Medic!!! (Read 2508 times)

After searching the interweb unsuccessfully I have come to ask the resident medics here for some advice / explanation for a fun new pain I've been experiencing. I'll start with the basics... I've been running for about 18 months. I've never had a running related injury aside from the blown calf that I picked up when I first started running. Thanks to the cool runnings folks for the absolutely horrible advice on that one, by the way. Anyway, I have had this coming on for a while now... maybe six weeks... and it is getting steadily worse. I have had no significant variations in my running, no dramatic increases in mileage or pace, no change in shoes, really no reason at all for this. The issue is that I am having pain in the ball of my right foot directly under my second toe. Oddly enough, it bothers me more walking than it does running. I searched online and found several articles and posts referencing pain under the big toe and under the three smaller toes, but nothing at all for pain under the second toe. There is no pain at all when I am sitting and there really is very little pain when I press on it. It's just when I walk that I notice it and it has become more and more pronounced. I have a fairly high pain threshold ( not always a good thing ) and have managed to make a few minor injuries significantly worse by ignoring what I thought was just a tinge of pain. I guess I am worried that I may be doing that here too. What else? Oh yeah, there is no bruising or discoloration, and no blister of any kind. Also, I recently had to take nine days off from running ( 10-2 to 10-10 ) because of work / life and the lack of running did not improve the injury at all. It is exactly the same now, after a few runs on the 11th and 12th, as it was on the 1st. Any ideas?

I really hate to say this, but it could be a metatarsal stress fracture. That would involve a long rehab and maybe crutches. I hope it's not. Good luck.

Could be simple metatarsalitis, inflammation of the nerves that run between the toe bones. I get it chronically. Do you have high arches? If you're still at 210# that would contribute to it also.

My arches are actually medium to low. I saw something on the nerve inflammation but it was mainly attributed to the three smaller toes. It's still possible, I guess. I think I read somewhere that someone who had the nerve inflammation simply taped their three middle toes together when they ran and it went away. Maybe that's worth a shot. And yeah, still at 210 or so. I'm a big guy. I could probably cut down to about 190 or 195 but it's tough to imagine me getting much smaller than that without really changing my body shape. I still carry a lot of muscle. I am clearly overweight but I'm actually quite fit by most definitions. I weigh 210 and can still bench press 250 quite easily though I don't dare go much heavier because of shoulder injuries. I can crank out 50+ pushups in under a minute, and at my age 40 is considered excellent. I can do pullups both underhand and overhand, and I can still stand on my head for pretty much as long as I want ( a former yogi ) and can stand stiff legged with my feet together and place my palms flat on the floor. So while the extra weight does contribute to a heavier pounding on my feet it's not a situation where I am wanting to stress a diet to drop 20 pounds. I will get down around 200 over the winter anyway. I always lose 10 to 15 pounds in the winter and gain it back in the summer. Just the opposite of most people, I know.

I'm afraid I can't help with this. I think I remember that Zoomy responded to a similar thread several months ago. I don't remember her response or the exact issue, but it was about a unique pain in the foot. You might try Zommy, or maybe someone will pcik this up for you. Sorry I'm not of any help. Good Luck!

Hmmm...I've never had pain, per se, but I have had a weird sensation of having a rock on the bottom of my shoe, though there's nothing there. It goes along with numbness and calf tightness--pretty certain in my case it's chronic compartment syndrome (in fact, haven't been bothered by it in months, but it came back today, probably related to marathon recovery). As others have suggested, I'm guessing it's either a toe bones issue or tendonitis. I'd definitely have it looked at. I hope whatever it is that it's easily treatable and not too serious.

I managed a 15k and a 10k last week before shutting it down again. It just makes me very nervous. I think what concerns me the most is that I do not notice it at all while I am actually running. I go out, I run, I come home and I'm fine. I take my shoes off and I can barely walk. It makes no sense. I haven't run now in four days and it is actually getting a little bit better. One odd thing, I noticed today that even though it is better it still hurts like hell when I walk down stairs. Now I am wondering if maybe this is hill-related. I changed a few of my routes in the last month to include more hills and I am wondering if maybe I did not cause a stress fracture coming down one of the hills. Anyway, I figure I should play it safe so I am taking some time off. The plan right now is to shut it down for either two weeks or three days without pain, whichever comes first.