Finished up the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in what I thought was good shape. Started feeling a sharp pain in the bottom mid-foot area of my left foot. That was Saturday, two days later the pain hasn’t gone away. Here are my symptoms:
-Pain is mainly in the mid-foot/arch area of my foot
-No pain when I am sitting or laying down
-Hard to put weight on the middle of my foot (without pain) when walking
-Standing on ball of foot also brings the same pain in the same area
From what I’ve read online, it could be plantar fasciitis based on where the pain is. Any ideas?
Is it kinda a dull pain? Could be and probably is plantar fasciitis. Get a foot wheel or frozen water bottle and work it, get a massage usually sign of other leg issues
Are you feeling really sharp pain when you first step out of bed in the morning?
Often, PF is caused by a collapsing arch. A proper insole (super feet, montrail, sole - not the gel crap from the pharmacy) will help prevent it. Right now, you want to get the inflammation down, do things like icing and Advil are good. But that doesn’t treat the cause. You want to support that arch and you want to address underlying tightness in the calf muscle. Stretching alone won’t do it, you need to open up that calf with trigger point or going to an ART doctor.
For recovery, get a strassburg sock to wear to bed so your foot isn’t healing in a contracted state. Good luck; it sucks.
Late last year I developed PF. It has taken some time for me to figure out what is going on and get it under control but I’ll share my thoughts.
Some feet don’t like stiff shoes. I switched from a flexible shoe to one that was much less flexible and I think that is what started my issues. As my foot got worse, I developed a plantar fibroma on my arch behind my big toe.
I tried inserts to support my arch and that made it worse (while running and walking). A fully supported arch did help while riding.
Ice didn’t help at all as during the winter my feet are always cold. So, I went to heat. Heating pad wrapped around my foot with an ace bandage seemed to really help improve circulation and loosen up.
If you feel burning or stretching when you get out of bed in the morning then wearing a boot/sock will help. I wore a boot until getting up in the morning didn’t result in that “I’m tearing it again” feeling.
For me, my feet are happiest in a very flexible shoe. My foot is almost totally better since switching. It seems like every saucony I own bothers my foot and I have 4 different models. Don’t overlook switching brands / shoes to see if that is part of the problem.
Obviously, lots of different things may have caused the injury. Hope you can find what caused yours and get healthy ASAP.
For what it is worth, I have been getting acupuncture for a moderate case of PF.
Doctor is a very experienced eastern medical practitioner. But it is my first experience with acupuncture.
After 2 sessions per week (one hour per session) for 4 weeks the PF is gone. I continued to run “sensibly” throughout (4 times per week with a 12m + long run).
The treatments were fairly painful at first.
Hopefully I can get to the foot doctor sometime this week to get a proper diagnosis. I tried using a PF arch sleeve with a built-in gel this morning and it didn’t do anything but make the spot hurt more. Switched over to an arch bandage and that didn’t help either. The only thing that’s really helped so far is massaging my foot with a golf ball. At this point I probably just need to find out what’s actually going on and then take it from there. Hopefully I can actually get an appointment this week. Thanks for the replies everybody.
Best to go to a proper Physio than a foot doctor as PF is a symptom of something else. I had insoles made it worse. Flexible running shoe proved the best for me long term.
Check out www.lynosport.co.za Benita de wit is brilliant she also looks after Conrad stoltz I understand
I suffered from PF and found that the following helped (in this order):
– Stretching the back of my legs (all aspects);
– Strengthening my calves, hips and glutes;
– Wearing a boot at night;
– Ice/massage; and
– E-Sole inserts (I have particularly high arches, and they worked for me).
This packet with stretches and exercises (similar to those above my post, but more in-depth) played a big role in my recovery. Doing these stretches and exercises was the most important thing to me.I wore the Strassburg Sock at night. I had to modify it (carved up a flip-flop sole to the right shape/size and put it inside the sock, covered in a thin running sock to let my skin breathe) to avoid painful hot spots in the middle of the night.I also ended up finding relief only after ditching built-up running shoes and re-starting my running in very minimal shoes. But this is NOT for everybody. I took it VERY slowly. Because barefoot/minimal running is contentious here and because too many people try to jump into it too quickly and get injured, I don’t advocate for it unless you’re willing to really re-build from the ground up and go very very slowly. If that’s not necessary for you (it was for me… I could barely walk and the podiatrists weren’t doing me any good) then I don’t think it’s worth it. Stick with stretching, exercises, etc.
Don’t despair. I’ve had PF before (many month real-deal case) and that sounds like it, but if you were in shape, running regularly, and were having no problem, it could also clear up in a bit. Something like this happened to me earlier this year - was in shape and did a slightly harder than normal hill workout and went from nothing to really acute pain. I thought it was PF again - felt exact same symptoms as before including sharp pain on inside arch toward heel so bad I couldn’t even walk normally for several days. After 3-4 days I went for a ride and the symptoms got way better from that one ride, and then disappeared totally the next couple days. My thinking is it may have been some sort of weird, super painful arch cramp that felt the same as PF, so maybe you will luck out.
If it is PF what ended up working for me is completely stopping running until you can walk without pain and then low volume / low speed running and taping of foot with this methodology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z2XlqsuQSY
For the two bands around the outside of the foot I find regular athletic tape is too thick and it will put pressure on/ hurt your achilles so I rip in half lengthwise if that makes sense.
Coach tape is the best - generic brands dont stick the right way.
Whenever I start to feel PF-like aches I tape like this and am fine. Taping for me is the difference between having to stop running after two miles and limping for days and being able to run relatively normally so unless my brain manufactures an amazing placebo effect … YMMV
Ice, massage, stretching, anti-inflamatory had zero effect for me. Only thing that worked was taping and time.