Forums >Running 101>why do my feet hurt?
Hi! I'm new to the forum, I figured it would be good to get more opinions on the issues I'm having right now so here it goes! I have been running for a couple of years but I have just now started running consistently. I have been experiencing lots of discomfort at the end of my 5k and have had pains in the balls and heals of my feet. I was wondering if this is normal or if I should get new shoes or if possibly its PF. I am hoping to get to 6 miles by November and a half marathon by next year sometime. Any advice would be appreciated, I also have fibromialga so Idk if that has anything to do with it or not.
Thanks!!
Mary K
Running too much too soon can be a problem. If you are increasing your weekly mileage very aggressively, this could happen. I learned it hard way. Was increasing weekly mileage by 10% a week. Doing that, I went from 20s miles/week to 50s mile/week just to got injured a month before the first half marathon. I had issue with ball of the foot. The key is to increase the weekly distance slowly. If you are running 10 miles a week, run 11 miles next week and increase further only if you are comfortable with running 11 miles/week and so on.
Do not hesitate to take a day or two off whenever you need to. Its better to take a couple of days off than to take few weeks off.
How old are shoes? If they are very old then it might be the time to replace them.
I also have had trouble with pain on the bottoms of my feet. There were several causes of my foot pain. You will have to do some experimenting to find out what to do with your feet.
Slamming your feet down when you run. Remedy is to run quiet. Try running in the grass barefoot and notice how you plant your feet. When I started to make a conscious effort to run more quietly, the pain went away. I'm still working on it.
Too many miles per week at this time. Cut back on miles for a few weeks, then increase more gradually.
Wrong shoes. I have one pair that cause the bottoms of my feet to hurt when I use them for more than about 30 miles per week. I'm just too cheap to throw them out, so keep them as a spare pair.
Mary,
Ditto on too much too soon but also, have you had anyone professionally fit you in a pair of running shoes? Ideally you need to find a specialty running store that can do a gait analysis, look at your bare feet and fit you based on your foot type and biomechanics. It will cost a bit more than a pair from Academy but you will save money and pain by not spending interim times between runs at the podiatrist or ortho. Also, if you have PF you would generally have a good deal of pain in the a.m. right away when you wake up. Most of the PF issues people treat with orthotics but in general they didn't have the proper shoes and have tight calves. If your gastroc and soleus (calf) muscles are too tight they pull directly on the achilles tendon and it is directly connected to the PF by the calcaneous. The fascia tissue is the weakest link. Finally, if you have taken up the barefoot craze then I suggest you do it once a week and use real shoes for the other runs... I state this knowing we paved the softer earth with concrete, have weaker and lesser foot bones than primitive man, and weigh considerably more than neanderthals who only killed what they ate and died early. Best to you.
running metalhead
I state this knowing we paved the softer earth with concrete, have weaker and lesser foot bones than primitive man, and weigh considerably more than neanderthals who only killed what they ate and died early. Best to you.
Tell this to the Tarahumara or the Bushmen in South Africa. We don't have less bones either, not everything is paved and even in the olden days there were already rock.
And as far as I would be able to tell (correct me if I'm wrong) most of the Western world wasn't paved 200 years ago and I may again be wrong but I don't think that people back then where running in Nikes and much less the Greek. But again, I may be wrong and Phidipides was actually sponsored by Adidas.
And don't forget Kenia, AFAIK they don't spend too much money on shoes over there, as a matter of fact they take running barefoot as a matter of pride. Of course "we" are heavier (not me, but generally speaking). But no matter how cushioned or hi-tech your shoes, if you are too heavy and start too hard your feet will hurt.
Solution: 10% increase, taking it easy, cross training and yes, running barefoot for 10 minutes on soft surface to strenghten your feet muscles... exactly as trainers have been recommending for decades before it became fashionable to a) run barefoot and b) grump again barefoot runnning
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