Intense heel pain

QuietBloom

OK, so it started out with a sore heel. I kept running, because sometimes these things sort themselves out with time. Suddenly it became intense on my last run, and now I can hardly walk. Needless to say, some serious time off is warranted. I suspect that going with a less expensive version of my usual running shoe had a great deal to do with this, so lesson learned. I also started a new job that is in a much more hilly area than I normally run, and I suspect that had something to do with it as well. It truly feels like I bruised it, or maybe even a stress fracture - it doesn't fit the symptoms of plantar fasciitis (thank God).

I know I should bike or something, to keep my cardio up, but no bike or gym membership. No pool access. The only thing I have is a kettlebell. :ohwell: Better than nothing?

DymonNdaRgh40

This one is a toughy. When I first started running I would get this sort of heel pain but not during a run. It would usually occur later on after I'd gotten home. I know this sounds weird but I used to pinch that area and it would relieve the pain somewhat. My daughter would also bite that area and man that would really help. It went away on its own though. I suggest having it checked out as soon as you can.

There are some upper body workouts you can do to keep your cardio up like boxing, rowing, push ups, upright rows, renegades which you could use your kettlebell to perform.

Eric_DeCastro

I'm feeling the same intense pain in my left heel. I think it's because I tried to run my normal 4.5miles in my new minimalist shoes and tried the mid foot strike the whole way. I'm worried because I have a 5K next week. I hope the pain goes away before than. I don't want to miss this.

GiddyupTim

Are you sure it is not plantar fasciitis? PF usually starts as heel pain. The hallmark symptom of PF is that the first steps you take in the morning are very painful.

Eric_DeCastro

I have a high threshold for pain so very painful isn't very painful to me. but mine is more on the side of my foot closer to the heel.

SillyC2

Are you sure it is not plantar fasciitis? PF usually starts as heel pain. The hallmark symptom of PF is that the first steps you take in the morning are very painful.

.... but not always.... I'm in PT for PF right now. (Wow is that alphabet soup!) I really though it wasn't PF, but the doctor that I saw was able to pretty conclusively show me WHY it was PF. Basically, we're prone to all sorts of foot problems as distance runners because we tire everything out and then bash on our feet, and PF can cause pain anywhere along the bottom of the foot.

They are having me strengthen my glutes as therapy, which is interesting, and really seems to help.

QuietBloom

Are you sure it is not plantar fasciitis? PF usually starts as heel pain. The hallmark symptom of PF is that the first steps you take in the morning are very painful.

No, the pain is not worse in the am. That is what gives me hope that it is not plantar fasciitis! It is continually very painful.

QuietBloom

Are you sure it is not plantar fasciitis? PF usually starts as heel pain. The hallmark symptom of PF is that the first steps you take in the morning are very painful.

.... but not always.... I'm in PT for PF right now. (Wow is that alphabet soup!) I really though it wasn't PF, but the doctor that I saw was able to pretty conclusively show me WHY it was PF. Basically, we're prone to all sorts of foot problems as distance runners because we tire everything out and then bash on our feet, and PF can cause pain anywhere along the bottom of the foot.

They are having me strengthen my glutes as therapy, which is interesting, and really seems to help.

Hmm. Thanks! That is interesting!

pobalita

Could it be a heel spur or fat pad injury? I stepped of a curb wrong last summer and thought I'd fractured my heel. I did have an x-ray, but the dr. assured me that if it was a stress fracture the pain would be very, very intense - so hopefully, that isn't your problem.

With my injury the main symptom was a sharp shooting pain up through my heel like stepping on a nail. I could walk ok, but putting any force on it caused intense pain. Hills were impossible. After three months without running and trying many ways to get rid of the pain (ice, new shoes, orthotics, ibuprofen, soft running surfaces), I found two things that worked. First, I returned my shoes to a standard lacing pattern instead of lacing them to prevent heel slippage; I immediately noticed less heel and foot pain after running. Second, I got some plastic heel cups which I read about in a track and field article. My pain completely stopped as soon as I put them on. I've never seen them in running stores, but they are about $7.00 per pair on the internet. I think I got 6 pairs on ebay for $35. They are opaque, cheap-looking molded plastic cups with a red or blue star sticker on the back. I wish I'd found them a month earlier.

ATT949

OK, so it started out with a sore heel. I kept running, because sometimes these things sort themselves out with time. Suddenly it became intense on my last run, and now I can hardly walk. Needless to say, some serious time off is warranted. I suspect that going with a less expensive version of my usual running shoe had a great deal to do with this, so lesson learned. I also started a new job that is in a much more hilly area than I normally run, and I suspect that had something to do with it as well. It truly feels like I bruised it, or maybe even a stress fracture - it doesn't fit the symptoms of plantar fasciitis (thank God).

I know I should bike or something, to keep my cardio up, but no bike or gym membership. No pool access. The only thing I have is a kettlebell. :ohwell: Better than nothing?

Can't cite the source right now but if you insist I'll dig it up. The only research that I've seen that looks into the correlation between running shoes injuries indicates that there is a positive relationship between the cost of running shoe and the incidence of injury.

In other words, it wasn't the shoes.

If the pain is sharp and right above the heel bone (the calcaneus) it could be something called insertional Achilles tendonitis and, the best site that I have seen for in-depth, no BS analysis of injuries is:

http://www.runningwritings.com/p/the-injury-series.html

Not running can be frustrating for a lot of people, yours truly included, but it's also a great way to make sure that you aren't "The fittest spectator at the race".

A few weeks ago, In the space of a few days, I had symptoms of no less than three common running injuries in my right foot and lower leg and, as a result of taking some time off and following a rehab regimen from running runnings.com, I am getting ready to run again.

If you don't have a way to engage the large muscles in the body, which are the glutes, hamstring and quads, it's going to be challenging to expend enough energy to increase your heart rate for an extended period.

Daniel's "Running Formula" (page 84, second edition) provides information about rolloff in cardiovascular fitness while cross training and also without crosstraining. Perhaps somebody here on the forum could look it up but, lacking that, it's something like after two weeks you're only down about 5% or 7%. Please don't take that as gospel because my copy of Daniels is on the West Coast and I am on the East Coast! :-)

What I really try to keep in mind about the desire to run while in pain is something Greg McMillan said in the running camp that I attended last May. It wasn't a hard-core training camp, rather a five day getaway to learn about running and his training plan. In one of his classes he asked "Is anyone here planning on winning a racing Olympics?"

The joke was that Andrew Lemoncello, who is an Olympian and is training under Greg's tutelage, was sitting in the back of the class. Lemon raised his hand, as expected, and Greg continued by saying that there simply is no reason for the vast majority of runners to continue running if they experience significant pain. None of us here on the forum are making a living running so it comes down to running being a passion for most of us while for some it borders on an obsession but there's no one here who needs to train "on the knife edge" to put food on the table.

Take a little while to get healthy because your body might forgive but it never forgets.

Good luck with this.

(This lengthy posting has been brought to you by the enhanced dictation feature in OS X 10.9.2…)

SarahxApple

I had a similar thing when I started doing a run that was a gentle hill up and down, I used to find it more comfortable to walk with my hell raised (like I was pretending to wear heels), a PT I know said this can happen when people start doing hill stuff as they automatically run faster down hill and they are pounding away. Mine went away on it's own but I did take two months off running but still did my regular bootcamp. Unfortunately I cannot help with what it is only suggest what worked for me, I did my first ever 15km run on Saturday and it was called 'Tough Run' as it was a 5km track which was hilly (ish), I really concentrated on not going faster down hill and this week no problems.