Hello everyone,
I did a fair amount of barefoot running last summer. I'm not someone who had been running a whole lot prior to this, barefoot or otherwise so I'm skeptical that I transitioned to barefoot running too quickly. I ramped up fairly slowly mostly doing two-mile runs at first, then three and four. Finally one day I ran an entire five miles. Later that afternoon I noticed a little bit of pain in my right arch while I was riding my bike, but didn't think much of it. The next day I did a two-mile run and noticed a persistent dull pain in the arch. This was back in late August or early Sept. and it is still a problem. A couple days ago I was standing around quite a bit in minimalist shoes and noticed more dull pain in the arch then normal. It's not extremely painful, but running seems out of the question right now. I had about decided it was plantar fasciitis, but some people on the barefooters.org list didn't seem to think so because plantar fasciitis usually starts at the heel, whereas this has been consistently in the middle of the arch.
So a couple questions. Firstly does this sound like plantar fasciitis? If not what else could it be? What self treatments can I do about it. I tried rolling the arch over a tennis ball and honestly it seemed to make it worse. Lastly if I end up going to a podiatrist, how can I find one who is barefoot running friendly? I'm certainly not yet resined to custom orthotics or whatever yet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I did a fair amount of barefoot running last summer. I'm not someone who had been running a whole lot prior to this, barefoot or otherwise so I'm skeptical that I transitioned to barefoot running too quickly. I ramped up fairly slowly mostly doing two-mile runs at first, then three and four. Finally one day I ran an entire five miles. Later that afternoon I noticed a little bit of pain in my right arch while I was riding my bike, but didn't think much of it. The next day I did a two-mile run and noticed a persistent dull pain in the arch. This was back in late August or early Sept. and it is still a problem. A couple days ago I was standing around quite a bit in minimalist shoes and noticed more dull pain in the arch then normal. It's not extremely painful, but running seems out of the question right now. I had about decided it was plantar fasciitis, but some people on the barefooters.org list didn't seem to think so because plantar fasciitis usually starts at the heel, whereas this has been consistently in the middle of the arch.
So a couple questions. Firstly does this sound like plantar fasciitis? If not what else could it be? What self treatments can I do about it. I tried rolling the arch over a tennis ball and honestly it seemed to make it worse. Lastly if I end up going to a podiatrist, how can I find one who is barefoot running friendly? I'm certainly not yet resined to custom orthotics or whatever yet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!