Mild PF? Need for more stability? (Read 1011 times)

ZZ, Sorry your ducks are bumming you out. I forwarded a link of your post to Jim, as I don't think he checks in here regularly. Cheers, Jeff

I thought you might... Yeah, stupid feet. As a kid I had high arches, too. I think one of these days my feet might completely flatten. I might as well have pancakes fer feets... What I've been reading about that tendonitis definitely sounds a LOT like what I am dealing with. I'm hoping this is something I can treat myself...though I do NOT want to be told that I have to rest. k

I had high arches as a kid too. About the time I started a stay-on-your-feet-all-day job they decided they wanted to fall down. I also got PF shortly after that too, though I didn't know what it was. From time to time it seems I still flirt with PF. When I notice my feet starting to hurt again, I make sure to stretch out my calves in the morning before getting out of bed, and this really helps. If you sleep on your belly and don't hang your feet over the bottom of the bed then you're pointing your feet all night long... which can shorten your calves. I think you mentioned earlier that you have chronically tight calves? This might be contributing to the problem. It certainly shouldn't hurt to pay a little extra attention to stretching out those calves, especially first thing in the morning, even before getting out of bed. If you're as bad as I've been then simply pulling up on your toes by using your shin muscles should be enough to stretch them... Switching shoes and adding some cushy insoles also helped, but that was only a temporary solution. Ibuprofin and stretching was my permanent solution, though there are many other fixes for PF...

I had pain in my arches, behind the ball of my foot, and directly in front of the heel. Mostly it was one long line running along the bottom of my foot, though the exact location of the pain moved a bit through the couple months that I was dealing with this.

What you haven't done yet is put a cuboid pad or a post on the bottom of your OTC arch support, and this could be just enough to tip the balance towards healing. Jim

Hey, Jim! I wonder if my OTC orthotics might be a bit too stable. When I tried running in them they almost immediately made my lower legs and knees hurt, then my feet started numbing up and eventually I even felt some numbness in my quads--which was a completely new sensation. I tried them in my least stable shoes, too. I'm wondering if the same orthotics in a non-stability shoe might not be so controlling. My right foot is definitely feeling better with each passing day since the middle of last week. Hopefully the indoor shoes and heel lifts are all I need. I am definitely going to hit Gazelle Sports once I need to replace my favorite shoes (NB 1222--a cushioned moderate stability shoe...similar to the Asics Gel Kayano from what I read) and see if I might want to try a different shoe, though if my current fixes work, I may just stick with what I'm doing now. I'm now kind of wondering if my issues are related to hills and speedwork. In the last few days it occurred to me that my foot pain started right around the time that I started back with more than just easy and long runs, as I had stuck to all Winter. I need to go back in my log and see if I can pinpoint when the outer foot pains first started. Interesting that you have had patients with issues training for Riverbank Run. I wonder how many folks don't run all Winter and then try to make up for lost time come March and April. I kept my mileage in the 15-20 mile/week range all Winter. I can't even imagine trying to get back into racing condition after so many months off. Mother Nature did her best to trash my efforts, but I showed her who the stubborn chick really is! k