Even after an excellent race on Saturday, my training did not slow down. On Sunday I did 2500 meters in the pool and then headed to Central Park for a long run - 12 miles.
After a long run on Sunday I decided it was time to upgrade my running shoes. I stopped at my favorite store, Jack Rabbit, and purchased a pair of New Balance 1226's. This is the newest model of my current shoe (my last two pairs were NB 1224). I also took this opportunity to switch out my laces for a pair of Yankz (speed laces).
On Monday afternoon I headed down to the track in my new shoes for a speed workout. Three, one mile repeats at a 8:15 min/mile with 90 second rests. When I was walking home I noticed that the front portion of the bottom of my foot was hurting. I figured this was just a result of running 3 days in a row for a total of 18 miles (usually this volume is spread over a week instead of 3 days), plus walking another miles on top of that.
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| My pain is the yellow spots |
The pain was relatively minor, enough to notice but nothing too bothersome. On Tuesday I just rode my bike but my feet were still hurting a bit. I skipped high heals and stuck with regular sneakers for the day but the pain was still there.
I had a 7 mile run on the schedule for today (2 easy, 3 tempo, 2 easy). I decided I would try running on the treadmill instead of outside for a softer surface. However, I was only five minutes into the run and my feet were still hurting so I reluctantly hit the stop button and got off the treadmill. I would rate it as a 3 out of 10 (1 is nothing, 10 is hospitalized). It is a low enough pain that I could live with it forever, but my fear is that it will get worse.
I've never had this pain before so I've been doing some
Googling research to try to figure out the problem. It turns out this area is called the "ball of the foot" and pain there is often referred to as "Metatarsalgia" and it can be related to a Morton’s neuroma, a stress fracture or inflammation of the metatarsal toe joints. This article from
Running Times was a good resource as the
Foot.com website.
The possible causes for this pain are any or all of the following:
- Running too much in a short period of time
- Running too fast in a short period of time (race Saturday, track Monday)
- New shoes
- New speed laces (Yankz)
A lot of the research talks about shoes that are too tight, so I'm leaning towards the speed laces being the culprit. Have any of you experienced pain here before? Do you know what caused it or what you did to make it go away?
P.S. A couple great giveaways this week!
- Caratunk Girl is doing a major Gu giveaway. There are
a million 10 ways to enter to stop on over to her blog and check it out! You have until Friday, August 27th to enter.
- Tricia at Endurance Isn't Only Physical is doing a Sugoi Giveaway for a bra (for the ladies) or a shirt (for the men). Stop by her blog to find out how you can enter. This giveaway ends Friday, August 27th.
4 comments:
I have had similar pain...I iced the heck out of it, took some advil, and got new shoes...it went away - the shoes I had were old and beat, so I think that had something to do with it. Hope it gets better soon!
Thanks for the mention! :)
My guess is that it is the laces. I have speed laces that I wear without any problems, but I have talked to more and more people who have tried speed laces and had nothing but problems (blisters, food pain, etc.).
Hope it gets better soon!
Sorry, no. I haven't had this. Maybe some rest will do it good since you ran so much in a short period of time? HOpe it feels better soon!
I'm so pitifully behind in reading, so hopefully you've already solved this, but I'd really wonder about the laces. I've found they have to be a lot looser than you think they would.
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