I'm afraid to say this because I firmly believe in jinxing myself. Well, I don't really BELIEVE in myself, but have you ever noticed how it really seems to happen? At any rate, I want to tell you that my feet are almost really healed from the sesamoiditis that's been plaguing me since NOVEMBER. November was ages ago, wasn't it? Samoiditis is a jerk of a lingering injury, which is why I'm afraid to talk about it. It might hear me. I want to say that I'm fully healed, but we'll go with 97%. Sometimes I step down funny and feel a stabbing pain shoot up my foot that reminds me that I'm not really fully healed--or that I could easily reinjure them. I also haven't worn anything other than running shoes with orthotics in them since December, so who knows what might happen if I decide to walk on the wild side and wear real people shoes? I have an education conference one week from today where I have to wear professional dress, so I guess I'll find out. Gulp. My feet also still ache in funny ways at the end of the day. A few weeks, the outer tendon on my foot was so sore that I took a few days off from running to let it heal. My arches are blistered from new running socks creating friction against my orthotics. They don't appear to want to heal. In short, my feet are delicate flowers.
Still, they're better. Much better than I thought they would ever be. There was a dark time in injury land when I was googling sesamoiditis and I was convinced that they would never heal. I lived inside my head and I hated all runners. I couldn't believe that I went from my absolute peak running condition, I mean stronger than I have EVER been to THIS injured mess that could barely walk. Because of the wind, because of shoes with too small of a toe box. I did everything right with training! I was so prepared for that half marathon and then I was brought down by something out of my control. People do dumb things running wise all the time and they don't get injured. WHY ME? I told you it was a dark time.
Every now and then, the thought, "I wonder where I'd be if I didn't get injured" crops up. It's an ugly one. I was faster than ever before I got injured. Although I planned on scaling back distance for awhile, I didn't plan on scaling back the speedwork and well, that thought is ugly and mean. It also serves no purpose because you can't change anything.
I was injured. I took three weeks off. I got a stomach bug and a sinus infection during those three weeks and lost six pounds, so I was even weaker when I went back to running. And when I did come back, I was still pretty injured, so I wasn't able to to jump right back in when I wanted to. Then I switched zero drop shoes and had to ease into those, so it was a whole lot of taking it slow. That's okay. It really is. It just isn't where I thought I would be in March.
Little by little, I'm making strides (pun intended). Saturday, I went out for a five mile run and it was hard. Five miles used to be nothing. When I was training for my half marathon, it was a warm up for 15 miles. I went out too fast in the first mile, but by mile 2, I'd settled into what felt like a comfortable pace. When mile 3 beeped, I looked at my watch and saw that my pace was 9:33. That used to be my comfortable, not pushing it pace during half marathon training! Granted, back then, I would've gone much faster on a five mile run, but that's okay. At mile 4, I was pushing back into our neighborhood strong at 9:30 and I felt good. I had a few traffic stops and did stop to catch my breath during those moments, so I can't admit that it was a straight out run, but I only stopped long enough to not get hit by cars and had no traffic stops in the last mile and a half. I felt good and pushed it up to 9:20 toward the end, even with two hills. Today I ran 4 progressive miles (meaning that each one was faster than the last), with the last mile at a 9:13. It was dark and I was tired, but I managed to push myself faster and faster with each mile, even though I was so exhausted by the end. There are still times when I'm struggling and I see my pace in the 10s, which I didn't used to see at all, but that's okay because like Barb said, I can't compare peak training to rebuilding. There are also times when I am out of breath and gasping by mile 1. I don't know what happens these times, but I know that my body isn't just quite there yet. It's strange how you can run consistently for almost two years and never miss more than two days in a row, but you take three weeks off in a row and scale back... and suddenly, you forget how to put one foot in front of another.
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Monday, March 4, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Sesamoiditis
Alternately titled, Sesamoiditis can suck it.
I thought I should write this post because in the last two and a half months, I've spent a lot of time googling bruised sesamoids and sesamoiditis and most of what I found was horribly depressing. People only write about worst case scenarios on the internet, have you noticed? And while my injury isn't all the way healed yet, it at least feels better enough that I feel the need to write something to balance out all the "I've had sesamoiditis for 6 years and had to stop running, THERE IS NO HOPE" posts that I found. If you're here because you're a regular reader of my blog, you can feel free to skip this post. Or you can read more to learn why I've had such crazy eyes over not running much lately. But if you're here because you googled sesamoiditis, hi. I'm sorry. Sesamoids are jerks, aren't they? Did you even know that they existed before you injured yours? I didn't. Granted, I'd sometimes wear heels and have a sore spot on the ball of my feet or run hill repeats and feel a little sore the next day, but ice and rest usually cleared it up.
And then I ran a half marathon with 50 mph wind gusts in shoes with a smaller than usual toe box. My gait was off, way off. I could feel it and kept correcting it, but it was impossible in the wind to keep it normal. I could feel my feet slapping the pavement and knew it wasn't good, but there wasn't anything I could. By the end of the half, the balls of my feet felt like I'd just walked across hot sand. Still, I figured that if I iced them all day at work the next day they'd be fine. Only they didn't get better, they got worse. The tricky thing was that it only hurt when I walked, not when I ran. I kept running moderately for about two weeks because I figured that if it wasn't hurting when I ran, everything had to be fine. In hindsight, I realize this is silly, but runners don't always think straight.
The frustrating thing was that I ran this half marathon in better shape than I'd always been. I trained for a PR. In the course of my training, I ran 13 miles twice. I ran a 14 miles once. I ran 15 miles. I was fine the day after each of these runs, but there were no wind gusts and I ran them in different shoes (before the half, I wore out the Brooks Adrenaline 11s that I'd always run in. The 12s didn't work for me because a seam caused a hot spot. I tried Mizunos and the high ankles rubbled my ankle bone. I finally settled on Nike Lunarglides, which seemed to work.). I expected that I would finish this half, take a day off to rest, then continue running faster than I'd ever run before and PRing more distances. I wasn't ready to give that up, so I was stubborn. Even with the wind gusts that day, I still PRd by 13 minutes. Two weeks after the half, though, I had to admit that it wasn't going to clear up on its own. The area over my sesamoids was visibly swollen. When I stepped down, a sharp pain shot up my foot. Every single time I stepped down, which I fondly referred to as the stabbing pain of doom. I couldn't even touch that area of my foot. If you're reading this and it sounds familiar, please call a podiatrist. It's not going to magically get better on its own. Trust me.
By some magical grace, my xrays showed no fracture or break, although one did show a shadow of an old injury or the start of a fracture. The doctor believed that it was the heavy wind and gait that led to the injury, although he mentioned that my feet have two things that can also contribute to sesamoiditis: high arches and a long second toe. So while it was the wind, my sesamoids are also more prone to injury because of the design of my feet. The doctor also mentioned that he really thought minimalist shoes would be more beneficial than stability shoes. I promptly ignored him because let's be honest here. My feet hurt so badly at this point that I wanted to wrap them in bubble wrap, tie pillows to the bottom and pay someone to carry me around. So the thought running in shoes with less cushion was not one that I could entertain at the time. He put me on anti-inflammatories, gave me a topical gel, instructed me to soak in hot water and epsom salts twice a day and told me that I could continue to run because there no sign of a break or fracture and because I told him it didn't hurt when I ran and I made an appointment to return in a week.
I kept running for a few days, then realized that although my feet didn't hurt when I ran and although everything I read was consistent with the doctor, I was tired of how badly they hurt the rest of the time, so I stopped running. This was hard. The anti-inflammatories helped the visible swelling, but they didn't help the pain any. After a week of rest, my sesamoids didn't feel any better, so my doctor did cortisone shots and fitted me for custom orthotics. I know there's a lot of controversy about whether or not cortisone shots are helpful or harmful, but I was willing to try. I will say that it was probably more painful than natural childbirth, which maybe someone could've warned me about?! His hope with the orthotics was that they would support my arches enough that some of the pressure would be removed from my sesamoids allowing them to heal. After another week of rest, plus the cortisone, my sesamoids felt better. Only, I managed to give myself plantar fasciitis from walking funny to take the weight off my sesamoids. That's funny, universe. After another week of rest, I saw my doctor to get the orthotics. He gave me instructions on how to break them in and told me when I would be able to run in them. I talked to him about the PF and he said that the orthotics should knock it out (and they did), but if they didn't, I needed to get in to see him right away. My feet are just a barrel of fun, basically. In anticipation of easing back into running, I'd bought new shoes, Brooks Adrenaline 13s. The reviews I'd read online said that they were much more like my beloved 11s than the 12s, so they were kind of my hope to be kind to my feet. Note that I was still ignoring the doctor.
After spending a few days breaking in the orthotics, I started running. Slowly. My 13s felt just like my 11s. Only my feet started to hurt again. I can't tell you how upsetting this was. I could feel it as I was running, could literally feel the pressure on my sesamoids when my feet would hit the pavement, even with the orthotics. I wanted to cry. I pictured myself clearing out my dresser full of running clothes and donating it to Goodwill because that was it. I was done. My feet weren't going to heal. Then I remembered what my doctor said about minimalist shoes. I started doing google searches. I learned that most stability shoes have a flex groove right beneath the sesamoid--sure enough, my shoes did. That's why I felt pressure when I ran, because a deeper flex groove leads to more forefoot flexion and more pressure in the area of the sesamoid. Exactly what I DIDN'T need and exactly what my doctor kept trying to tell me. Oops. I wasn't set to see my doctor for another two weeks and I didn't want to wait to discuss shoes with him, but I remember Dimity from Another Mother Runner blogging about Altra shoes before and how they were supposed to help with forefoot pain. A few google searches later and yes, they come highly recommended for people with sesamoiditis. I quibbled a little bit before ordering because man, my allegiance to stability shoes is hard to break, but I looked at my feet which were well on their way to stabbing pains of doom again and hit order on a pair of Altra Intuitions (bonus: they come in pink). I anxiously waited two days for them to arrive, then rushed home and took them out for a mile run. Because they're zero drop shoes, you do have to transition slowly into them. The site recommends switching off with your old shoes, but because my old shoes are hurting me, I haven't been doing that. Because my three weeks without running left me horribly out of shape (which is unfair because I've run for two years straight without any more than 2 consecutive rest days), taking it slow is no problem. What's great about the Altras is that they're foot shaped. The toe box is much bigger than a normal shoe, so it allows your toes to spread out. After two weeks in them, I can tell that my toes have naturally spread out. When my sesamoiditis was really bad, one of the things that relieved it was to pull my toes apart, so it makes sense that this would help. The bottom of the shoe maps the bones of the foot. No flexed grooves. No extra pressure on my sesamoids. My orthotics fit easily into the shoes, too, so I've been wearing them with the orthotics just fine. I've been slowly uppping my mileage to no extra pain, which is a huge relief.
I do still have some lingering pain and I imagine it'll be awhile before that finally leaves, but it's much better. I can press on the actual sesamoid bone to no pain. All I have left is soreness on the inside of my upper forefoot that I feel when I step down. That's it. I've been relieving that with kt tape, which I would recommend to anyone dealing with this. If you want to keep running on bruised sesamoids, this is a great way to deal with it. I apologize in advance for posting a picture of my feet on blog because feet are gross, but this is the best way I could explain.
First, wrap kt tape *tight* around your upper forefoot. I wrap all the way around to make sure it's tight and stays in place. Then take the second piece and run it down the side of your foot. This doesn't need to be as tight, but make sure it covers the sesamoid, too. This is the best way that I've found to relieve the pain. Moleskin works, too, but I don't think that it promotes healing as well as kt tape.
There's a whole lot of hindsight in this post. If only I'd run my half marathon in shoes with a wider toebox. If only I'd run my half marathon on a day without insane wind gusts. If only I'd gone to the doctor sooner. If only I'd not been so stubborn and LISTENED to the doctor sooner, but in writing this, I hope that I can help someone. Even if you don't have sesamoiditis but you're considering making a shoe switch, I would really encourage you to check out Altras. They're great shoes. I obviously never thought I'd be singing the praises of zero drop shoes, but well. Here I am. I explained to a friend that stability shoes worked really well for pre-injury me, but they workedh horribly for post-injury me. If only I'd admitted to that sooner! I'm hoping that someday soon, I can come back and tell you about how my feet don't hurt AT ALL. That would be really wonderful.
I thought I should write this post because in the last two and a half months, I've spent a lot of time googling bruised sesamoids and sesamoiditis and most of what I found was horribly depressing. People only write about worst case scenarios on the internet, have you noticed? And while my injury isn't all the way healed yet, it at least feels better enough that I feel the need to write something to balance out all the "I've had sesamoiditis for 6 years and had to stop running, THERE IS NO HOPE" posts that I found. If you're here because you're a regular reader of my blog, you can feel free to skip this post. Or you can read more to learn why I've had such crazy eyes over not running much lately. But if you're here because you googled sesamoiditis, hi. I'm sorry. Sesamoids are jerks, aren't they? Did you even know that they existed before you injured yours? I didn't. Granted, I'd sometimes wear heels and have a sore spot on the ball of my feet or run hill repeats and feel a little sore the next day, but ice and rest usually cleared it up.
And then I ran a half marathon with 50 mph wind gusts in shoes with a smaller than usual toe box. My gait was off, way off. I could feel it and kept correcting it, but it was impossible in the wind to keep it normal. I could feel my feet slapping the pavement and knew it wasn't good, but there wasn't anything I could. By the end of the half, the balls of my feet felt like I'd just walked across hot sand. Still, I figured that if I iced them all day at work the next day they'd be fine. Only they didn't get better, they got worse. The tricky thing was that it only hurt when I walked, not when I ran. I kept running moderately for about two weeks because I figured that if it wasn't hurting when I ran, everything had to be fine. In hindsight, I realize this is silly, but runners don't always think straight.
The frustrating thing was that I ran this half marathon in better shape than I'd always been. I trained for a PR. In the course of my training, I ran 13 miles twice. I ran a 14 miles once. I ran 15 miles. I was fine the day after each of these runs, but there were no wind gusts and I ran them in different shoes (before the half, I wore out the Brooks Adrenaline 11s that I'd always run in. The 12s didn't work for me because a seam caused a hot spot. I tried Mizunos and the high ankles rubbled my ankle bone. I finally settled on Nike Lunarglides, which seemed to work.). I expected that I would finish this half, take a day off to rest, then continue running faster than I'd ever run before and PRing more distances. I wasn't ready to give that up, so I was stubborn. Even with the wind gusts that day, I still PRd by 13 minutes. Two weeks after the half, though, I had to admit that it wasn't going to clear up on its own. The area over my sesamoids was visibly swollen. When I stepped down, a sharp pain shot up my foot. Every single time I stepped down, which I fondly referred to as the stabbing pain of doom. I couldn't even touch that area of my foot. If you're reading this and it sounds familiar, please call a podiatrist. It's not going to magically get better on its own. Trust me.
By some magical grace, my xrays showed no fracture or break, although one did show a shadow of an old injury or the start of a fracture. The doctor believed that it was the heavy wind and gait that led to the injury, although he mentioned that my feet have two things that can also contribute to sesamoiditis: high arches and a long second toe. So while it was the wind, my sesamoids are also more prone to injury because of the design of my feet. The doctor also mentioned that he really thought minimalist shoes would be more beneficial than stability shoes. I promptly ignored him because let's be honest here. My feet hurt so badly at this point that I wanted to wrap them in bubble wrap, tie pillows to the bottom and pay someone to carry me around. So the thought running in shoes with less cushion was not one that I could entertain at the time. He put me on anti-inflammatories, gave me a topical gel, instructed me to soak in hot water and epsom salts twice a day and told me that I could continue to run because there no sign of a break or fracture and because I told him it didn't hurt when I ran and I made an appointment to return in a week.
I kept running for a few days, then realized that although my feet didn't hurt when I ran and although everything I read was consistent with the doctor, I was tired of how badly they hurt the rest of the time, so I stopped running. This was hard. The anti-inflammatories helped the visible swelling, but they didn't help the pain any. After a week of rest, my sesamoids didn't feel any better, so my doctor did cortisone shots and fitted me for custom orthotics. I know there's a lot of controversy about whether or not cortisone shots are helpful or harmful, but I was willing to try. I will say that it was probably more painful than natural childbirth, which maybe someone could've warned me about?! His hope with the orthotics was that they would support my arches enough that some of the pressure would be removed from my sesamoids allowing them to heal. After another week of rest, plus the cortisone, my sesamoids felt better. Only, I managed to give myself plantar fasciitis from walking funny to take the weight off my sesamoids. That's funny, universe. After another week of rest, I saw my doctor to get the orthotics. He gave me instructions on how to break them in and told me when I would be able to run in them. I talked to him about the PF and he said that the orthotics should knock it out (and they did), but if they didn't, I needed to get in to see him right away. My feet are just a barrel of fun, basically. In anticipation of easing back into running, I'd bought new shoes, Brooks Adrenaline 13s. The reviews I'd read online said that they were much more like my beloved 11s than the 12s, so they were kind of my hope to be kind to my feet. Note that I was still ignoring the doctor.
After spending a few days breaking in the orthotics, I started running. Slowly. My 13s felt just like my 11s. Only my feet started to hurt again. I can't tell you how upsetting this was. I could feel it as I was running, could literally feel the pressure on my sesamoids when my feet would hit the pavement, even with the orthotics. I wanted to cry. I pictured myself clearing out my dresser full of running clothes and donating it to Goodwill because that was it. I was done. My feet weren't going to heal. Then I remembered what my doctor said about minimalist shoes. I started doing google searches. I learned that most stability shoes have a flex groove right beneath the sesamoid--sure enough, my shoes did. That's why I felt pressure when I ran, because a deeper flex groove leads to more forefoot flexion and more pressure in the area of the sesamoid. Exactly what I DIDN'T need and exactly what my doctor kept trying to tell me. Oops. I wasn't set to see my doctor for another two weeks and I didn't want to wait to discuss shoes with him, but I remember Dimity from Another Mother Runner blogging about Altra shoes before and how they were supposed to help with forefoot pain. A few google searches later and yes, they come highly recommended for people with sesamoiditis. I quibbled a little bit before ordering because man, my allegiance to stability shoes is hard to break, but I looked at my feet which were well on their way to stabbing pains of doom again and hit order on a pair of Altra Intuitions (bonus: they come in pink). I anxiously waited two days for them to arrive, then rushed home and took them out for a mile run. Because they're zero drop shoes, you do have to transition slowly into them. The site recommends switching off with your old shoes, but because my old shoes are hurting me, I haven't been doing that. Because my three weeks without running left me horribly out of shape (which is unfair because I've run for two years straight without any more than 2 consecutive rest days), taking it slow is no problem. What's great about the Altras is that they're foot shaped. The toe box is much bigger than a normal shoe, so it allows your toes to spread out. After two weeks in them, I can tell that my toes have naturally spread out. When my sesamoiditis was really bad, one of the things that relieved it was to pull my toes apart, so it makes sense that this would help. The bottom of the shoe maps the bones of the foot. No flexed grooves. No extra pressure on my sesamoids. My orthotics fit easily into the shoes, too, so I've been wearing them with the orthotics just fine. I've been slowly uppping my mileage to no extra pain, which is a huge relief.
I do still have some lingering pain and I imagine it'll be awhile before that finally leaves, but it's much better. I can press on the actual sesamoid bone to no pain. All I have left is soreness on the inside of my upper forefoot that I feel when I step down. That's it. I've been relieving that with kt tape, which I would recommend to anyone dealing with this. If you want to keep running on bruised sesamoids, this is a great way to deal with it. I apologize in advance for posting a picture of my feet on blog because feet are gross, but this is the best way I could explain.
First, wrap kt tape *tight* around your upper forefoot. I wrap all the way around to make sure it's tight and stays in place. Then take the second piece and run it down the side of your foot. This doesn't need to be as tight, but make sure it covers the sesamoid, too. This is the best way that I've found to relieve the pain. Moleskin works, too, but I don't think that it promotes healing as well as kt tape.
There's a whole lot of hindsight in this post. If only I'd run my half marathon in shoes with a wider toebox. If only I'd run my half marathon on a day without insane wind gusts. If only I'd gone to the doctor sooner. If only I'd not been so stubborn and LISTENED to the doctor sooner, but in writing this, I hope that I can help someone. Even if you don't have sesamoiditis but you're considering making a shoe switch, I would really encourage you to check out Altras. They're great shoes. I obviously never thought I'd be singing the praises of zero drop shoes, but well. Here I am. I explained to a friend that stability shoes worked really well for pre-injury me, but they workedh horribly for post-injury me. If only I'd admitted to that sooner! I'm hoping that someday soon, I can come back and tell you about how my feet don't hurt AT ALL. That would be really wonderful.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
From Half Training to Half Running
I haven't talked much about running since my half marathon. I thought that I would segue right from that into a speed 5k program and work on some more 5k PRs or even a 10k PR, since I technically got a 10k PR during my half marathon.
However, the wind during the half did some lasting damage on my feet. As I was running, I was completely cognizant that my gait was off, way off. I knew that I was hitting my feet funny as I was hunching my body into the wind, but there was really no way to correct it. I am normally a heel striker, but due to the wind, I was running like I would run up hills, which meant that I was hitting with my forefoot. Toward the end of the race, I could feel the strain on my feet. 13 miles was nothing. I ran 13 miles or more four times through the course of my training plan, so it was just another long run at that point. My legs weren't sore at all, but my feet were screaming. At lunch afterward, the bottom of my feet felt scalded, like when you step on hot sand. I remember slipping off my feet and placing them on the cool restaurant floor. It was like instant relief.
This kind of pain is common for me after hill repeats where forefoot striking happens. I can usually ice it and be back on my feet in a day. However, hill repeats are usually only 2 miles. This was obviously a much longer run. I expect that my feet were hitting harder due to the wind. Ice didn't work this time. Neither did moleskin. I really didn't let on how bad my feet were for a while, but they were pretty bad. It doesn't help that I have a job where I can't sit down, so my feet didn't really have a chance to recover. They'd start to feel better on the weekends, then I'd be back at work and on my feet all day and they'd HURT. I'd step down and wince because I'd get a stabbing pain in the ball of my foot. I was walking on the side of my foot to alleviate pain. I was hobbling around the house. In short, it was pretty ridiculous.
I limited my running. Although I was still running some, I've been running no more than 8-10 miles a week, which is pretty maddening. Truthfully, running didn't hurt because again, when I run normally, I heel strike. No weight comes down on where it hurts. It's just that as soon as I would stop running and start walking, the pain would return. I feel like I'm losing/have lost a lot of the fitness I accrued during the half marathon training. Yes, this makes me crazy. No, I don't regret holding back because my feet were a mess. Slowly, they started to get better, to the point where I could walk normally, but they're still sore. I finally admitted that three weeks after the half, they shouldn't STILL be sore. So I did a google search and found a podiatrist who seemed very runner friendly.
My appointment was yesterday. My mantra the whole time was "please no fracture." Early on in the worst of the pain, I was pretty sure I'd fractured it. Or possibly smashed every bone in my foot because it hurt SO much. This is partly why I've been stubborn about going to see a doctor--which is unlike me, because I'm the first to see a doctor when I'm sick. The first thing the doctor commented on was my high arches (actually, the real first thing he commented on was how super healthy I am--favorite!). This made me laugh because people always comment on how high my arches are. I didn't tell him that I really love flip flops and they probably do not provide arch support. However, he explained that with high arches, I get even more pressure on the ball of my foot while running, so that was interesting. After looking at my feet, he noted that the area over the sesamoid bones is definitely inflamed. Score one for Dr. Google because a diagram of the feet led me to figure out that this was the area causing me pain. He said that he didn't think it was a fracture, but he wanted to do x-rays to rule it out entirely. I got x-rays done and continued my game of "please no fracture." He came back in after the x-rays developed and said my feet looked good, except for a slightly suspicious shadow on my right foot. He said that a stress fracture would've developed by now, so it isn't a concern. He also said that because it takes three weeks for a stress fracture to develop, it was good that I waited to come in. My stubbornness wins!
In the end, he prescribed anti-inflammatories, a cream, and epsom salt soaks twice a day, plus he wants to see me back next week to see how my feet are doing. He said if I'm still having pain, we'll talk about fitting me for orthotics to deal with my high arches. The best part? He said I can resume running normally. Music to my ears. It feels great having answers and also seeing a doctor who was runner friendly. He said several times that he thinks it's great how healthy I am and how I tackle longer distances. He never said, "You're here because you ran and hurt yourself. Don't you think it's maybe not a good idea to jump back into that?" I loved that he understood why I wanted to get running again as soon as possible. Mostly, I'm glad that I have answers. The final diagnosis was that I bruised my sesamoid bones and also that the wind is a big, stupid jerk.
However, the wind during the half did some lasting damage on my feet. As I was running, I was completely cognizant that my gait was off, way off. I knew that I was hitting my feet funny as I was hunching my body into the wind, but there was really no way to correct it. I am normally a heel striker, but due to the wind, I was running like I would run up hills, which meant that I was hitting with my forefoot. Toward the end of the race, I could feel the strain on my feet. 13 miles was nothing. I ran 13 miles or more four times through the course of my training plan, so it was just another long run at that point. My legs weren't sore at all, but my feet were screaming. At lunch afterward, the bottom of my feet felt scalded, like when you step on hot sand. I remember slipping off my feet and placing them on the cool restaurant floor. It was like instant relief.
This kind of pain is common for me after hill repeats where forefoot striking happens. I can usually ice it and be back on my feet in a day. However, hill repeats are usually only 2 miles. This was obviously a much longer run. I expect that my feet were hitting harder due to the wind. Ice didn't work this time. Neither did moleskin. I really didn't let on how bad my feet were for a while, but they were pretty bad. It doesn't help that I have a job where I can't sit down, so my feet didn't really have a chance to recover. They'd start to feel better on the weekends, then I'd be back at work and on my feet all day and they'd HURT. I'd step down and wince because I'd get a stabbing pain in the ball of my foot. I was walking on the side of my foot to alleviate pain. I was hobbling around the house. In short, it was pretty ridiculous.
I limited my running. Although I was still running some, I've been running no more than 8-10 miles a week, which is pretty maddening. Truthfully, running didn't hurt because again, when I run normally, I heel strike. No weight comes down on where it hurts. It's just that as soon as I would stop running and start walking, the pain would return. I feel like I'm losing/have lost a lot of the fitness I accrued during the half marathon training. Yes, this makes me crazy. No, I don't regret holding back because my feet were a mess. Slowly, they started to get better, to the point where I could walk normally, but they're still sore. I finally admitted that three weeks after the half, they shouldn't STILL be sore. So I did a google search and found a podiatrist who seemed very runner friendly.
My appointment was yesterday. My mantra the whole time was "please no fracture." Early on in the worst of the pain, I was pretty sure I'd fractured it. Or possibly smashed every bone in my foot because it hurt SO much. This is partly why I've been stubborn about going to see a doctor--which is unlike me, because I'm the first to see a doctor when I'm sick. The first thing the doctor commented on was my high arches (actually, the real first thing he commented on was how super healthy I am--favorite!). This made me laugh because people always comment on how high my arches are. I didn't tell him that I really love flip flops and they probably do not provide arch support. However, he explained that with high arches, I get even more pressure on the ball of my foot while running, so that was interesting. After looking at my feet, he noted that the area over the sesamoid bones is definitely inflamed. Score one for Dr. Google because a diagram of the feet led me to figure out that this was the area causing me pain. He said that he didn't think it was a fracture, but he wanted to do x-rays to rule it out entirely. I got x-rays done and continued my game of "please no fracture." He came back in after the x-rays developed and said my feet looked good, except for a slightly suspicious shadow on my right foot. He said that a stress fracture would've developed by now, so it isn't a concern. He also said that because it takes three weeks for a stress fracture to develop, it was good that I waited to come in. My stubbornness wins!
In the end, he prescribed anti-inflammatories, a cream, and epsom salt soaks twice a day, plus he wants to see me back next week to see how my feet are doing. He said if I'm still having pain, we'll talk about fitting me for orthotics to deal with my high arches. The best part? He said I can resume running normally. Music to my ears. It feels great having answers and also seeing a doctor who was runner friendly. He said several times that he thinks it's great how healthy I am and how I tackle longer distances. He never said, "You're here because you ran and hurt yourself. Don't you think it's maybe not a good idea to jump back into that?" I loved that he understood why I wanted to get running again as soon as possible. Mostly, I'm glad that I have answers. The final diagnosis was that I bruised my sesamoid bones and also that the wind is a big, stupid jerk.
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