Forums >Health and Nutrition>Extensor Tendonitis? Top of foot pain
I am now dealing with (presumably) my 2nd round of tendonitis in my foot within the last 4 months. I'm heading to the doctor tomorrow morning (again!) and was wondering if anyone else had dealt with this. I'm tired of dealing with this and I want to know what I can do to prevent this from flaring up again. I had to bag today's long run at 7 miles and do the walk of shame back o the car. Lifting my big toe is torture as is pressing on the top of my foot.
I'm a lightweight neutral runner and I rotate Nike Free Run, Nike Pegasus, and Saucony Kinvara and current MPW is about 35.
I don't half-ass anything
"I have several close friends who have run marathons, a word that is actually derived from two Swahili words: mara, which means 'to die a horrible death' and thon, which means 'for a stupid T-shirt.' Look it up." - Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning
Good Bad & The Monkey
In most cases, this results from tying your shoe laces too tight.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Which shoes were you wearing yesterday?
What about non-running shoes, do you stuff your feet into pointy Jimmy Choo's for work everyday? If it is just your big toe, it seems like that is only going to happen if you have localized pressure at the top front corner of your foot. Perhaps running just aggravates a problem caused by non-running shoes.
I diagnosed myself with extensor tendonitis. My pain was on top of foot over my four small toes. It was tender and swollen. I iced it 3 times per day, took ibuprohen, and quit running til the pain was gone. It took about 3 weeks. But if has not returned.
- itri -
It might also help to use a topical like Theragesic or Aspercreme.
I had extensor tendonitis last year - I ran a marathon with an aggravated IT band and i think the compensation in my gait brought it on.
Took me a solid three weeks of ibuprofen and icing the heck out of it before I felt comfortable running on it. Once I started running again, I relaced my shoes to completely skip the sore spot on my foot - it was probably another few weeks before it felt okay to run on it with my shoes tied normally.
Mine has not come back, but I think that it showed up in the first place because of overcompensation in my gait while trying to run through IT band pain. At the time, I think the tendonitis was actually exactly what I needed, because I could run through the IT band problem and it probably would have never gotten better - I couldn't run through the tendonitis, and 3 weeks off took care of both issues. I have since worked on strengthening to protect my IT band, and my foot hasn't flared back up either.
My wildly inconsistent PRs:
5k: 24:36 (10/20/12)
10k: 52:01 (4/28/12)
HM: 1:50:09 (10/27/12)
Marathon: 4:19:11 (10/2/2011)
The tendonitis wants to get better, but I just can't stay off it. I did a 5k on Saturday (PR, woo-hoo!) and now the right still hurts a little and a different spot on the left hurts. I ran 3 today but will take off until Friday's long run. Ugh.
Has anyone else had any success with using a foam roller on the leg muscles for this? I know they're all attached in there...
Don't know about a foam roller, but back in the day when I got a weekly deep tissue massage, I remember it doing wonders for my feet generally. Treat yourself to one as your 5K PR reward (congrats!).
Sometimes you just find that the pain is manageable and diminishing slowly over time, whether you run or not, so you might as well run.
I already do Lydiard Lacing on the Pegasus & keep the others as loose as possible so I don't think lacing is the problem. It seems to get worse when I run faster than usual.
Just because you do Lydiard lacing, that does not necessarily promise to take away excess pressure on the top of the foot. Naturally I try Lydiard lacing but I have also noticed some shoes just do not cooperate with this lacing system, causing even more problem. Lacing loose may actually cause more problem as well since it might cause your foot to slide around too much.
As you said, lacing may not be the cause of your problem but it may also alleviate the pain for the moment. I got to know Patti Dillon (formerly Catalano) a while back. I remember back in those days (in the 1980s) when I saw her pictures, wearing Nike Mariah and other shoes that she had rather interesting looking lacing; she skipped a few eye-lets completely and just get the lace through the side. I looked down on her feet and she was lacing the exactly the same way so I asked her why she does it that way. She said she has a very "high" feet and sometimes gave her trouble, so she decided to skip criss-crossing the lace over the troubled area all together (basically the same idea with Lydiard lacing but a bit more extreme case). You may be able to use a hybrid lacing with traditional criss-crossing way as well as skipping a few eye-lets so basically nothing is pressing down the tender area. It's hard to explain with words; if you're interested, send me a personal e-mail and I can send you the diagram.
That said, if it is in fact tendonitis and if it is getting better (or trying to get better), perhaps running a race is not the smartest thing to do. Sometimes it takes discipline on YOUR side to overcome injuries. Don't just jump on any buzz word; sit back and use what you got between your ears, try to figure out what it really is, what the cause of it, and what you need to do to eliminate this cause. Like black toe nails, those pains and aches are not the feathers in a hat. You don't need to suffer from those things if you think a little. I'm not saying you don't (well, I don't know anything about you so who knows...!? ;o)), but most of us are over-flooded with too much information that could easily blind you.
Yeah, I know I should just take some time off. I'm pretty much only doing my long run this week and I'll see how that goes. I may try to find a little more time for biking over the next few weeks as well. I'm not trying to do anything other than make it out alive with my marathon in November and I think I'll just skip any other races this year. Hopefully I can let it rest enough during my training. And I hadn't thought about my shoes being too loose. That could definitely be case. I tend to err on the side of loose. As always, thank you for the great information.
I'm jumping in on an old thread, because it had some good information.
I woke up yesterday with what I believe is extensor tendonitis.
My new running shoes wouldn't stay tied so Like a fool I pulled them tighter & double knotted them. I ran 16 miles Wednesday, then set up tables chairs & place settings for 120 served a meal then cleaned up. Thursday I woke up with a sore swollen left foot.
I only ran 1 mile Thursday evening because it's a lifting day not a run day. I understand I need to re-lace my shoes loosely perhaps in a straight bar or ladder. Obviously I should stay off the foot to let it heal or it could become a more serious, permanent problem.
Has anyone continued running even just 1 mile a day & been able to run through this?
For soft tissue injuries, rule of thumb - if it running doesn't make it feel worse, your ok. You have to be honest with yourself tho. If you aren't sure, probably a good idea to rest it. Also, for soft tissue injuries, ice after workout and elevate. When I was dealing with shin pain, orthopedist said if it gets better while running, it's soft tissue - if gets worse most likely stress fracture/reaction. For me was definitely a tendon issue was able to run through it with judicious rest days...
Ray