Category Archives: foot pain

6 miles under 10

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After my faster than usual run yesterday I decided to try to run under 10 minute miles again. I took a couple of breaks but managed to run 9:52 for six miles. Not bad! I tried a couple of things from past readings about increasing your speed. The best one by far has to do with tilting your entire body forward (not bending at the waist). You feel as if you are falling forwards, but it is that momentum that pulls you along and builds up your speed. So I focussed on doing that today for several stretches.

I ran early but it was still warm, so I brought water and took sips throughout my run. I think this balance of hydration really helped keep me going. Something to more of in the near future.

I did notice my feet were getting pretty sore as I was finishing, but I was able to push through it. The last half mile was tough to keep the pace going but I did it. Good small breakthrough.

Warm weather inspiration

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I am finding lots of inspiration from the warm weather we have been having lately. Last week I almost got in 30 miles in running four days out of the seven. The runs were all somewhat slow, but I felt solid right from the start of last week. Today was the first day I brought a water bottle along with me, something I should have been doing from the start of the week. I think having the water today really helped me out, I felt strong throughout the run.

The one thing that has been bugging me these last couple weeks have been my feet. Foot discomfort has always been an issue for me and that didn’t change this week. Yesterday it seemed to be the worst (maybe something to do with it being the longest run?) My discomfort started early in the run so I don’t think the distance was really the cause. I concentrated on ignoring the pain and squeezing feeling and that helped a bit (I was actually more successful at that today). I also started rubbing arnica gel on my feet and that seems to help also.

So last week nearly 30 miles, and this week I have gotten off to a great start. Eight+ miles yesterday and 6+ today, so I am on my way to hitting 30 this week.

Eight miles, mostly smiles

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I have been having a weird lack of enthusiasm for running this spring. Partly I have just not really had the time, but then on days when I do have the time I find myself making excuses for not doing it. Weird. I have had lapses in my desire to run in the past, but they have always passed. Perhaps this one is out the door as well! I ran eight miles today and felt pretty good, it was a slow run but my energy levels kept up and I felt really good. Yesterday I did six and felt great then too. Perhaps it is just a matter of getting through the slump and back into a space where I want to run.

It is odd, one of the things that always bugs me when I stop running for a period of time whether it is a week or longer. I start to feel fat and sluggish. I think this time this has been a stronger feeling because I think I have been eating more. So while I might have gained a pound, it feels like a lot more. Then today after a couple of good runs I feel thinner. I am a lot less likely to over-eat too. And, my main food bug-a-boo – eating at night – isn’t nearly as appealing. The phycological effects of running are really quite remarkable. I wonder how much of that is to blame on the loose fitting shorts I am wearing today!

One bad thing these last couple of days running has been my feet which have been extra achey. I am considering moving onto a different type of shoes, perhaps one that is more comfort oriented. There are soem nike models that are supposed to be really good. I have been opposed to running in nikes partially in reaction to the bad press the company has gotten about its labor practices (but if I am really concerned about that I better take off more than my nike shoes!) but more for their reputation with their running shoes of not holding up. Still, the comfort might be worth it.

Over 10, Under 10

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Today was a quality run I marked in red in my running journal. Not quite an LSD run as my heart rate was up for much of it. I’d like to see a slightly slower pace (or not) and the HR down (the main thing) in the future. This is the second week in a row I have gotten one of these longer runs in, big improvement this week. I felt stronger and especially so when I saw that I was under 10 min mile pace at the four mile mark. My route was a pretty nice neighborhoody run through Woodstock and East Moreland and out to the Springwater Corridor where I went through the three bridges section. This led to the neighborhood of mystery which I circled (still mysterious) before I ran through Sellwood and its park curving up into East Moreland and through my long reed college route which included the half mile “O”. On the edge of Reed and Woodstock I took a walking break before heading home (which included another walking portion).

At about the seven mile mark I was still 90 seconds ahead of a 10 min mile pace. I had to push it through the last three miles to barely make it, but I did it! 9:57 for 10.30 miles. Over 10, under 10, damn straight. My feet were quite sore and at one point I found that concentrating on just accepting the pain made it endurable. Jeez, that makes it sound terrible, its not that bad. Just nags at me… I rubbed arnica gel on them twice tonight, seems to help a bit. Good on my leg and glutes too.

10k under 10

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In my effort to do my base runs under 10 min mile pace, I picked up my pace for my ending uphills through Reed and on to Woodstock, 2 miles in all. I did faster than eights to make sure I averaged under ten. Turned out my math was off and I did 9.5, made me happy. I’m pretty pooped tonight, pasta dinner and I have nothing else to do other than lay in bed and watch basketball. I’m sure I’ll get some stretching in too though.

Rotating my new shoes is going really well so far. Both pairs feel really stable and I am getting a good mind-strike with them. They are starting to get a worn-in look. Hopefully they don’t look like resolution shoes anymore. I still have been having foot issues like pain and spasticity, but I guess overall it isn’t too bad. I’d love to find the miracle shoe, but I don’t think it is out there.

Oh today I actually wore shorts without tights for the first time in months. It was nice to get my legs out in the sunlight! I started taking vit D again, not for any other reason other than I should. I wonder how much good the 1000 mg(?) caplets I take actually do for me? I saw some massive dose wafers for sale, the 50000 mg(again I am not sure what they are) really expensive (I thought) at four wavers for $20.

I watched an interesting parkour movie called Beyond the Brink. Daniel Ibaca was really pretty amazing, but kind of a jerk too You can see a trailer here.

Fastest run yet (well in recent days anyway…)

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Today I headed out on my typical 10k course, basically the same route I have been doing a lot lately. Since I rededicated myself to running regularly about three weeks ago I think I have run this route every time but once. One nice thing about doing your running in this manner is it really allows you to judge improvements. So my mini-goal as of late has been to speed up my times. I have been fighting a cold/flu for the last week or so but I have still been able to keep up with running albeit slow runs of greater than 10 min miles. So my mini-goal should be attainable! Not only have I increased my general fitness, but I have also beaten this bug. So on Thursday when I finally topped the 10 min mile mark for an average pace I was pretty excited and figured I was on my way. But then the next day (yesterday) I was back over 10 min miles, my excuse de jour is that I rolled my ankle in the middle of the run. The rolled ankle was not bad enough that I had to hobble home, my rubber ankle rebounded pretty quickly and I was able to walk it off. But I do think that slowed me down a bit as I was trying to be careful.

As a side note I have been experiencing what I think is probably an over-training issue with my foot. Could also have something to do with the new shoes (more than likely a combo). I have some pain on the top of my foot right in the area of the top of my shoe tongue. I really only feel it when I first get started and then it seems to go away. I loosened my laces a bit today and I think that might have actually helped but I still felt the ache for the first mile or so. It seems to be lessened if I focus on a mid-strike and more pronounced if I am hitting with ball of my foot. Hills also seem to irritate this pain a bit. But like I said after a mile or so the pain seems to be gone.

So today I struck out for run #3 in a row. What was different today? I didn’t have the ankle as an excuse, it felt fine (not even a twinge). The top of my foot still experienced pain for the first mile, but that went away as I got going. So, back to the difference (enough whining), I decided early in my run to start pushing myself. It wasn’t quite a tempo run, but I refused to let myself take it easy. My runs have been coming easier and easier which is nice, but today I pushed myself back into that point of exertion similar to how things felt when I was starting out again. I kept reminding myself to go and not take it easy. Again, this was by no means a race pace, but I felt myself working hard throughout the run. And that was the difference. These past three weeks I was just happy to be running regularly again. Today I got passed that and into a training mindset. Well not completely, but I wanted to work today and it paid off. After four miles I was pretty sure I was going to break a 10 min mile average as I was three mins up. I kept pushing and was soon four mins ahead. By the time I finished my average pace was 9:17. Pretty happy with that! Hopefully I will keep that work ethic up or at least on quality run days.

My PR for a 10k is 49:00, today I hit 10k at around 56 mins. Not to bad and plenty of room for improvement.

Fastest run this month & flip that lift

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I didn’t really set out to do a fast run, but that is what I ended up doing. I didn’t wear my orthotics, but used my lighter Aisics Gel Kayano 12s which are also a size smaller than my Mizuno wave rider 10s. I have noticed being able to run faster in them in the past, but the two previous runs were at my normal of late pace of 9:30. Today I ran just over nine minute miles.

I also flipped my lift over. I have been wearing a lift in my right shoe since I was like 9 or 10. I remember being mortified that I would have to wear giant shoes to correct my shorter right leg. But it was only a half inch or so, all I needed was a lift in my right shoe. So they made me a leather and rubber wedge shaped thing that I have been wearing ever since. Yep the same one. Over the years I have molded it down pretty well on the inside of my foot, so that side is completely worn away. So I decided I needed a new one. I was really excited to have a new one, a thirty year wait over and done with.

I went to a foot store in a strip mall (yes, questionable, but I figured they would be cheaper than a podiatrist) and showed them my lift. I told them I had worn it way down on the one side (as was obvious) and that I wanted a new one, a full one. They said they could make me a new one out of hard foam and carve it to match my foot. Perfect!

Two weeks later it is ready and when I pick it up they have made me an exact replica of the old one, an almost artistic replication. I tell them no, I wanted one that isn’t worn away, a full one. The person said, “Oh sorry, the guy who made it quit and he is the only person who knows how to do it.” Great. Well I can always use another lift exactly like the one I had, so I took it and went home dissapointed.

So, today on my run I flipped my lift so the worn side was on the outside of my shoe giving my inner foot more support. And it worked well I thought. It was pretty comfortable, less foot pain than many of my runs. I don’t know if I would recommend flipping your orthotics, since I wear my lift under a motion control insert I think it worked for me.

I am thinking about buying a pair of walking shoes to wear to Europe this fall. Time to research!

Fastest run this month & flip that lift

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I didn’t really set out to do a fast run, but that is what I ended up doing. I didn’t wear my orthotics, but used my lighter Aisics Gel Kayano 12s which are also a size smaller than my Mizuno wave rider 10s. I have noticed being able to run faster in them in the past, but the two previous runs were at my normal of late pace of 9:30. Today I ran just over nine minute miles.

I also flipped my lift over. I have been wearing a lift in my right shoe since I was like 9 or 10. I remember being mortified that I would have to wear giant shoes to correct my shorter right leg. But it was only a half inch or so, all I needed was a lift in my right shoe. So they made me a leather and rubber wedge shaped thing that I have been wearing ever since. Yep the same one. Over the years I have molded it down pretty well on the inside of my foot, so that side is completely worn away. So I decided I needed a new one. I was really excited to have a new one, a thirty year wait over and done with.

I went to a foot store in a strip mall (yes, questionable, but I figured they would be cheaper than a podiatrist) and showed them my lift. I told them I had worn it way down on the one side (as was obvious) and that I wanted a new one, a full one. They said they could make me a new one out of hard foam and carve it to match my foot. Perfect!

Two weeks later it is ready and when I pick it up they have made me an exact replica of the old one, an almost artistic replication. I tell them no, I wanted one that isn’t worn away, a full one. The person said, “Oh sorry, the guy who made it quit and he is the only person who knows how to do it.” Great. Well I can always use another lift exactly like the one I had, so I took it and went home dissapointed.

So, today on my run I flipped my lift so the worn side was on the outside of my shoe giving my inner foot more support. And it worked well I thought. It was pretty comfortable, less foot pain than many of my runs. I don’t know if I would recommend flipping your orthotics, since I wear my lift under a motion control insert I think it worked for me.

I am thinking about buying a pair of walking shoes to wear to Europe this fall. Time to research!

9 running, 5 walking and iceburg lettuce

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Saturday I finished my week with a nine mile run and a five mile walk after. I was pooped and my feet are killing me. My run was pretty slow, I definitely didn’t push it. I went for the walk with my running partner who broke her collar bone last week, no running for her for awhile. The walk after was actually pretty tough, I think next week I’ll do it again with less of a run (maybe like 5 miles).

So aching feet. This is something I have been putting up with for the last two years ever since I ran the Portland Marathon. I originally (and probably correctly for a major portion) attributed it to the 26.3 and the training leading up to it. I talked to a podiatrist (when I got my inserts) and his thoughts were that it had to do with my motion control shoes. These have a more solid outer portion of shoe base which is to force your foot to drop a bit on the inner portion of your foot during foot strike. His theory (that he had seen before) was that this more firm surface was irritating a nerve in the foot and causing the pain and the numbness (sound familiar fellow mser?) Well without the benefit of an MRI, he made the best judgment he could and had me start wearing neutral shoes and inserts specially designed for my foot. The discomfort seemed to abate a little, but I think the ms was playing its part in the issue and no insert was going to deal with its symptoms.

So, what do I do now? In an effort to lessen the environmental impactful of my receiving of rebif by post, I have kep the ice packs that initially ship the medicine in (well some of them anyway). So I keep these frozen and use them to ice my injections as well as my feet (and various other areas.) I place a towel on the floor and one of the ice packs on top of that. I then alternate (with socks) placing my foot on the ice, first left then right. Initially I used two, but I could only stand to have my feet iced for so long. I found that one ice pack and alternating feet was the best way to go. This seems to help quite a bit and I am going to continue to do this.

Cooling techniques from the past. I heard an interview with an old baseball player talking about the heat and playing baseball in the 40s. Of course they did not have any air conditionin gback then, so they had to get creative. He said (I wish I remembered his name) they would put pieces of aluminum foil in their shoes to reflect the heat (not sure that this could actually work…) They would also have oak buckets of ice water in the dugout that they would stand around in and soak their feet. By far my favorite method was that they would take heads of cold iceburg lettuce, cut them in half and wear them in their caps. Now that is something I’ll have to try!

9 running, 5 walking and iceburg lettuce

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Saturday I finished my week with a nine mile run and a five mile walk after. I was pooped and my feet are killing me. My run was pretty slow, I definitely didn’t push it. I went for the walk with my running partner who broke her collar bone last week, no running for her for awhile. The walk after was actually pretty tough, I think next week I’ll do it again with less of a run (maybe like 5 miles).

So aching feet. This is something I have been putting up with for the last two years ever since I ran the Portland Marathon. I originally (and probably correctly for a major portion) attributed it to the 26.3 and the training leading up to it. I talked to a podiatrist (when I got my inserts) and his thoughts were that it had to do with my motion control shoes. These have a more solid outer portion of shoe base which is to force your foot to drop a bit on the inner portion of your foot during foot strike. His theory (that he had seen before) was that this more firm surface was irritating a nerve in the foot and causing the pain and the numbness (sound familiar fellow mser?) Well without the benefit of an MRI, he made the best judgment he could and had me start wearing neutral shoes and inserts specially designed for my foot. The discomfort seemed to abate a little, but I think the ms was playing its part in the issue and no insert was going to deal with its symptoms.

So, what do I do now? In an effort to lessen the environmental impactful of my receiving of rebif by post, I have kep the ice packs that initially ship the medicine in (well some of them anyway). So I keep these frozen and use them to ice my injections as well as my feet (and various other areas.) I place a towel on the floor and one of the ice packs on top of that. I then alternate (with socks) placing my foot on the ice, first left then right. Initially I used two, but I could only stand to have my feet iced for so long. I found that one ice pack and alternating feet was the best way to go. This seems to help quite a bit and I am going to continue to do this.

Cooling techniques from the past. I heard an interview with an old baseball player talking about the heat and playing baseball in the 40s. Of course they did not have any air conditionin gback then, so they had to get creative. He said (I wish I remembered his name) they would put pieces of aluminum foil in their shoes to reflect the heat (not sure that this could actually work…) They would also have oak buckets of ice water in the dugout that they would stand around in and soak their feet. By far my favorite method was that they would take heads of cold iceburg lettuce, cut them in half and wear them in their caps. Now that is something I’ll have to try!