I’ve been struggling with peroneal tendonitis in my left foot (pain in the bottom of my foot, towards the outside edge and just forward of the heel) for over a year now, and I’m having trouble getting advice or recommendations locally, so I figured I’d ask the hive mind here.
Injured it in the Kemah sprint tri last year, and have had fairly regular recurrences since. Staying off it for a week makes the symptoms go away, but within about 7-8 weeks it pops back up like someone flipped a switch, and I wind up having to stop mid-run and hobble home. Initially blamed it on shoes, so I went from my old go-to Brooks Adrenalines to a pair of Brooks Glycerins, then decided to get the opinion of Fleet Feet here in Houston and walked out with some Saucony Guide 8s. After realizing it was me and not the shoe, I went to the Ironman Institute and had a doc take a look and check to make sure I hadn’t fractured anything. They pronounced it peroneal tendonitis and recommended a stretching regimen and a run gait analysis, but neither seems to have had any positive effect. Returning to Fleet Feet with this information didn’t get me anything, either.
I tend to supinate when I run (which I imagine contributed to this injury in the first place), so keeping pressure off the injury by consciously heel striking and pronating seems to bring relief and let me run, even when there’s still a bit of pain. While it got me through NOLA 70.3, I know this is not a good solution long-term, and causes the stock insert of the Sauconys to shift and give me a wicked blister on my arch after about 15 minutes of running, regardless of sock choice. So, as the hunt for a new shoe begins, are there any shoes or off-the-shelf inserts known to play nice with this sort of injury?
I went through this a couple years ago but I pursued physical therapy to resolve the issue. At PT, they scraped the tendons in my lower leg all the way up to my knee. And then plenty of stretching, strength exercises, bands, etc. It was interesting to me that the pain in one spot (near my ankle) was caused by scar tissue in my tendons elsewhere (further up my leg). As I understand it, rest alone isn’t enough to resolve the peroneal tendonitis issue - one needs to fix the underlying problem: the built up scar tissue and knotty tendons.
Now once I did all of that, the PT folks did mention the use of shoe inserts or other orthotics but I never pursued that. Once I was fixed up, I kept on using my neutral-type shoes and am just more disciplined about foam-rolling and doing various strength exercises.
As far as shoes go: The more drop, the better. That’s because more plantar flexion reduces the compression of the peroneal tendons around the lateral malleolus.
I went through this a couple years ago but I pursued physical therapy to resolve the issue. At PT, they scraped the tendons in my lower leg all the way up to my knee. And then plenty of stretching, strength exercises, bands, etc. It was interesting to me that the pain in one spot (near my ankle) was caused by scar tissue in my tendons elsewhere (further up my leg). As I understand it, rest alone isn’t enough to resolve the peroneal tendonitis issue - one needs to fix the underlying problem: the built up scar tissue and knotty tendons.
Now once I did all of that, the PT folks did mention the use of shoe inserts or other orthotics but I never pursued that. Once I was fixed up, I kept on using my neutral-type shoes and am just more disciplined about foam-rolling and doing various strength exercises.
Just booked an appointment at an ART clinic for tomorrow (been reading a lot of positive tendonitis rehab stories using ART). That’s a strange idea to me, too, as leg strength has never been an issue. That said, I’m chronically bad/inconsistent at stretching, so that wouldn’t be a huge surprise if that was a contributor.
As far as shoes go: The more drop, the better. That’s because more plantar flexion reduces the compression of the peroneal tendons around the lateral malleolus.
Now once I did all of that, the PT folks did mention the use of shoe inserts or other orthotics but I never pursued that. Once I was fixed up, I kept on using my neutral-type shoes and am just more disciplined about foam-rolling and doing various strength exercises.
Just wanted to say that it’s cool to read this, good on you.
To the OP, shoes probably (generally, almost always) have very little to do with injuries.