Your thoughts, experience & advice.....

otoole4info

Barefooters
Feb 3, 2013
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Waverly, NY
So Today is exactly a week and a half out from my first barefoot 1/2 marathon...... Feet felt good so I decided to head out for a short run. Was thinking 20 minutes or so would be ideal. Ran a time of 19:05.41, 2.03 miles.

Everything felt great and was going well until....... I stubbed my left big toe, again......

If you read my post on the 1/2 marathon you'll notice I manage a nice toe stub on the exact same toe during the race.

It's my own fault, today the split second I got lazy on an little uphill....... "Hello pavement!" said my big toe.

Is there a section for frequent toe stubbers...... If there is I'm all over it.
IMG_1108a.jpg

Any one got some suggestion? I was thinking once it heals maybe mole skin on the fronts of my big stubborn toes.

One other thing, right foot has minor swelling and aches a little, Let me know if you can see it in this photo and your thoughts on it.
IMG_1112a.jpg

If you can't see it, let me know and i'll highlight the area later...... forgot I have to run off to an appointment. Catch you all later.
 
You are glutton for punishment, aren't you? :nurse: Lift those piggies, lift those piggies, lift those piggies... That should be your mantra from now on. And yes, try some mole skin.

I can't see any swelling, but the picture isn't that great. If you have swelling, you should be running right now.
 
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It's hard to see the swelling, a crappy iPhone pic. It's minor in my opinion, bit them again I'm different and welcome pain.

TJ I repeated that mantra the whole way, except for that one step.... At that time instead of "lift the toes" for that split second it was "F this hill"
 
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I hate when that happens.
I imagine that I am stepping over a small book with each stride. No reason to over compensate.
The right foot does look a little swolen on top.
I would think it is TOFP which may be an early warning to ease off.
 
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I can't see any swelling, but the picture isn't that great. If you have swelling, you should be running right now.

:pompus: Did you mean should not be running....... It only swelled after the run and it was slight.

IMG_1112b.jpg Maybe this one will be slightly better to visualize...... then again looking at it maybe not. I circled the area that swelled.

I constantly repeat to myself while runing "Toes up, lift the feet." One thing I did enjoy even after the stubbing of the toe was the sensation of air gliding beneath my feet while they were off the ground on the run.
 
I would think it is TOFP which may be an early warning to ease off.

Before I went for my run today I was actually thinking that I should only go out for maybe 10 or 15 minutes or even wait one more day. Should have stuck with my instinct and done the 10 or 15 and may have avoided both the stubbed toe and the TOFP. I wanted to take advantage of the temperature today was 39*F with a feels like temp of 27*F and roads and grassy, gravel shoulders were snow free (was afraid of what tomorrow may bring).
 
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Yes, smarty pants. :writing: You shouldn't be running if you have swelling is what I mean to say. :smug: It does look a little swollen though, now that you point it out.
 
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I would be curious to see what the "Docs" would say about this.
Do they check this forum T.J.?
I have had swelling in this area in the past, however, it went away gradually by itself.

I'm wondering if it isn't just a conditioning thing. In my early training which was only two months ago when I was doing minutes of barefoot and working my way up to more time I had a creaking in my right foot that could be felt and heard, no pain, no aggravation just an odd creaking.

The swelling went away by the end of the next day and the ache was gone before work Friday, now I just have a weird tendon or ligament feeling while moving my toes (hard to describe, basically doing the pinky to index finger tap but with the toes.)

I'm going with it's a conditioning thing I guess. I plan on going out for a bit later in the day on level running ground and see what my feet tell me.
 
Not typically, Barefootn. If someone wants to hear a doc's opinion, they have to post in the Ask the Docs. :nurse:
 
You are glutton for punishment, aren't you? :nurse: Lift those piggies, lift those piggies, lift those piggies... That should be your mantra from now on. And yes, try some mole skin.

TJ guess what..... I went for a run yesterday and you know what I forgot to do? Mole skin my bloody toe. I remained vigilant during the run to lift the piggies. I admit I was running tired due to the long day at work the day before that wore me out on many levels, but I needed to run to get rid of a headache I had going on.

You'll never guess what I did, not only once but twice......... Yes I stubbed me fecking toe and truly made it a "bloody toe" I'll spare all the expense of viewing "me bloody toe". I even ran a slow easy pace, didn't push myself, and ran on various terrain, road, sidewalks, grassy areas.... 3.48 miles with a time of 35.46.

Good news..... Headache was completely gone by the end of the run, right foot that swelled before only minor aggravation at the end of the run (I think it's still in conditioning mode).

Got a 5k coming up soon in between now and then I only plan to run once for a mile only with and will put either a good covering of heavy duty bandaids on the "bloody toe" or mole skin depending on it's healing status.

Glutton for punishment, I am!:happy:
 
Maybe you could use a metronome set to "Lift those piggies, lift those piggies, lift those piggies..."
 
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Ran that Saint Patrick's Day 5K today....... Wrapped the "bloody toe" up before the run and I didn't stub it once. Feet feel pretty good, even ran a little beyond the 5K just because. I was the only barefooter and got a lot of good positive responses.

Some one did ask, I presume jokingly, "You have those new minimalist style sneakers on?" --- I replied, yeah the invisible model.

So the report for todays event is as follows....... I successfully, did this
"Lift those piggies, lift those piggies, lift those piggies..."

No major swelling on the right, just a little aggravation. I belive it's all conditioning.