Anyone else out there feel like they live their lives injury to injury? Geez…
Okay- last Sunday (9 days ago) during my long run (2 hours) it started feeling like my shoelace was too tight on the top of my foot at around the 60 minute mark. Smart me just kept right on running. By 1:45 I was in pain… kept running. When the run was done I had a lot of pain at the top of my foot right at the bony prominence. I iced it for 2 days. I was feeling better but within 15 minutes of having my running shoes on again, the pain returned. In addition to the pain, if I put my hand on that area and dorsiflex my big toe I can feel the tendon slipping through the sheath (kind of a crepitus like feeling). So there is definitely some inflammation there, but there isn’t a ton of swelling.
I took a week totally off running (it is not bothered by swimming or cycling). Today I did 4.5 miles. Although it doesn’t “hurt” when I’m running, I know it’s there. And then there is a lot pain now that I’m done running and my shoe is off.
Anyone ever deal with this? What is the best thing to do here? Do I have to lay off running for a couple more weeks? Another problem is that I can’t take NSAIDs because I’m recovering from erosive gastritis. So… are there any really good topical anti-inflammatories, or atypical oral anti-inflammatories that could be useful here?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have Oceanside coming up (March 31) and really need to accelerate the healing process if possible…
been there, done that. what helped for me was using a different lacing pattern that i’d found on the New Balance site but seems to be gone now. this is the one, although not explained as well as on the NB site. http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/bushwalklacing.htm it helps take the pressure off the top of your foot. hope this helps.
Suggestions:
1. Tylenol only orally
2. Once running again, ice area religiously after w.o.
3. Stretch tendon (dorsiflexion,plantarflexion of toe) before and after w.o.
4. Shoe not too tight over toe
5. Flexall, Bengay, etc. may help but prob. not much
6. If time and above doesn’t help, could do some PT modalities such as ultrasound or intophoresis with dexamethasone may help
7. Warmup and cool down thoroughly
let me know if additional questions…
Sorry to hear of your running pain. I had a couple of years with injuries from various follies. Not what you have. But what I did do was enlist the help of a good PT who was familiar with athletes. It seems I would always be better faster and didn’t have that much down time with his help. There is also aquajogging, too. Hope it gets better soon!
The lacing looks interesting. I might have to try that. The weird thing was I had >200 miles on those shoes with the same Yankz and I never changed them. I’m thinking maybe it was my socks, so I have to be better about always wearing thin socks when I run. But finding a new lacing strategy might definitely help during the healing. I just bought new shoes hoping that would help, but it’s not a ton better.
for what it’s worth…
It seems I always end up with some kind of foot pain after running in the yanks laces! i’ve been a runner for over 15 years and last summer put some yanks in my shoes and had all kinds of strange foot injuries. Now i just save them for races. It seemed to always start with some very small, seemingly innocent pain that morphed into something a lot more painful. I took the Yanks out and haven’t had problems since and only use them now for racing. I think it’s kind of hard to gauge how tight they are on your foot when you aren’t actually tying your laces and you may not be likely to adjust for thicker or thinner socks.
Extensor Hallucis longus tenosynovitis is almost always caused by too tight shoes/local mechanical irritation. Obviously, eliminate the cause. The crepitus you feel should respond rapidly to what others suggested, but keep that tendon gliding in the sheath. You don’t want that scarring down (it rarely does)
yanks laces caused the same problem for me, nearly identical symptoms. I think the elastic is too strong for them, so I use a cheaper/better/stretchier product called quick laces now. No problems since.
this is the one, although not explained as well as on the NB site.