeks time. any suggestions welcome.

This might be a stretch but I have experienced something similar to that but my pain resulted simply from walking to the grocery store.

While I was walking I got a sharp pain on the top of my metatarsals, stopped for a moment and the pain subsided and I continued my trip to the grocery store-about a mile, in all. That evening the pain increased causing me to limp and by the next morning I could not put any weight on my foot. I happened to have a set of crutches from years ago and was able to move around that way but, clearly, there was something very strange going on.

At 2 AM, I had my son drive me to the emergency room and I presented has someone in significant pain but there was no swelling, no tenderness, and there had been no trauma. Per their SOP, the ER x-rayed my foot and that came up clean.

So, there's me and the doctor looking at each other and I'm in pain and no conceivable cause. This had occurred when I was still obese and before I started exercising so there simply was no particular reason as to why it would hurt!

The treatment plan was what I think the doctor referred to as "an ibuprofen bomb" in which I took 800 mg of ibuprofen three times a day. The pain subsided very quickly and was gone the next day.

My fiancé's father is a retired radiologist, and I've talked with him about this. His response has been to explain that the human body is an amazing thing and we simply don't have an answer for all the aches and pains.

Since this first incident there have been, if I recall correctly, two other times when I've had pain in the same area, once on each foot. I've followed the same protocol with the same rapid resolution.

As runners we should generally use ibuprofen only for a traumatic injury but one of the running newsletters from a few weeks ago that cited the results of studies done on older runners and IBU. I just skimmed the article but the gist of it was that older runners tend to have a lower incidence of suppression of prostaglandin production that might occur younger athletes have.

With that in mind, you might try high levels of ibuprofen for a day or two and see how things turn out (3200 mg is the top end of the recommended dosage but there are precautions and contraindications so check the label).


Best of luck with this and I hope you enjoy your travels.

prdavies1949

Hi ATT949 that is very interesting and gives me hope that this could be sorted quickly. I have instinctively turned to Ibuprofen already, I have taken 400mg tabs 3 times today and will do the same tomorrow. Thanks for your input.

ATT949

Hi ATT949 that is very interesting and gives me hope that this could be sorted quickly. I have instinctively turned to Ibuprofen already, I have taken 400mg tabs 3 times today and will do the same tomorrow. Thanks for your input.

My pleasure.

prdavies1949

An update to the above, I took ibuprofen 400mg 3 times a day, Sun, Mon, & Tuesday. Wednesday the pain had completely gone. I ran 6.6 miles in a new PB for that route, didn't mean to, I just felt so good to be out running again that I went flat out. I ran the same route again today and was nearly 3 mins slower.

CarsonRuns

An update to the above, I took ibuprofen 400mg 3 times a day, Sun, Mon, & Tuesday. Wednesday the pain had completely gone. I ran 6.6 miles in a new PB for that route, didn't mean to, I just felt so good to be out running again that I went flat out. I ran the same route again today and was nearly 3 mins slower.

Glad to hear the pain is gone. Time doesn't matter on training runs. My easy runs have a pace range difference of 1:30 per mile (8:45 to 10:15 pace).