ThinkRunning

Bad Habits

I’m always learning. For a long time now I have not been stretching at all and it really seems to have suited me – or has it?
Creatures of habit we are and today has shown me once again that just because something becomes comfortable it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good for you.
I used to suffer terribly with tight calves and since changing my style I have been relieved that they had calmed down or at least they seemed to have done so!

I end up with a pain on top of my right foot – almost identical to the one I had last year but not as severe. “Tendonitis” I thought, “perhaps Morton’s Neuroma”, “or maybe stress fracture?” I preferred to think that it was probably one of the first two. The pain seemed to be triggered by Rosie pulling me down a mountain and making me dig in quite aggressively to stop myself falling to the bottom. Since then I have been running one day with no issues then all of a sudden I can hardly stand on it!

This morning a visit to the doctor’s confirmed no stress fracture, which I was relieved about, naturally. The doctor was a locum and he seemed to know instantly what it was after prodding poking and rather aggressively squeezing my foot; “Foot Strain” he said. “It’s not tendonitis because you can wiggle the toes and stand on them with no issues, in fact the only time you feel anything is when I squeeze the metatarsals together and that indicates straining of the little muscles in between”.

Google is the Word

As always I have been Googling and have found out that my doctor is probably spot on, so I will take heed of his advice and not run at all for a week.
http://www.arthritis-treatment-and-relief.com/pain-in-the-top-of-the-foot.html

The interosseous muscles lie between the toes, and help stabilize the foot in walking and running. When they are strained, they often cause sharp pains on the top of the foot or beneath it. The pain from this injury is often confused with a neuroma of the foot (inflammation of a nerve in the foot) that causes similar sharp pains.
This injury and this type of pain may be brought on by fatigue of the foot muscles through excessive standing or running activities. Other causes include a blow to the foot, a fall, excessively tight shoes, very high heels, or walking barefoot on a foot that needs a shoe for support.
Interosseus muscle injuries can occur between several metatarsals at once. Although rarely identified by health professionals, strains of these muscles are common. To identify this injury, one only needs to gently squeeze the metatarsals together. This usually reproduces the pain sensation.

I decided to investigate stretching the calves but making sure I do it properly and carefully. It says that tight calves can manifest foot pain so it’s worth a try.
The link I found below may help some folk out there. I found it a useful reminder. Don’t go mad and be very gentle stretching them. I’m not doing them before or after a run but when I know they are completely relaxed so they don’t contract as I stretch them because this causes damage.

http://home.sprynet.com/~holtrun/stretch.htm

I do have a mega blog article to publish yet but have not been able to finish it. I have some exciting news regarding the future direction of ThinkRunning and that will happen quite soon!
Oh and due to the foot strain, I took the Bianchi out for a spin tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll be putting some bike miles in again now.