Ball of Foot (Read 713 times)

It's normal to have minor aches and pains as your body adapts to the stresses of running. One of the things that more experience with running allows you to do is to distinguish relatively harmless everyday aches and pains from more serious injuries. There are many little pains that you can run through--and sometimes they will heal faster through use than by taking time off. My general rule of thumb is that if the pain is strong enough to make me limp or change my stride, I stop my run and don't run on it again until I can run smoothly. Also, if it gets worse as the run goes on, that's a sign that it could be more serious. If it warms up and gets better, then it's usually nothing too bad. As far as this pain goes, it doesn't sound too serious to me. You're right to try another insole, or possibly another shoe. You might aim to keep your runs close to home (or on the treadmill) so that if it does start to hurt worse, you don't have far to go to get back to home. Consider keeping your runs this side of 3.5 miles for a week or so. Ice and massage may also help. Finally, a common error is lacing your shoes too tight--loosen them up for a while and see if that helps. You might also google "Morton's Neuroma" to see if your symptoms line up with this common runner's complaint. Good luck!

I have the exact same problem. After about 5 miles my left foot starts hurting with MN symptoms. Getting good arch support and making sure my laces aren't too tight has really helped a lot. Taking a NSAID before you run may also help. Something else you could do is put some foot powder or even vasaline in your shoes to reduce friction. In both of my tris this year, I developed the pain in my foot on the bike but as soon as I got my running shoes on the pain seemed to go away. Normally I don't do anyting specail with my shoes but for a tri, I'm not wearing socks and need the extra stuff to prevent blisters. Cutting down the friction points seemed to help the MN symptons as well.