My First BF Injury: Need advice. If you don't want to read the story, you can skip to the bottom to

Thursday of last week I suffered my first injury while running barefoot. I was running around my college campus, was excited about the beautiful weather, and also felt good knowing that I only had three miles to run, and then an easy 7 on saturday (this was a recovery week for my marathon training). Unfortunately, other people thought the weather was nice and it seemed like everyone was walking around campus. I chose a different route today because my normal route had several broken beer bottles along the sidewalks during my last run (that's what I get for running by a bunch of frat houses). As I started to cross the busiest intersection on campus several people in front of me seemed confused about walking. They sort of stopped, started, moved to the side. I don't know what was going on. So I diverted my attention from my running, the ground, and looked up to make sure I didn't run into anyone. At this time, I felt my right foot hitting what felt to be a round metal object protruding from the street. I could tell my foot was cut and injured. Did I stop? Of course not. That would have been the logical thing to do. Instead i let myself think about all the comments going on in people's heads, "Look at that idiot running barefoot, of course he hurt his foot." I kept running for another minute, but then the pain became unbearable. I found a bench and sat down. I had a small cut on my foot, but I could tell that the impact was probably what caused the most damage. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of campus from where I needed to be. After resting several minutes the pain started to subside and I ran back across campus to the gym so that I could change. I was hesitant to call my wife, because I knew I was going to hear it for hurting myself. "Why don't you just wear shoes?" "If, i'd been wearing shoes I could have easily twisted or sprained my ankle." I tried looking for whatever it was that I hit but could not find anything. I learned the next day that several people had nearly injured themselves crossing that street and a couple of my friends had actually said "Someone could get seriously injured on that." As the night went on my foot started to swell and hurt. I elevated it, iced it, ibuprofened it, and laid around. The next morning I was scheduled to make a presentation. I took one step off of the bed and felt searing pain. I called off the presentation. Later that day I had an important interview and new I had to make it. The foot had started to feel better so I went, by the end of the tour after the interview I was really feeling it. I went home and did the same and stayed off the foot the rest of the day. Saturday, much of the same, only on it for about an hour because my wife and I were looking at a house. Sunday, the same. I also got some wrap on sunday and wrapped it for awhile. Today, I have to do things, so I have the foot wrapped. I won't be able to ice it until like 9:30 tonight. I am also getting very anxious to start training again. the marathon is in June and I am scheduled (and already registered) for a half marathon in two weeks. The pain is mainly on the top of my foot just behind the toes. It has started to bruise now and the bruise kind of looks like how it would look if you were wearing sandals and got bruised from the strap that goes beside the toes, only it is a lot thicker. When the swelling has been reduced, i am able to bend my toes almost fully. My question is, does anyone know what type of injury this might be? I was worried at first that I may have broken some bones, but I don't think this is so. I feel like I just hit something really hard. How long should I wait before I attempt to run again? When I do run again can I jump right back into my training program or do I have to step it down? What are some other ways that I can keep training with minimal impact on my foot. Any advice or encouragement is greatly appreciated.

Comments

Caleb, if you have been training and are in shape for the 1/2, even if you didn't run at all between now and the race, you would still have a good run. Maybe not a PR, but finishing and having fun are doable.

Main thing is that you need to have your foot healed up enough to run. Are you a member of a gym? Alot of those have elliptical trainers or bikes to allow you to keep up your cardio w/o impact. Or if you have a bike, just getting in some riding time. Swimming, perhaps?

If you can walk on it, some gravel bucket training or a textured surface to keep your plantar skin in shape. But I would cut back some and try to heal the foot just so I could run the 1/2.

Just my $.02 (and worth what you paid for it) ;-)
 
thanks for the advice. Yeah i can use an eliptical and a bike. I can't believe how much not being able to run is hurting me. I saw a bunch of people running on campus today and cursed under my breath. You are probably right with the half. I am more upset that I am getting off track for the marathon so i'm hoping i can get back to it in a couple of weeks.
 
Caleb,

I can't say much as to what kind of injury it may be, but I'm sorry! I totally get you not wanting to stop right away when it happened, though. Why does it seem that the pointy, nasty stuff on the road is only an issue when people are around to see?

As for staying in shape while it heals: I did a lot of aqua jogging while recovering from a minor knee injury a couple years ago. It's boooooooring, but you end up working a lot of the same muscles that you use for running. Also, it's pretty easy figuring out comparable workouts, since you basically just do exactly what you'd do on land, but instead of measuring distance, you measure time. If you're supposed to run 5 miles at an 8min/mile pace, then aqua jog for 40 minutes. As long as you feel like you're working as hard as you would be on that run, you should be good. I should add that I did this back in the days of shod running, and if I were to do it again, I might add some strength exercises (like with a TheraBand) to keep my ankles strong.

And I have to agree with Miker that as long as your foot is feeling well enough in two weeks to hold out an entire half, you shouldn't worry too much about loosing fitness.

Good luck!

Chelsea
 
It has been about 9 days since the accident. i don't have any swelling or any pain when walking. It is still slightly sore when I bend my toes, but I'm thinking this could be from all the days when I didn't bend them at all so I am stretching them. I did find out that it was a sharp piece of metal sticking out from the ground that was nearly impossible to see. This made me feel better about myself as a barefoot runner, but it still hurt. I do own a pair of huaraches and got the kit from invisible shoes. I can't seem to get the lacing down right. One side will be too tight the other side too light and i end up stopping and adjusting every 5 min or so which gets annoying and then I take them off and run.
 

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