First 5k

Colin

Barefooters
May 31, 2012
44
21
8
I ran my first 5k ever yesterday; and I did it in my VFF's. Yesterday and today I've had massive soreness on the top of my left foot. Has anyone else encountered the same thing?
 
Congrats on your first 5K! There are some exercises you can do to work out the pain in the top of your foot. Anyone got them handy? If you don't hear here, feel free to also post in the Ask the Docs. They should have some exercises for you to do.
 
Congrats on your first 5K! There are some exercises you can do to work out the pain in the top of your foot. Anyone got them handy? If you don't hear here, feel free to also post in the Ask the Docs. They should have some exercises for you to do.

Thanks it feels great to get to that point...made the past month of training well worth it :). I'll definitely check out the Ask the Docs if I don't see much else.
 
Congrats Colin! For me personally, vff's cause me tofp so you may look into ditching the vff's for a little bit and seeing if it goes away. As far as the exercises TJ was talking about I'm not sure. I never really got tofp unless I was in vff's.
 
Lots of folks get TOFP in VFFs. But it also happens to barefooters, just not as often. Ken Bob has a write-up about it somewhere that has some good exercises for people to get rid of the pain from this overuse or settling injury.
 
I guess I was one of the lucky ones with not getting tofp unless I was in the vff's. I did(do) seem to get more than my fair share of other injuries though. :(
 
Congrats Colin! For me personally, vff's cause me tofp so you may look into ditching the vff's for a little bit and seeing if it goes away. As far as the exercises TJ was talking about I'm not sure. I never really got tofp unless I was in vff's.

Thanks Nick! Interesting to know that you get the TOFP with your vff's, I thought I had mine adjusted perfectly to prevent anything like that. I'm going to have to check out these exercises and see if that helps...not that I won't push through it if it happens but I'd like to at least try to prevent it lol.
 
What kind of VFFs do you have, Colin? You want to make sure that the strap or lacing (if that's what you're using) isn't too tight over the top of your foot. Sometimes this resolves the problem.

Another thing, it could just be the way your feet/bones are settling. Your feet are not used to this new freedom, movement. The bones will start to find their new, correct, natural placement, and the bones will start to pull on the ligaments and tissues. This is what is believed to cause TOFP; other than what the VFFs do, which is sometimes a mystery, considering changes to both barefoot and minimal should cause the same TOFP, but it really happens more in VFF wearers, from my experience talking to others.
 
What kind of VFFs do you have, Colin? You want to make sure that the strap or lacing (if that's what you're using) isn't too tight over the top of your foot. Sometimes this resolves the problem.

Another thing, it could just be the way your feet/bones are settling. Your feet are not used to this new freedom, movement. The bones will start to find their new, correct, natural placement, and the bones will start to pull on the ligaments and tissues. This is what is believed to cause TOFP; other than what the VFFs do, which is sometimes a mystery, considering changes to both barefoot and minimal should cause the same TOFP, but it really happens more in VFF wearers, from my experience talking to others.


I have the KSO's, I'll keep experimenting with how tight they are and see if that helps. And I think you're right, it's probably my bones getting into a better position and putting different pressures and stresses on my ligaments and tissues.
 
I have tried the Komodosports, KSO's, Treksports, Komodosports LS, Bikila, and the um, Sprints I think is what they are called. My problem that causes the tofp is that I have to get a size or two bigger than what is the length of my foot because I have monster flintstone big toes. This is the only way I can get my big toes to fit. By doing this though my middle through pinky toes do not go all the way into the pockets, only about half way in. It's not that those toes are too short to get in the pockets, it's that my foot has a more drastic curve or rake, which causes only half of those three toes to go into the pockets. With those toes being held in place by the toe pocket where your foots webbing should be and not being able to flex and move freely, like most peoples toes, I get massive pain inside of a mile or two. This pain though goes away almost immediately when I take them off (I'm not one to push through pain caused by shoes).
 
Congratulations Colin! It's all uphill from here! I used to run with the VFF Bikilas, which were never wide enough for my feet, and I had to run with the straps completely "off" in order to avoid pain on the top of my foot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Colin
Congratulations Colin! It's all uphill from here! I used to run with the VFF Bikilas, which were never wide enough for my feet, and I had to run with the straps completely "off" in order to avoid pain on the top of my foot.

Thanks Jen! Maybe I'll give the strips off a shot while doing some training runs.
 
Well done , easy pace and posture are working for me, it took a while with 5 k runs for me develop muscles and strength in my forefoot. I ran my first 20 k yesterday, lots of hills and a very familiar route, after the run my feet felt great. It's taken me a year to get to this stage , I am religious about the beats per minute and I find it works for me .. My vffs are bikilas, which after the kso are a great change.
 
If pressure on the top of your feet could be causing this, the LS versions with laces may help. I agree with ditching the shoes, though. I just prefer barefoot, though.
Congrates on your first 5K! That's where my addiction started to take hold! Next thing I knew, I had more weekends with races than without! :eek:
If you don't already, massaging your feet helps, ice bucket and I like to roll a hard rubber ball around under my foot and really work out the arch from time to time. Honestly, the bottoms for my feet would hurt every morning when i got out of bed for the first 6-9mo. I little wiggle and gentle walking and it would be fine after a few min.

-Jonny
 
Congrats Colin on your first 5k!

As for TOFP (top of foot pain, if you hadnt caught on to that already) I got that a little bit when I was first hitting a mile or mile and a half barefoot. It wasnt that bad though and I just backed down my mileage slightly for a couple more runs. I think for me it was just using muscles and ligaments my feet werent used to. It did come back a little when I first started wearing vff but it didnt have anything to do with straps or anything, just that the vff made it really easy to go further quicker and I pushed myself a little to far the first couple times with them. Backing it off a little for a week and then strictly abiding by the 10% mileage gain per week and I never had TOFP since. I remember reading TOFP is one pain you can work through it if its minor, but if its really bad you might have to take some days off and then ease back into it. Good luck hope you can get it resolved.
 
Congrates on your first 5K! That's where my addiction started to take hold! Next thing I knew, I had more weekends with races than without! :eek:-Jonny

And a very supportive wife! :)
 
Congrats Colin on your first 5k!

As for TOFP (top of foot pain, if you hadnt caught on to that already) I got that a little bit when I was first hitting a mile or mile and a half barefoot. It wasnt that bad though and I just backed down my mileage slightly for a couple more runs. I think for me it was just using muscles and ligaments my feet werent used to. It did come back a little when I first started wearing vff but it didnt have anything to do with straps or anything, just that the vff made it really easy to go further quicker and I pushed myself a little to far the first couple times with them. Backing it off a little for a week and then strictly abiding by the 10% mileage gain per week and I never had TOFP since. I remember reading TOFP is one pain you can work through it if its minor, but if its really bad you might have to take some days off and then ease back into it. Good luck hope you can get it resolved.

Thanks! I'll definitely back off on the mileage for a few days just to see how the pain goes. Last night I tried to push myself a bit too hard I think and the pain was excruciating, so time to listen to my body and not be so damn stubborn.